McDowell leads but feels he is walking a Saudi tightrope
Grant
Forrest feels more ready than ever to challenge for his first European Tour title while leader Graeme McDowell just feels aggrieved.
As the East Lothian rising star pulled himself into the top 10 at the Saudi International with a second-consecutive 66, at the top of the board McDowell was still smarting from a controversial ruling that heaps more pressure on him going into today’s final round.
Leading by just one stroke from his former Ryder Cup foursomes partner Victor Dubuisson, the pair will step out together again for the first time since they delivered two points out of two at Gleneagles in 2014.
But he’ll have more than just the Frenchman breathing down his neck as the tournament referees will be watching his pace of play closely.
Under new European Tour rules, brought in two weeks ago, any player who incurs two “bad times” of more than 40 seconds to hit a shot will suffer an immediate one-stroke penalty.
And with G-Mac already on what is to all intents and purposes a yellow card after copping a bad time in Friday’s second round shortly after conducting an on course interview with Sky Sports presenter Tim Barter, he won’t have have the luxury of time as this event looks set to go down to the wire.
“I felt conscious for the first five or six holes today.” said McDowell, after his third round 66 put him on 12-under-par.
“I felt there was a referee around every tree keeping an eye on me, trying to prove I am slow. But I shook it off.
“I spoke to Keith Pelley (European Tour chief executive) about it on Friday night. “I felt the referee should have had a little bit of leniency. But there was no quarter given whatsoever for a situation that was not out of my control but was very different.
“Their side of the coin is they are trying to make the game faster. The other side is we are trying to make this game as cool as possible, so the on-course interviews are an interesting take on things.”
Meanwhile, 26-year-old Forrest was rightly pleased with his efforts as he revealed a change of coach last autumn and linking up with mental guru Tom King who also works with Brendan Rodgers’ players at Leicester City has helped him feel more comfortable than ever among the big names.
“This is as good as I’ve felt since coming on to the Tour,” said Forrest.
“The changes that my coach, Liam James, and I have brought into my game over the past six months are starting to take effect.
“I’ve also been working a lot on the mental side, especially when things weren’t going that well towards the end of last year, I realised it was something I had to take control of. It’s getting there now.
“My goal has always been to win. I have been playing in strong fields these three weeks and it’s been a great opportunity to test yourself against a lot of the game’s top players.
“I’m not fazed by them. They’re just guys trying to do the same thing as me and playing the same game.
“Obviously, they’re right at the top. But when you see those guys it only encourages you because you know it’s not that far away.”