SCOTLAND'S Alastair Forsyth now has an answer to those who were wondering what was wrong with his golf game – nothing.
After missing the halfway cut in his first five tournaments of 2008, Forsyth won the Madeira Islands Open yesterday – coming from five behind to beat South African Hennie Otto in a sudden-death play-off.
Twelve years ago, the 32-year-old Glaswegia
n faced Otto in the Scottish amateur stroke play championship and needed nine extra holes to defeat him.
This time it was with a seven-foot putt on the first hole of sudden death – his fifth birdie in five visits to the 386-yard 18th during the week.
After his second European Tour title – the other came in Malaysia in 2002 after a play-off with Australian Stephen Leaney – Forsyth said: "I went into the year feeling pretty good about my game after last year and I was hoping to carry that on, but I made a really poor start with all the missed cuts.
"Some people at home were saying to me what was wrong – it was the worst start to a year I had ever made.
"But I had trust in my game and faith in my ability and a lot of trust in Bob (coach Bob Torrance], who told me I was swinging it well.
"If he tells you that it is good enough for me – and he was right."
Victory was worth almost £90,000, yet Otto's main disappointment was not the cash on offer, but the fact that he needed to win to regain his Tour card.
So did England's Gary Clark, but third place still represented the best finish of his career.
Welshman Bradley Dredge was only 15th and so will probably have to win this week's Andalucian Open at Aloha to climb back into the world's top 50 and earn a spot in The Masters at Augusta on April 10.
The full article contains 329 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
