He knows how to play the miracle shot to win games.He did this in Dunedin three years ago when he won his third New Zealand championship singles and his sixth national title.
Forsyth (36) is skip of the triples and fours for World Bowls in Christchurch next month.
It will be his third World Bowls. He won a bronze medal in the singles in Christchurch in 2008 and was in the New Zealand team that won the Leonard Trophy for the top overall team for the first time. In Adelaide four years ago, he won a bronze medal in the triples.
"Every time I have a chance to win the game I have a crack at it," he said.
"I embrace the pressure and don’t mind playing the hard shots. It has become second nature for me.
"If I get into that situation it doesn’t worry me. If something goes wrong you’re already behind the 8-ball. You just have to give it everything and hope like hell it’s enough."
Forsyth has been based in Australia for the past 10 years and works as bowls co-ordinator at the Clayton Bowls Club in Melbourne.
"The consistency of playing against tough opponents day in and day out and playing on good greens 12 months of the year has helped my bowls," he said.
"It has made me battle-hardened."
Last year, he moved from Sydney to his new job in Melbourne where bowls is not played in the winter months.
To compensate he travelled to Sydney each weekend for regular competition.
There are more opportunities to get work at bowling clubs in Australia to pay the bills.
"It allows me to get out on the greens and play all the time to sharpen my skills," Forsyth said.
"If you want to be serious about your game its something you’ve got to do."
Four World Bowls players live within five minutes of each other in Melbourne.
They are Jackaroos Aaron Wilson and Barrie Lester and Forsyth and his girlfriend, Kelly McKerihen, who in the Canadian women’s team.
Forsyth is confident about New Zealand’s chances at World Bowls.
"Potentially, we can medal in every discipline," he said.
"I wouldn’t be going there if I did not think we could do that."
He believes the fast greens in Christchurch will favour Australia and New Zealand. But northern hemisphere teams Scotland, England and Ireland, and South Africa and Malaysia could surprise.
"You take other teams lightly at your own peril," he said.
Forsyth will be playing in the Australian Premier league next month with fellow Black Jacks Jo Edwards and Shannon McIlroy and this will hone his competitive instincts before World Bowls.
The Black Jacks team will assemble in Christchurch two weeks before the start of World Bowls.
Forsyth won his seventh national title in Auckland in the pairs with his father early this year.
It was Neville Forsyth’s first national title.
"That was cool," he said.
"Every national title is special but I would put that one at the top of the list. It was great to have the opportunity to play with him.
"Dad introduced me to indoor bowls at Nelson when I was aged 7 and I played with him for nearly 20 years."
Ali Forsyth
At a glance
Age: 36.
Home town: Nelson.
Occupation: Bowls co-ordinator Clayton Bowls Club, Melbourne.
World Bowls spots: Skip NZ triples and fours.
Record
Domestic: Seven NZ titles (3 singles, 2 pairs, 2 fours); one Australian triples title; three New South Wales pennant titles; one NSW premier league titles with Taren Point.
International: Five Asia and Pacific medals; two World Bowls bronze medals; gold and bronze world champion of champions medals; two World Cup medals.
