Scotland’s Alastair Forsyth leads the European Tour Qualifying School Finals at Real Club de Golf Sotogrande after a seven under par 65. Forsyth, winner of the Mastercard Tour and Tartan Tour Orders of Merit, fired eight birdies and made just the one bogey to lead South African Ian Hutchings by one stroke.
The 23-year-old Scot got off to the perfect start, hitting a seven iron to six inches to birdie the opening hole. Another birdie followed on the par five second and, despite a dropped shot on the third when his ball plugged in the front bunker, then birdied three holes in succession from the fifth for an outward half of 32. Three more birdies at the 14th, 16th and 17th moved him to the top of the leaderboard.
“There wasn’t a weak link,” said Forsyth. “I made a great start which gets you going. I birdied the first two, bogeyed the third, but got it straight back and from there I was flying. The confidence was up and I was firing irons at the pin.”
Hutchings graduated from the Qualifying School Finals last year but is back on Spain’s Costa del Sol after finishing 132nd in the Volvo Order of Merit. His flawless six, under par 66, included an eagle on the 510 yards sixth hole and a birdie on the ninth, his last.
“I holed some good putts today,” he said. “I made a lot of cuts this season but was finishing in 30th to 50th position. You can’t keep your card like that. I didn’t putt well all year. I just started to putt well over the last three weeks but it’s a bit late then.”
A further two shots adrift are Robert Coles, David Lynn, Mikko Rantanen and Tom Gillis. Coles was one of the two players who was forced to retire from the Qualifying School Finals last year after a car crash on the eve of the event. This year he is getting over a bout of flu but still managed to keep a bogey off his card. He only missed one green, the 17th, where he pulled a five iron second shot.
“I hit it straight and close,” he said. “The longest putt was the eight footer for birdie at the last.”
Lynn won a seven-man play-off at Perelada in the second stage of Qualifying School with a birdie on the first extra hole to earn his place among the 168 starters in the Finals. Rantanen is back at the Qualifying School Finals for the third successive year but missed the cut on each of the last two occasions. “This is my best start,” said the Fin. Gillis is also back at the school after losing his card in 1999. The American graduated in 1997 and held on to his place on the European Tour by claiming 116th place and the last card the following season but struggled in 1999, finishing 135th in the Volvo Order of Merit.
