Forsyth left gutted after blowing lead

Jul 10 2009 by Paul Behan, Paisley Daily Express

ALASTAIR Forsyth last night admitted he was kicking himself after allowing a flying start to his opening round at the Barclays Scottish Open to end in disappointment.

The 33-year-old Paisley golfer revealed he was raging with himself after he let slip an early morning lead at Loch Lomond to fall down the leaderboard and end the day with a one-under-par score of 70.

Disappointed Forsyth said: “I threw it away and I walked off the course raging, in all honesty.

“That’s just the way I’ve been playing recently.

“I’ve been playing some really poor shots.

“I started really well but I’m disappointed with my score.”

Forsyth began his tournament at the 10th hole with Soren Hansen, of Denmark, and Jose Maria Olazabal, of Spain.

He immediately dropped a shot when he bogeyed that hole but he recovered superbly to birdie the 11th, 12th and 13th to move to two-under and share an early lead with Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin.

Then a host of players reached two-under-par during the early exchanges, including American Brian Gay, three-time Irish Open winner Shane Lowry, English quartet Graeme Storm, Kenneth Ferrie, Danny Willett and Simon Dyson, Swede Mikael Lundberg, Northern Irish sensation Rory McIlroy, Australia’s Stuart Appleby, Spain’s Miguel Angel Jiménez and India’s Jeev Milkha Singh.

Forsyth stayed on two-under when he parred the 14th hole, before he made another cracking birdie at 15 to move to three-under.

That remained his score when he holed out in four at the 16th and his day improved even more when he took another hike up the leaderboard with a birdie at the 17th.

But he blotted his copybook with a disappointing double bogey at the 18th, leaving him on two-under at the turn.

He then produced an indifferent performance on the back nine as he picked up bogeys at holes two, seven and nine and birdies at the sixth and eighth holes, leaving him on one-under for the day.