Scottish Open: Grant Forrest back on track 'physically and mentally'

Grant Forrest is adopting a ‘half-glass full’ attitude as opposed to it being half-empty as he lines up in the strongest-ever field for the abrdn Scottish Open on his doorstep.

Grant Forrest during the final round of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Mount Juliet on Sunday. Picture: Patrick Bolger/Getty Images.

The Haddington-based player is making his third appearance in the event in a field that contains world No 1 Jon Rahm and four others in the top 10 - Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele and Tyrrell Hatton.

The star-studded line up for the Rolex Series event at The Renaissance Club also includes 11th-ranked and four-time major winner Rory McIlroy

“Outside majors and WGCs, I think it’s the strongest-ever for a European Tour event,” observed Forrest. “It’s a great field and is what you want.”

The 28-year-old heads into the $8 million tournament on the back of a tie for fourth in the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Mount Juliet on Sunday.

That equalled Forrest’s best finish on the European Tour, but, at the same time, he was disappointed to narrowly miss out on one of three spots up for grabs in the 149th Open after signing off with a double-bogey 6.

“It’s definitely half full,” insisted the former Scottish Amateur champion of the mindset he has adopted from that.

“From the place I was six weeks ago, both mentally and physically, having had a hip injury, I felt good coming back in Germany, played decent most of the week, just felt a little bit rusty tournament-wise.

“Then last week I played nicely. Obviously to be right up there with a chance to win is where you want to be and I’ve not really been there for quite a while.

“The finish is what it is, it’s not what we were hoping for going down 18, but it was only positives to take away from the week.”

Forrest is enjoying a rare chance to enjoy some “home comforts” at a time when he’s become accustomed to being in bubbles at events.

On the short journey from Haddington to this week’s venue, there is also no chance of his head becoming too cluttered with swing thoughts.

“I changed coach after The Belfry, having been with Hugh [Marr] since the start of the year,” he revealed. “It’s been difficult not being able to do work away from events as I couldn’t fly to London and stuff like that.

“But, generally, I just wanted to have a coach that I could send videos to. I’m not someone who wants to have a coach at events every week.

“I’ve had two years of that and it’s not really worked that well. I would rather do all my work away from events and just go to a tournament and play and compete and try and make the best of it that week.

“As I was reviewing everything after the British Masters at The Belfry, I thought back to early 2019 when I didn’t have too much coaching input, I was just going out and playing golf and it’s easy to get away from that.

“You can be over-coached out here and get into that when you don’t really need it. I’m just stripping it all back.

“I went to see Matt Belsham in my time off, just seeing him once. I’ve been chatting to him back and forth and just keeping it simple.”

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