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OMEGA DUBAI DESERT CLASSICJanuary 27, 2015Stephen GallacherDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES NEIL AHERN: Thank you very much, everyone. Thank you for coming in. Stephen, thanks for coming in today. Aiming for something quite special this week. How does that feel? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah, I think it's sort of the same feeling as last year. I'm going to approach it the same as last year, not try to put too much pressure on myself and just go ahead and enjoy it. Hopefully come Sunday, I'm in position to give it a good go. NEIL AHERN: You had a good final round in Qatar. Are you feeling a bit better about your game at the moment? STEPHEN GALLACHER: I had not played for six, seven weeks. I was a bit rusty to be honest. Last round was good. I started to hit the ball pretty well and played pretty good at Yas. Signs are good for this week. NEIL AHERN: Is it difficult to ignore the pressure with something so special, three in a row? STEPHEN GALLACHER: I think that is a bit of pressure, but it's only what you put on yourself. The good thing is at least I've won it, so I don't need to be that pressured. I just want to enjoy the week, same as what I've done last year. I came to sort of ‑‑ I know what happens when you put pressure on yourself, generally don't play well. So the more I can just enjoy it and hopefully recall past performances and good shots I've hit and putts I've holed, once I do that, then I'll really enjoy it. Q. In some ways, is it a little bit easier for you because you've done the defending champion thing and you've won it again? So in a little way, is the pressure off a bit. STEPHEN GALLACHER: I hope so. That's my plan is to try and not put myself under any pressure. I mean, I'd love to make it three in a row, don't get me wrong. To win last year on the 25th anniversary was special, with the field and with the sort of history behind it. So I take a lot of confidence from that and it set up sort of my best year. I'm hoping to just keep building on it. It's a course I play well, so I'm hoping to just not think too much about it and just get on and play golf really. Q. Another very strong field. Does that help, as well, focus the mind? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah, it does. It's a brilliant field. A half an hour away from the Challenge Match, and when you see the guys playing in it, the strength of the field is superb this year, and it's a great tournament, as well. Q. When you have such a good year as you had the last time around, do you set targets for the year to win again? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Basically I'm looking at the schedule, trying to schedule it right. Try to take a bit of time off at the start of the year. I'm going to be playing quite a bit in America, as well. I want to be fresh for the end of the year when the Ryder Cup campaign starts again, basically. Try and get into contention on the weekend at the Majors, try and plan my schedule and be as fresh as I can be for the last sort of three months of the year. Q. What is it about this event and this course that enables you to play so well? STEPHEN GALLACHER: I don't know. I wish I knew what it was, then I could apply it at other places. But I think it's just familiarity. I'm very familiar with the course. Play it a lot. Come out on holiday a lot. It kind of suits my eye. It's quite an old‑fashioned course. You have a lot of doglegs, a shot of shaped shots. Kind of the way I grew up playing the game was to shape it both ways. I think it's just a really fair golf course, and I think maybe I read the putts and stuff like that, as well. You get certain places where everything seems to click for you, and I certainly feel good coming here and I really enjoy playing the course and I love coming to Dubai. So yeah, in a happy state and that always helps. Q. At Yas when you were playing the Pro‑Am that day, there were quite a few holes where you were hitting it past Rory, actually. Is that something new? Have you added some distance to your drives, or we didn't just compare it before and we just saw it on that day? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, I think that was a Sunday in a Pro‑Am format. I think I'll be doing well to hit past Rory when he's a bit‑‑ when he plays at his full strength. He's a great player, great ambassador for the game. But I'm certainly hitting the ball a lot further just now, but if I can get to his standard I'll be very happy. Q. Winning this twice, and in the year you had last year, has that changed your level of confidence? Are you now at the stage where you think, yeah, I belong with all these guys and you can win any particular week? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah, I think so. I think when you have a good year and you play Ryder Cup and you've had a consistent couple years where you're‑‑ I'm now 30‑odd in the World Rankings, so I'm trying to improve. I think the next level to try to get into the Top‑10 is going to be mental more than anything, little tweaks here and there with the golf game. But I think it's more attitude, like you say, you deserve to be here and you feel comfortable and play with these guys, which is a massive thing. I think it's just about the way I approach the week and how you can accept bad shots and stuff like that. These are the little things that I think the next level for me is how I can progress. Q. Only five players have ever won the same event three years in a row on The European Tour: Woods, Faldo, Woosnam, Monty and Ernie Els. What would it mean to you if you could join that list? