Alastair Forsyth in action during his second round at PGA Catalunya. Picture by courtesy of Getty Images(c) Alastair Forsyth believes he has turned a corner following a spell of disappointing form.
The Scot was speaking after moving a step closer to a European Tour return thanks to a two under par second round 70 at Qualifying School Final Stage.
The two-time European Tour winner endured one of the most
difficult seasons of his long career in 2013 making just eight
cuts in 21 appearances on both the Challenge Tour and The
European Tour, but will enter the third round in Girona just
three strokes off the lead.
The Glaswegian has not managed to finish inside the top 100 in The
Race to Dubai since 2008, having risen to prominence in his rookie
season back in 2000 following victory at the Qualifying School
Final Stage the previous year.
Forsyth thinks the long hours of work he has done with coach Ian
Rae have begun to pay dividends though, and is hoping the
memories of his win at the gruelling Qualifying School 14 years ago
can help him return to the top tier of European golf, and the kind of
form which yielded victories at the 2002 Malaysian Open and 2008
Madeira Islands Open.
"It's been a terrible three or four seasons for me," said Forsyth, who
moved to seven under par heading into day three at PGA Catalunya
Resort.
"But I feel as if myself and my coach have got to the bottom of the
problems so I'm a lot more positive going forward.
"This is a very different week, obviously, a big one. But I am a lot
more positive I can turn it around now because I feel like we've
worked it out and we just have to get the improvements into my
swing and get rid of the problems.
"It's difficult doing that and also being at such a high pressure
tournament but I've managed to keep it in play this week reasonably
well.
"There's no getting away from it, it's a different kind of
environment here and a very high pressure tournament. You don't
play in any higher pressure than this. It's not always enjoyable but
you try to treat it like a normal golf tournament as much as you can.
"I'm not flushing it by any means out there but if I can play a
bit better out there then I can avoid the kind of situation I had
at the seventh, where I had to get up and down for a double
bogey.
"A couple of times this week I've ended up in weird and wonderful
places on the course without doing a lot wrong and that's been the
case in the last few years. I've been in these places too often but the
better you play the less often those things happen and I think I'm
working on the right stuff so I'd like to think things can only get
better."
John Hahn, meanwhile, is hoping to follow in the footsteps of
American European Tour trailblazers Peter Uihlein and Brooks
Koepka after he moved top thanks to a superb six under par 66 in
Spain.
Having come through the First and Second Qualifying Stages en
route to this week's six-round marathon, Hahn fired seven birdies
on the more testing Stadium Course at PGA Catalunya Resort in
Girona to go two clear of Sweden's Jens Dantorp.
+To find out how Alastair Forsyth's nine Scottish colleagues
and West Linton-based Welshman Gareth Wright fared today,
scroll down past the following scoreboard
+To find out how Alastair Forsyth's nine Scottish colleagues
and West Linton-based Welshman Gareth Wright fared today,
scroll down past the following scoreboard
ALL THE SECOND-ROUND TOTALS
Par 142 (1x70, 172)
+Stadium Course Par 72, Yardage: 7,333.
+Tour Course Par 70, Yardage: 6,610
132 J Hahn (USA) 66 66
134 J Dantorp (Swe) 66 68
