Tournament: Nexo Championship
Race to Dubai: Tournament 29 of 44
Venue: Trump International Golf Links, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Prize Fund: US$2,750,000
Hashtag: #NexoChampionship #DPWT
Grant Forrest secured his second DP World Tour title with a comfortable four-shot victory at the Nexo Championship.
The Scot carded a level par final round of 72 in tough conditions at Trump International Golf Links to finish on eight under par and triumph for the first time since the Hero Open at Fairmont St Andrews four years and two days ago.
The 32-year-old has catapulted to 28th on the Race to Dubai Rankings and into pole position on the Closing Swing Rankings with only next week’s Danish Golf Championship to play.
Forrest has also secured a bonus $10,000 for his course record 66 on Friday after the Course Record Presented by Nexo prize was launched earlier this week. In a one-off for the Nexo Championship, he also earned an additional $50,000 in NEXO Tokens.
The Scot entered the final round with a three-shot lead but had to be patient once again as he fought through his first three holes in level par, with Todd Clements birdieing the opening hole to cut the gap to two.
He was fortunate to escape without dropping a shot at the third when wayward with his tee shot at the par-three hole, however, by the fourth, Forrest was leading by five.
He narrowly missed his eagle putt, which would have been only the second one of the week, as he climbed to nine under, while Clements slid down with a triple bogey on the same hole.
That left Kristoffer Reitan as his nearest challenger at four under, but Forrest extended his advantage when birdieing the short par-four seventh to reach double figures, before another gain at the tenth.
He eventually signed for a closing 72 to finish with a total of eight under par, four ahead of Joe Dean who parred the last to claim second place as only nine players finished the tournament in red numbers.
Dean mixed three birdies and two dropped shots in his 71 to finish at four under, with Denmark’s Jacob Skov Olesen, Norway’s Kristoffer Reitan and Englishman John Parry one shot further back in third.
Englishman Jordan Smith finished sixth at two under, while Finland’s Oliver Lindell and English pair Clements and Andy Sullivan finished seventh at one under.
Winner’s Quotes
Grant Forrest: It’s amazing, I’m just speechless. I think it is the same week as I won four years ago on the calendar so just amazing, that must say something about this week and being at home.
It was a tough day out there today, didn’t play my best stuff at all but made a lot of good par saves on the front nine.
Obviously, I was pretty nervous coming down the last there – there was no chance that tee shot was going right with the red stakes.
I just can’t believe it. It’s been such a tough year on the golf course. It’s just a crazy game that you can go and come out and do this, with what feels out of nowhere.
It certainly has (turned his season around). I was way down the rankings a couple of months ago, tried to play a bit better but at this stage of the season, I was right on the bubble. It’s just that old chestnut that one week can turn things around and it has.
I had no idea what the scoring was like out there. I didn’t see a scoreboard until the one behind 13 and 17. I was at ten under and saw someone was at five under. I made great saves at 16 and 17 and obviously saw the scoreboard ahead of the 18th tee and knew I had a few to play with and tried to use a few of them.
It’s fantastic to have won the Nexo course record prize too and it’s a great new initiative on the DP World Tour.
Final scores:
280 G FORREST (SCO) 71 66 71 72,
284 J DEAN (ENG) 69 74 70 71,
285 J PARRY (ENG) 69 74 72 70, J OLESEN (DEN) 73 70 70 72, K REITAN (NOR) 72 71 68 74,
286 J SMITH (ENG) 69 69 78 70,
287 O LINDELL (FIN) 72 70 73 72, A SULLIVAN (ENG) 72 71 70 74, T CLEMENTS (ENG) 71 71 69 76,
