Swede Anders Forsbrand, one of the pioneers of the Scandinavian golfing revolution in the late 1980s and 1990s, will embark on a second assault on European golf when he joins the European Senior Tour next month.
Having celebrated his 50th birthday on April 1, Forsbrand will make his Senior Tour debut in the OKI Open de España by Cleveland Golf/Srixon at El Valle Golf Resort before heading across the Atlantic for the US Senior PGA Championship, as he attempts to make the sort of impact he had on The European Tour20 years ago.
Along with Mats Lanner and Ove Sellberg, six-time European Tour winner Forsbrand paved the way for a wave of Swedish success over the past three decades. Their initial breakthrough – when Sellberg became the first Swede to win on Tour in 1986 and Lanner then Forsbrand capturing their maiden titles in 1987 - has snowballed to a total of 89 victories by Swedish players on The European Tour.
With Sellberg no longer playing due to a back injury and Lanner forging a new career as a Tour rules official, the gauntlet now rests with Forsbrand to launch a second Swedish revolution, this time on the Senior Tour.
“I spoke to Ove recently and he can’t really play because of his back and Mats has conflicts with his job so after that there is a few more years until the next lot of Scandinavian players coming on the Senior Tour,” said Forsbrand. “We’ve got Peter Dahlberg and my friend Anders Johnsson already on the Senior Tour but a bit of gap until the next lot so it looks as though I’ll be the pioneer on my own this time. Which is fine.
“On the Senior Tour you get reborn. You have a second chance and it is great. I’m looking forward to it and it should be fun.
“The competitiveness has not left me. That’s the way I was born. I enjoy competing. I never enjoyed bad shots though! Competing has been such a big part of my life and I’m looking forward to doing it again. Hopefully I can at a high level.
“When I stopped playing in 2003/2004 it was because I was playing too badly. I was driving the ball badly. My iron play was always good but I wasn’t competing. I thought I should just go home and be with my family and do some other things in life. I always thought if my body held up and I was in good shape, that it was in the back of my mind to join the Senior Tour and hopefully have a chance of competing again.”
Forsbrand made 440 appearances on The European Tour in a career spanning 22 years from his first event in the 1982 Tunisian Open to his last in the 2004 German Masters.
During that period he won six times, capturing his maiden title in the 1987 Ebel European Masters, before his next victory in the 1991 Volvo Open di Firenze, a title he defended the following year when he also won the Cannes Open en route to a career high of fourth on the Order of Merit.
Forsbrand then won the 1994 Moroccan Open and the 1995 Mercedes German Masters as he amassed more than €3million in career earnings.
As golf began to bloom in his homeland during the early 1990s, in part due to his achievements on the course, Forsbrand announced Sweden’s arrival on the world stage by becoming the first country to win the Dunhill Cup and the World Cup in the same year in 1992, playing alongside Mats Lanner and Per-Ulrik Johansson in the former and Johansson in the latter.
“I probably had two major highlights in my career. First was when I won the German Masters in 1995, playing with Bernhard in the last round. That was very special. Then winning the Dunhill Cup and World Cup in the same year and becoming the first country to do that was fantastic. Both were very different but both are very close to me and very nice moments.
“When Bernhard asked me to be a Vice Captain for his Ryder Cup Team in 2004 that was also very special. I’d never been part of a Ryder Cup before so it was fantastic. Overall I’m very happy with the career I had and what I was able to achieve – especially with where I came from, the bush in Sweden.
“When I started there wasn’t really anyone around in Sweden to talk to about playing on the Tour and tell me about the game so you did it yourself. I was therefore very happy about achieving what I achieved. Looking back I would not have changed anything I achieved, the only thing is I would have liked the opportunity to play in more majors. I played in The Open a few times but not as many in the other three. It’s going to be wonderful to have another chance to compete in Majors on the Senior Tour now. Hopefully I can compete in them.”
Since leaving the competitive arena in 2004, Forsbrand has lived in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, and coached the Austrian National Team, something he plans to continue doing while playing on the Senior Tour.
“It’s hard to stop when you’ve had so much fun and seen so much improvement. We’ve got three guys on the main Tour now which is a great achievement.
“It’s been great to be part of a whole country and help them towards success. All the kids there are very excited about the future and they work really hard. That’s been a wonderful experience. I started to practice again myself about a year ago. I played Tour School in the States last November which was my first tournament since 2004. That was very different, rather than just going out and playing golf. I’m expecting it to take a while to get back into playing tournament golf. But it will be a lot of fun.
“All my friends on the Senior Tour and Champions Tour were great players then and still are. The numbers they are putting up are very impressive. I don’t care how easy the golf course is, you still have to put up the numbers. They continue to do that which is impressive and they are really good players. If I am going to compete I need to do the same thing. It is up to me to see how well I can compare.
“I’ve been following the Senior and Champions Tour. I speak to Bernhard once in a while. He is a great friend and he has had a great ‘second career’. But there are so many guys who continue to play well or who have come back to golf and played well. It’s going to be fun.”
