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ABERDEEN STANDARD INVESTMENTS SCOTTISH OPEN

July 15, 2018

Stephen Gallacher

Gullane, Scotland

Q. Sum up today.
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah, eight birdies. Just a pity had^ four bogeys. It's what you've gotta do when you are sort of chasing it; you've gotta try and get as many birdies, be a bit more aggressive. So I was delighted, I played a lot better than I have been.

Q. Walk us through the last couple of days and what your mindset was like this morning when you teed up, first of all, and what you thought you could achieve.
STEPHEN GALLACHER: I was hoping it was going to stay windier than what it was, obviously, because then a good score is a good score, but you're trying to shoot 7-under. I knew it was on yesterday; it was two or three guys had it yesterday. I thought if the wind was the same as today, you could get a ^ good start for 16, but when the wind dropped, the guys chasing are struggling. You gotta be at the top of the board there. I'm delighted to have as many birdies. That's what you gotta try and do. The days you don't have the bogeys, you contend.

Q. Do you feel your game is getting back to what you know it can be?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah, I played good this week. You're only as good as your last tournament so played good.

Q. You haven't seen a Top 10. That's a big achievement, major achievement from just seven days ago.
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah, I struggled the last month, to be honest. But I turned the corner there. It's never far away at the top end. You need to get a wee bit of confidence. The only way you can do that is by hitting good shots on the course during a tournament. So I've progressively got better and my iron shots have got better.

Q. Huge confidence obviously going into today, last three or four months.
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah. Absolutely. Looking forward to it having a wee bit of time off to recover and come back for a long run again at the end of the year.

Q. You felt a bit frustrated; Top 10, top 50. Pretty good result.
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Absolutely. The form wasn't really great coming in. Of course, these have been the toughest stretch of four tournaments I can remember, really rough. I've made a couple of the cuts, but not played great; so scrambling, so you're mentally fatigued and struggling a wee bit. So I've worked hard on my game this week, to be honest, worked really hard. And then you just get confidence back, hit good shots on the course. Started to hit good shots, so you can start to put some numbers. Had a lot of birdies this week, which is always good. It's never far away. I'm looking forward to the next round of stretch of tournaments.

Q. Do you allow yourself to think about Carnoustie, or is it important just to shut that out?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, you could finish fourth and not get in. So you're trying to just finish as high up on the board as you can to give yourself a chance. You know what, there will be another one next year. If you're not in it to start, we are in sort of the prequalifying now. You can't really go for that either. The only way we can get in is playing about four bites to the cherry. You've gotta finish Top 10. It's quite a tough bid to get in. But if you're in it, you know what to do. You can play it. So it's one of these ones you're trying to do as well as you can in a tournament and if you get in, it's obviously a bonus, but if you don't, you just tried your best in a tournament and that's all you can do.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: I thought if I could shoot 16-under I had a chance I thought. That was the best score yesterday. I thought I probably needed the best score. And not 7-under today to get to 16, wasn't far out. I gave myself a lot of chances coming in, so I'm delighted.

Q. Are you a scoreboard watcher? Generally do you look at it, see where you are?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: That doesn't really -- I need to know what I need to do. I don't not look at them. I always look and see what you need to do and you might need to change your game plan slightly, be a bit more aggressive. Yeah. But probably missed it by a couple, two shots. So 16 probably would have guaranteed me. I had the birdies, just too many bogeys. That was all.

Q. (Question about caddy.)
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah, it's been brilliant, to be honest. It's been a breath of fresh air. You know, when you play off one, it's not as if it's a stranger. He's been around golf since he was three years old. He's been at Ryder Cups and Dubai, played with Tiger and Rory. Nothing's really phased him. So it was good yesterday, one of the guys, Thomas Pieter's caddy, he says you would think he had been at it for years. So that was nice for him. So yeah, it's been nice for him to be on the bag. He's still a bit cheeky. (Laughs). That's what you want, isn't it?

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