Caddie change for Grant Forrest as Scott Jamieson sticks with his long-term looper

Grant Forrest seems to have struck it off straight away with his new caddie but Scott Jamieson is also continuing to prove that long-term relationships can work with loopers.

Forrest is linking up with fellow Scot Kenny, who had a spell with Paul Lawrie during a successful period for the Aberdonian in this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

The new partnership has produced opening rounds of 71 and 68 for Forrest, who is heading into the weekend in the $9 million Rolex Series event sitting handily-placed in the top 25.

“Yeah, it’s been good,” said the 29-year-old of his initial thoughts about the tie up. “He’s got bags of experience and I think we’ve got on really well so far.

Paul Lawrie celebrates with Davy Kenny, who is now caddying for Grant Forrest, after the Aberdonian's win in the 2012 Commercialbank Qatar Masters at Doha Golf Club. Picture: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images.

“There’s lots of great caddies out there who might not work for certain players. It’s a human relationship, so some caddies will work for some guys and others won’t.”

Kenny caddied for Lawrie for six years, during which time the 1999 Open champion won three times and bridged a 13-year gap to play on a winning Ryder Cup team at Medinah in 2012.

“I was out with Davy quite a few times towards the back end of last year when he was with Alex Fitzpatrick,” said Forrest. “I think we played on three separate occasions and I liked the way he went about things. So I’d seen him in action quite a few times and liked what he was about.”

Jamieson, who sits just two shots off the halfway lead at Yas Links after opening rounds of 67-69, certainly likes what his trusty bagman, Richie Blair, is about.

Scott Jamieson and Ritchie Blair are one of the longest-running partnerships on the DP World Tour. Picture: Warren Little/Getty Images.

“I think we might be the longest partnership out here,” said Jamieson, who has worked with compatriot Blair for the majority of his professional career.

“You’ve got guys like Padraig and Ronan [Flood] who’d be longer, but out of the rest of the bunch on the DP World Tour, I can’t think of anyone else who is longer than us.

“I’ve only ever had two full-time caddies. There’s obviously been times where you have doubts and things aren’t going well.

“But you look around and think ‘what else is available that is going to be a bigger asset’ and I’ve never found anyone who fits the bill.”

With Davy Kenny on his bag, Grant Forrest is pleased to have comfortably made the cut in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Yas Links. Picture: Andrew Redington/Getty Images.

Forrest, who is getting married later this year and fiancee Christy is out cheering him on in the UAE, was delighted to get his 2023 campaign off to a great start by comfortably making the cut.

“I played nicely yesterday but didn’t hole many putts then rolled one in on nine yesterday to finish and that gave me a bit of momentum finishing under par,” said the 2021 Hero Open winner.

“Today I had a terrible warm up and didn’t feel comfortable at all but managed it quite well and got the putter going a bit and the greens are better in the morning. It wasn’t that pretty today, but I got a good score out of it.”

Do professional golfers really have poor warm ups? “It does happen,” said Forrest, smiling. “Sometimes you are just not feeling it. Your body doesn’t feel right and your timing is out or whatever.

“I hit a poor tee shot on the third with a 5-wood into the long stuff, found it, hacked it out and made about an 18-footer for par and I think that really settled the round.”

The former Scottish Amateur champion is hoping to have a big year after being disappointed how last year panned out for him.

“Yeah, it’s nice,” he said of making it to the weekend in the UAE. “I got some good preparation done and stayed quite sharp by playing in those events before Christmas as it is quite a long time without competition and hopefully we can keep it going over the weekend and next few weeks.”

Kenny isn’t the only caddie starting out 2023 with a new employer in the Middle East. John Dempster has linked up with Haotong Li, Gullane-based Damian Moore is now on Marcus Armitage and Paul Drummond has picked up the bag of Dan Bradbury, the Englishman who won the Joburg Open in November.