ALTHOUGH it's long been regarded as one of the game's unwritten rules for golf champions to defend their titles, Alastair Forsyth, the winner of last year's Madeira Islands Open, won't attempt to repeat his 2008 play-off victory over Hennie Otto for a number of personal and professional reasons next week.
Already committed to playing in the Open de Andalucia in Seville from 26-29 March and the Estoril Open from 2-5 April, the Glaswegian was reluctant to spend three consecutive weeks away from home at a time when his girlfriend, Alison, is expecting
the couple's first child.
Since the event in Madeira, where he made up a five-shot deficit on the final day last season, has been moved to a new course on a different island, the Scot decided the tournament didn't fit into his schedule. Forsyth understands it's the done thing in golf for players to defend their titles, but on this occasion he felt he had to put his own interests first.
"There are a number of reasons why I won't be going," explained the 33-year-old in defence of what will be regarded as a breach of convention. "It's a bit of a nightmare to get in and out of the place. You either have to connect through Lisbon or Funchal. Why they've moved it I don't know. Thereafter getting to Seville isn't easy either. Madeira isn't a tournament I normally play, though I did last year because I'd suffered a bad run of missed cuts, needed to sort that out and ended up winning.
"Don't get me wrong, I would have liked to go back. I feel I probably should defend because that's the done thing. This wasn't a decision made out of badness. But with Seville the week after and Portugal the week after that, two of the bigger events, I can't get home to Scotland during that spell.
"Three weeks on the road is something I don't want to do when my girlfriend is seven months pregnant. I don't think it would be right to abandon her for three weeks."
A decent and modest man, Forsyth has been caught between a rock and a hard place over what to do for the best. "At times, you just have to do what's right for you," he added.
"I would have liked to defend, but for two or three different reasons it just doesn't fit into my plans. Madeira doesn't have the strongest of fields, but that isn't why I'm not going."
Having slipped down the world rankings to 146th – Colin Montgomerie is again the highest ranked Scot in 134th place – Forsyth is currently working on simplifying his swing with coach Ian Rae.
It's very much a work in progress, with the Scot missing cuts at the Johnnie Walker and the Malaysian Open. The transition from implementing change on the range to tournaments is always hazardous. Forsyth isn't certain when all the pieces of the jigsaw will fall into place, but he's convinced the alterations were necessary.
In spite of winning in Madeira a year ago, as well as losing a play-off in Estoril, Forsyth reckons he's struggled ever since. "From May of last year onwards, I've really toiled other than a good week at the US PGA (where he finished ninth]. I made a lot of cuts, which was good, but I was nowhere near where I want to be in terms of contending. I wanted to be challenging for the top 50 in the world, but my game just wasn't good enough and I've slipped away.
"It was struggle, struggle, struggle. I needed to look at my technique and spoke to Ian about what needed doing. We know where we're going and, to be honest, it's about doing a wee bit less. There have been too many things going on with my swing."
Currently, there isn't a Scot in either the top 50 of the Race to Dubai or the top 100 of the world rankings. There have been 32 World Golf Championship events since 1999 and last month's Match Play in Arizona was the first without a representative from the home of golf. This week's CA Championship at Doral will be the second.
Forsyth doesn't have a full explanation as to why Scottish golfers are struggling to make a mark. But he knows the severity of a harsh Scottish winter hasn't helped professionals who live on home turf to compete with rivals who are able to practice in more amenable climates. Yesterday, Forsyth was due to play with Steven O'Hara at the Dundonald links in Ayrshire but the match had to be cancelled because of wind and rain.
"The hardest part of being a tournament pro in Scotland is the weather," he reasoned. "The international standard is getting higher all the time and the young guys coming into the game are hitting the ground running.
"We're at such a disadvantage when we come out rusty and have to travel to places like Asia and take on players in their own backyard. I'm hitting a lot of balls on the range, but that's not the same thing.
"But if you choose to live in Scotland, then you have to get on with it. The one consolation is that it's a long season. The best time to hit form is between May and October. That's when all the big events take place. There's no point in fretting too much about the early part of the season."