288 D MICHELUZZI (AUS) 71 71 75 71, R STERNE (RSA) 67 73 76 72, E PEPPERELL (ENG) 72 71 71 74,
289 C JARVIS (RSA) 73 74 74 68, B SCHMIDT (ENG) 72 72 75 70, M BESARD (BEL) 74 70 75 70, J HARDING (RSA) 70 72 76 71, A SETTEMSDAL (NOR) 74 71 73 71, J SENIOR (ENG) 73 71 72 73,
290 M WARREN (SCO) 72 73 78 67, M BALDWIN (ENG) 69 77 74 70, D BROWN (ENG) 75 73 71 71, R VAN VELZEN (RSA) 74 72 70 74, R LUMSDEN (SCO) 71 74 70 75, D HUIZING (NED) 72 69 70 79,
291 V AHLAWAT (IND) 73 72 75 71, M KINHULT (SWE) 73 72 73 73,
292 P ERENO (ESP) 74 72 74 72, M PENGE (ENG) 75 68 75 74, B ROBINSON THOMPSON (ENG) 70 76 72 74, D YOUNG (SCO) 71 72 73 76,
293 J DANTORP (SWE) 73 72 79 69, R CABRERA BELLO (ESP) 74 72 77 70, H BROWN (DEN) 76 72 75 70, D ERICKSON (USA) 76 70 75 72, A FITZPATRICK (ENG) 69 73 78 73, J LAGERGREN (SWE) 77 68 75 73, E SMYLIE (AUS) 73 72 75 73, K APHIBARNRAT (THA) 75 70 75 73, C SORDET (FRA) 73 75 72 73, L ALBERTSE (RSA) 68 76 75 74, T MERRITT (USA) 71 75 73 74,
294 J SCRIVENER (AUS) 76 71 77 70, C PURCELL (IRL) 73 72 77 72, D LAW (SCO) 72 75 75 72, M LAIRD (SCO) 77 70 73 74, M STEINLECHNER (AUT) 74 72 73 75, A HALVORSEN (NOR) 68 75 75 76,
295 R WILLIAMS (RSA) 73 74 76 72, J CAMPILLO (ESP) 69 76 76 74, J BRUN (FRA) 74 74 73 74, D BRYANT (USA) 72 72 71 80,
296 A WILSON (ENG) 76 71 78 71, J DE BRUYN (GER) 78 70 75 73, E CHACARRA (ESP) 74 72 75 75, T AIKEN (RSA) 68 77 75 76,
297 A OTAEGUI (UAE) 69 77 81 70,
298 D VAN DRIEL (NED) 69 76 84 69, J LUITEN (NED) 71 75 78 74, U COUSSAUD (FRA) 76 72 76 74, W BESSELING (NED) 74 74 75 75, J CATLIN (USA) 71 75 75 77,
299 W DING (CHN) 71 77 77 74, N COLSAERTS (BEL) 75 73 75 76,
300 F CELLI (ITA) 72 72 83 73, N SCHIETEKAT (RSA) 72 74 79 75, T PULKKANEN (FIN) 77 69 77 77,
301 S GARCIA (ESP) 76 71 81 73, A COCKERILL (CAN) 74 72 78 77,
303 T TETAK (SVK) 70 78 79 76,
**
149 F LAPORTA (ITA) 76 73, R RAMSAY (SCO) 76 73, M SCHWAB (AUT) 76 73, M TRAINER (FRA) 75 74, J MORRISON (ENG) 77 72, A AYORA (ESP) 71 78, E FERGUSON (SCO) 74 75, R PETERSSON (SWE) 73 76, A BONETA (ESP) 73 76, B ?KESSON (SWE) 76 73, G DE LEO (ITA) 79 70, D GERMISHUYS (RSA) 77 72,
150 F KENNEDY (ENG) 73 77, M JORDAN (ENG) 76 74, R MANSELL (ENG) 74 76, P JACKSON (USA) 75 75, D BRADBURY (ENG) 76 74, A GARCIA-HEREDIA (ESP) 78 72, R GOUVEIA (POR) 72 78, M ROTTLUFF (GER) 73 77, O WILSON (ENG) 74 76, R PARATORE (ITA) 76 74, J WINTHER (DEN) 76 74, M LINDBERG (SWE) 78 72, V NORDWALL (SWE) 72 78,
151 D NAIDOO (RSA) 75 76, R FISHER (ENG) 77 74, F SCHOTT (GER) 73 78, B WIESBERGER (AUT) 76 75, M SOUTHGATE (ENG) 73 78, E WALKER (SCO) 79 72, C SYME (SCO) 72 79, J RUTHERFORD (ENG) 77 74, B HEBERT (FRA) 76 75, D WHITNELL (ENG) 73 78, J GIRRBACH (SUI) 76 75,
152 M ARMITAGE (ENG) 77 75, L NEMECZ (AUT) 83 69, B SIGEL (USA) 74 78, S FORSSTR?M (SWE) 78 74, B AMAT (FRA) 78 74, S JAMIESON (SCO) 75 77, A LEVY (FRA) 73 79, K KOBORI (NZL) 74 78, B WU (USA) 75 77, C TARREN (ENG) 78 74, J WALTERS (RSA) 76 76, Z LOMBARD (RSA) 76 76,
153 N LEMKE (SWE) 77 76, I CANTERO (ESP) 79 74, D RAVETTO (FRA) 77 76, C BLOMSTRAND (SWE) 77 76, T HUNT (WAL) 75 78, C SHINKWIN (ENG) 77 76, P O’HARA (SCO) 78 75,
154 C SHAUN (USA) 75 79, W NIENABER (RSA) 77 77, D HORSEY (ENG) 80 74, N KIMSEY (ENG) 72 82, G WIEBE (USA) 76 78, J GUMBERG (USA) 71 83,
155 Z JIN (CHN) 77 78, S KANG (KOR) 76 79, S SHARMA (IND) 75 80, J FREIBURGHAUS (SUI) 77 78,
156 R FRANSSEN (SCO) 76 80, G COETZEE (RSA) 81 75, P PINEAU (FRA) 79 77,
157 B FOLLETT-SMITH (ZIM) 78 79, D LIST (AUS) 78 79, A FRANCES (DEN) 72 85, R JOHNSTON (USA) 76 81, N ELVIRA (ESP) 81 76, E BARNES (USA) 75 82, S HUTSBY (ENG) 81 76,
158 N KRISTENSEN (DEN) 81 77,
159 J KO (FRA) 84 75, M KIM (KOR) 83 76,
160 H IWATA (JPN) 82 78, J BEKIRIAN (ARM) 81 79,
161 D GALE (AUS) 83 78,
162 J MOSCATEL (ESP) 77 85, S TARRIO (ESP) 77 85, B COLETTA (AUS) 80 82,
**
OUT S BAIRSTOW (ENG) 73 DQ, C HILL (SCO) 76 DQ, E MOLINARI (ITA) RT ,