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, five exceptional players, you know, No. 1s in there, former No. 1s. It is hard to do. I've got a chance to do it and I'm not really‑‑ that just shows you how hard it is. I've got expectations what I want this week but I'm not going to put myself under any more pressure. If it happens, brilliant. If it doesn't‑‑ as long as I give my best shot at start of the week and 100 per cent at everything, that's all I can do. Again I just want to be in contention again on the Sunday. Q. Just going back to how much you like the course, the back nine in particular seems to be your favourite back nine in golf, favourite nine in golf. How much confidence does that give you when you go into that back nine knowing you can play it so well? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, I don't really‑‑ I never think of it like that, if you know what I mean. It's just I've had a couple of really good, low scores on it. You know, these things don't happen very often in golf careers where you can finish 10‑under for the last ten or eight under for the last nine, which I've managed to do out here. But it's all down to seeing‑‑ it obviously suits my eye. I wish I could play the front nine like that. That's why I've been playing the front nine more often this time when I've been coming here. Q. Just curious what mementos have you kept from your two wins here, and whereabouts in the house would they be, and how often would you see them and look at them and remind yourself what you have done here? STEPHEN GALLACHER: I've got a replica trophy that sits in the corner when we come down the stairs, so I see it every morning. It's just because I cannot put it anywhere; it's that heavy. It has to sit on the ground. Yeah, I've got a nice picture. I've got a couple nice pictures and just the trophy, that's it. Q. You've got intentions of putting that trophy elsewhere? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah, I'm doing one of my rooms up, so it's going to go in there eventually. Q. You mentioned playing more in America up to the Masters. What events will you be playing in, and just looking back at your third round from a distance of 12 months, how do you view it now? STEPHEN GALLACHER: When I look at it now, my heart races really when I think about it ‑‑ because I was not even in the tournament really. And then I hit one shot at 9 pretty close, and then I just seemed to, everything just went. Even when I'm coming down 16, I hit a lovely shot into 16 and Jamie Donaldson ‑‑ still remember the shot. It's one of those ones that doesn't happen very often. I remember Donaldson hitting from the same putt as me, it was so fast and quick, and I hit it perfect, probably one of the best putts I've hit. Just went right in the middle at the perfect pace. And I knew from there, you have a chance at last two, as well. To get up‑and‑down at the bunker, hole a 20‑footer, it was just surreal and that basically set me up for a chance coming into Sunday. Going back to America, I'm just going to play‑‑ I'm playing Honda hopefully, and Doral. I'm trying to get an invite into the Valspar after that, and then I'm out for the Masters. I'm not playing before the Masters. Then it's back out for the Match Play, the players, U.S. Open, and I'm hopefully going to play the week before Firestone this year, because I kind of struggle when I get to Firestone. There's always been a gap after The Open. So I'm going to try to hopefully play out there before that and finish with the PGA. I've only really scheduled up to the PGA, and then I'm going to see what I'm doing regarding Ryder Cup points when that starts. I want to be really fresh after that for the Final Series and stuff like that to give it a good go again. Q. You would equal Ernie Els' most‑win record here if you were to win. How big a motivation is that? Do you think about records and things like that coming into an event? STEPHEN GALLACHER: No, I don't really think about records to be honest. You come to every tournament and you hopefully‑‑ all you can do is prepare properly to win. That's what you do every week, and it doesn't happen very often. That's the kind of nature of the game. But all I'm doing is you set your game plan, you get the right clubs for the week and you hopefully get a break here and there, and all you can ask for is you're in contention coming down the back nine on the Sunday. I'll be doing that‑‑ I've done that last week and I'll do it this week and I'll do it in Malaysia. I think when you start to get outside of that and you try too hard and start to pick targets and records, I think you can come away with the fact‑‑ you can let yourself get distracted. It's a simple game of just trying to get out there and shoot as you can. My goal every week is to have as many birdies as I can, really. Q. To be up there with those names, how big is that? STEPHEN GALLACHER: It's great to be associated with them, isn't it. I've earned my place to be associated with them, so I cannot change it now. It's there. The only thing I can do is add it and I would love to. That's why I'm here to try and give it my best shot again. Q. You've been testing a new TaylorMade driver; are you closer to making that decision? STEPHEN GALLACHER: I had a big TrakMan session yesterday with the R15 and Adrian, the person from TaylorMade, took all the numbers and gave them to my coach, Alan. So he phoned me the other night to tell me the numbers were brilliant. I'm going to take it out and play with it today and give it a go. Again, it's nothing new, because the last two years I've won, I've won with totally different drivers, anyway. This is the time they sort of launch the new driver. I've won with the R1 and SLDR, so it would not phase me putting the R15 in, because the numbers are saying that it's a bit faster and it goes a bit further. In the modern game, the further you hit it, the shorter the iron, the better percentage you have of making birdies. I'll see if it goes today and if it goes well today and tomorrow in the Pro‑Am, I'll put it straight in the bag. NEIL AHERN: Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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