Andy DevaneyGrant Forrest needed one more birdie to win the 2026 Open de España. Not a safe par, not a respectable finish, but a birdie at the 18th with a tournament, a trophy and a rather enticing trip to Augusta hanging in the balance.
The Scot delivered.
An excellent up-and-down from just short of the final green at Real Club de Campo Villa de Madrid secured a one-shot victory over home favourite Eugenio Chacarra and France’s Victor Perez, both of whom finished at 13 under par.
Forrest had arrived in Spain ranked 118th on the Race to Dubai, having missed four consecutive cuts following his retirement from the Husqvarna British Masters. He left with his first DP World Tour victory outside Scotland, an invitation to the 2027 Masters Tournament and a place in the 155th Open Championship at St Andrews.
Golf can be extraordinarily generous when it has finished being thoroughly unpleasant.
Chacarra turns Madrid upside down
For much of Sunday, the script appeared to belong to Eugenio Chacarra.
The Spaniard began the final round chasing overnight leaders Forrest and Joe Dean, but by the time he reached the turn, their advantage had disappeared.
Birdies at the second and third got things moving. Then came the fourth, where Chacarra misjudged his pitch and faced an improbable 47-foot putt over a ridge.
Naturally, he holed it.
A bogey at the sixth threatened to interrupt proceedings, only for Chacarra to respond with an eagle at the seventh, converting from 40 feet off the green.
Through seven holes, he had already holed 114 feet of putts. That exceeded his entire putting-distance total for any of his previous three rounds.
Another birdie, this time from six feet at the eighth, completed a front nine of 31 and brought him level with Dean.
Five under for nine holes. Quite an effective way to introduce yourself to the final-day leaderboard.
Chacarra’s putting had transformed the contest, but there were still plenty of interested parties with rather different ideas about who should take possession of the trophy.
A leaderboard refusing to settle down
Denmark’s Jacob Skov Olesen had briefly stolen the initiative with birdies at the opening two holes, an achievement made more impressive by the first being the hardest opening hole on the DP World Tour all season.
It averaged 0.33 strokes over par across the week and surrendered just two birdies on Sunday, to Olesen and Quim Vidal.
Olesen subsequently bogeyed the third, while Joel Girrbach’s birdie at the fourth helped produce a four-way tie at the top.
The overnight leaders were finding life less comfortable.
Dean dropped a shot at the second. Forrest bogeyed the third, sixth and eighth, leaving himself two strokes adrift as the tournament moved into its second half.
Meanwhile, Perez entered the argument with consecutive birdies at the seventh and eighth. Girrbach and Olesen remained prominent, and England’s Dan Brown finished with five straight birdies to establish an 11-under clubhouse target.
There was little opportunity for anybody to feel comfortable.
Dean’s bogey at the 12th helped leave Chacarra and Olesen sharing the lead, with Forrest still trying to recover the ground he had surrendered.
The Scot’s response would prove decisive.
Forrest finds another gear when it matters
Forrest birdied the tenth, gave that shot straight back at the 11th, then found successive gains at the 13th and 14th.
The birdie at 14 drew him level at the top again.
It was a determined recovery rather than a procession of flawless golf. There had been mistakes, and the pressure was hardly diminishing as the finishing holes approached.
Chacarra provided the next major twist.
Having spent so much of the round making improbable things happen with his putter, the Spaniard found a greenside bunker from the tee at the 17th and made bogey.
It looked costly. Then he birdied the 18th to post 13 under par, matching Perez and putting the responsibility squarely back on Forrest.
The Scot had already survived an awkward moment at the 16th, saving par after going through the back of the green.
Now he needed something better than survival.
With the championship resting on the final hole, Forrest got up and down from off the front of the green for birdie.
Fourteen under par. Tournament won.
Olesen finished fourth at 12 under after a bogey at the 17th, while Dean joined Brown in a share of fifth on 11 under.
Chacarra’s extraordinary opening nine had ultimately come up one stroke short. Forrest, who had spent much of the afternoon fighting to stay in contention, had found the answer at precisely the right moment.
From missed cuts to major invitations
The result carried considerably more weight than another entry in Forrest’s victory column.
At 33, he was enduring a difficult season. Four missed cuts since retiring from the British Masters had left him well down the Race to Dubai Rankings, and there had been little in his immediate form to suggest a triumph was imminent.
Madrid, however, had regularly brought out something better in him.
He finished tied third at the Open de España in both 2021 and 2024, followed by another top-20 result in 2025. It was a venue where his record offered considerably more encouragement than his recent results.
This time he went two places better.
There is also the small matter of what comes next.
A place at the Masters is one of golf’s most coveted opportunities, and Forrest will now head to Augusta National in 2027. The same victory has secured his invitation to the 155th Open Championship at St Andrews.
For a Scottish golfer who has already played in two Opens, that is quite a pair of additions to the diary.
Forrest was still struggling to absorb the significance afterwards.
“This year’s been a real struggle to this point and to walk away with the Spanish Open trophy and a spot in the Open and Augusta… I’m still in shock, to be honest.”
The Open de España has given Forrest plenty of good memories over the years. This one came with a trophy, two major invitations and the satisfaction of knowing that, when his season finally demanded one perfect response, he found it on the 72nd hole.
