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ALFRED DUNHILL LINKS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 7, 2018

Stephen Gallacher

Carnoustie, Kingsbarns, St Andrews, Scotland

STEPHEN GALLACHER: Tough day obviously, early start. It was cold. Just hit a few shots in the bunkers, which you can't do around here. That sort of ended the momentum, you know. You try to keep out of them, as simple as that. It's playing tough, the back nine is more into. You have to try to hit across fairways. It's a tough course with the wind like that the back nine.

Q. Do you still feel you're in with a chance at the turn?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: No. To be honest, no. Six back or something like that then, so I thought -- when I hit it in the bunker at 10, that was it, done. You know, you're still thinking, you're chasing it obviously, so you're still thinking, if you can make a couple under the back nine, but a couple errors and traps, and that's it.

Q. Been a good week, continues the decent form.
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah, it's been a good week. Just my putting has been absolutely horrendous. I think I've had nine 3-putts. I played so much better than my game but it's just really frustrating, so I'm going to have to do something about it.

Q. What will it be?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: I don't know. See Phil Kenyon on Thursday, break a few putters.

Q. British Masters next week?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah. Don't know if I'm going to play Valderrama but I'm knackered just now. I'm definitely going to go to Walton Heath. It's a brilliant track. Just plays like links, as well. So I'm definitely going down for that.

Q. And a word on the winner, 5-under in those conditions?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah, brilliant. Great score. Felt for Tyrrell there. He played lovely and got a few bad breaks the back nine. That's the thing, it's just such a tough back nine. The guy that sort of plays it the best has a chance to win it.

Q. You've played in the final group again. What does that feel like after the last couple years?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: That's why you practice. You practice to get in these positions. It's just a shame I didn't really follow through. There's still a wee bit of work to be done.

It's different pressures, different scenarios, different pins, different targets. You've got to learn to play in them again if you've not been there for awhile. The more times you've do it, the more chance you've got.

General really on a Sunday, if you can up-and-down it, if you hit some errant shots, that's what keeps you in it and gives you a chance at the end.

Q. At 10, you thought you were dead?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: I was in two bunkers and I had to play back, but that's St. Andrews, isn't it. Your game plan is to keep out of them, No. 1; how do you keep it out of the bunkers and what club do you hit not to bring them into play. Sometimes you might have to bring them in a wee bit depending on the weather.

Like today, the back nine, you're hitting across. When you turn at 12 down, you're hitting across fairways and across bunkers and stuff like that. They are all in play. It's a great course, especially in that wind. You've just got to play really good.

I'm hitting the ball lovely, really good, probably as I've hit for years, years, just no scoring, even 6-under yesterday could have been 10. I had three 3-putts for that yesterday when I looked up. I mean, I'm out in 2-under today, which is 6-under for my last 27 holes. Feeling as if I'm leaving shots out there.

Over the 72 holes, they come back to bite you unfortunately, and then all of a sudden if you hit a few penal shot, you get penalised, where if you have a few more birdies in your bag, you can afford to hit a bunker. Everybody was going to drop a shot today, it was such tough conditions.

It's good, I know what I need to do to sort of kick on and I'll be doing that the next couple of weeks.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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