135 A Forsyth (Sco) 65 70; J Fahrbring (Swe) 71 64; L Bjerregaard (Den) 65 70; R Finch (Eng) 64 71; B Stone (RSA) 69 66
136 A Gee (Eng) 66 70; D Brooks (Eng) 65 71; R McGee (Irl) 70 66; O Wilson (Eng) 69 67; M Jonzon (Swe) 64 72; E Goya (Arg) 66 70; F Zanotti (Par) 66 70; E Espana (Fra) 62 74; W Ormsby (Aus) 69 67
137 D Kemmer (USA) 67 70; T Whitehouse (Eng) 68 69; K Pratt (Aus) 71 66; M Lundberg (Swe) 69 68; O Stark (Swe) 66 71; G Wright (Wal) 72 65; T Pieters (Bel) 64 73; C Paisley (Eng) 67 70; S Wakefield (Eng) 69 68; G Lockerbie (Eng) 72 65; A Saddier (Fra) 71 66; A Hartø (Den) 67 70; F Andersson Hed (Swe) 69 68; M Tullo (Chi) 67 70
138 H Leon (Chi) 68 70; P Sjöland (Swe) 66 72; E Kofstad (Nor) 70 68; J Doherty (Sco) 68 70; J Elson (Eng) 64 74; W Harrold (Eng) 65 73; C Del Moral (Esp) 67 71; J Barnes (Eng) 66 72; C Shinkwin (am) (Eng) 68 70
139 S Manley (Wal) 68 71; A McArthur (Sco) 66 73; J Knutzon (USA) 70 69; O Floren (Swe) 72 67; G Stal (Fra) 71 68; D McGuigan (Sco) 71 68; J Watts (Eng) 68 71; M Lafeber (Ned) 71 68; A Domingo (Esp) 66 73; J Lagergren (Swe) 65 74; B Dredge (Wal) 68 71; R Pettersson (Swe) 70 69; T Lee (USA) 64 75; A Björk (Swe) 74 65; J Morrison (Eng) 72 67
140 D Higgins (Irl) 67 73; K Horne (RSA) 72 68; K Phelan (Irl) 73 67; J Huldahl (Den) 72 68; M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 67 73; S Hodgson (Eng) 71 69; L Gagli (Ita) 74 66; J Heath (Eng) 69 71; E Dubois (Fra) 75 65; M Korhonen (Fin) 69 71; A Johnston (Eng) 67 73
141 B Henson (USA) 71 70; A Marshall (Eng) 71 70; M Delpodio (Ita) 70 71; P Price (Wal) 74 67; J Lando Casanova (Fra) 76 65; T Van Der Walt (RSA) 72 69; C Ortiz (Mex) 73 68; B Paolini (USA) 70 71; D Dixon (Eng) 73 68; N Lemke (Swe) 66 75; J Guerrier (Fra) 73 68; M Crespi (Ita) 71 70; D Gavins (Eng) 69 72; J Lucquin (Fra) 68 73; O Fisher (Eng) 72 69; W Besseling (Ned) 68 73
142 J Edfors (Swe) 69 73; N Quintarelli (Ita) 68 74; M Orrin (Eng) 71 71; P Archer (Eng) 72 70; F Fritsch (Ger) 72 70; P Martin Benavides (Esp) 73 69; A McLardy (RSA) 77 65; A Haig (RSA) 68 74; J Robinson (Eng) 71 71; P Edberg (Swe) 73 69; S Henry (Sco) 72 70; A Dodt (Aus) 71 71; C Arendell (USA) 72 70; A Garcia-Heredia (Esp) 72 70; M Grönberg (Swe) 75 67; T Nørret (Den) 71 71; D McElroy (am) (Nir) 68 74
143 C Bouniol (Fra) 73 70; M Zions (Aus) 72 71; G Cambis (Fra) 71 72; V Phillips (Eng) 72 71; C Hanson (Eng) 66 77; D Im (USA) 70 73; R Karlberg (Swe) 66 77; P Hedblom (Swe) 69 74; T Sluiter (Ned) 68 75; L Bond (Wal) 69 74
144 R Russell (Sco) 76 68; B An (SKor) 71 73; M Wiegele (Aut) 71 73; O Lieser (Cze) 74 70; G Murray (Sco) 67 77
145 C Suneson (Esp) 72 73; N Fenwick (Sco) 72 73; J Timmis (Eng) 67 78; Z Scotland (Eng) 71 74; A Maestroni (Ita) 73 72; J Ahlers (RSA) 73 72; K Benz (Sui) 69 76; G Main (USA) 73 72; D Stewart (Sco) 68 77; C Monasterio (Arg) 67 78; M Brier (Aut) 74 71; Y Tsukada (Jpn) 75 70
146 S Drummond (Sco) 75 71; B Åkesson (Swe) 75 71; D Ulrich (Sui) 77 69; N Nissen (Den) 73 73; J Rask (Swe) 77 69; B Ritthammer (Ger) 76 70; S Arnold (Aus) 75 71; M Hensby (Aus) 69 77; T Linard (Fra) 69 77; J Lara (Esp) 74 72; C Dammert (am) (Ger) 70 76
147 I Garrido (Esp) 72 75; O Henningsson (Swe) 77 70; R Davies (Wal) 71 76; D Vancsik (Arg) 69 78; N Dougherty (Eng) 73 74;
148 R Steiner (Aut) 74 74; A Bernadet (Fra) 74 74; J Fly (USA) 72 76; R McGowan (Eng) 77 71; B Evans (Eng) 71 77
149 E Cole (USA) 71 78; L Goddard (Eng) 75 74; J Granberg (Fin) 73 76; O Bekker (RSA) 73 76; K Ferrie (Eng) 71 78
150 N Ravano (Ita) 69 81; J Sjöholm (Swe) 77 73
152 A Kaleka (Fra) 79 73
160 J Bäckström (Swe) 76 84
Retired: D Popovic (Aus) 73 ret.
Published by scottishgolfview.com