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THE BARCLAYS SCOTTISH OPEN

July 8, 2010

Stephen Gallacher

LUSS, SCOTLAND

SCOTT CROCKETT: Thanks for coming in to join us as always, an excellent start and it continues to be a good run of form ever since Wentworth. I know you've been played well before Wentworth, since Wentworth but you've been consistently on the leaderboards and it's carried on.
STEPHEN GALLACHER: It's always great to play well in your home country. I played very good last week, as well, so I knew the sort of form was good coming in but I just couldn't really hole a putt last week. I felt confident even finishing down the field, but I think I was thinking about these three, as well, being a Scot, to play Loch Lomond, one of the best courses in the world, and then played one of the most unique courses in the world back-to-back back at home being at home, it's a big draw.
SCOTT CROCKETT: What particularly pleased you today about your game?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Just got off to a good start basically, it was perfect, 7: 50 out there, it was quite cold and windy and tough to get it close. So you've got to take your chances to get it there and I've halfway done that.
SCOTT CROCKETT: You actually birdied your first hole, No. 10, didn't you.
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Knocked it about eight-foot. I holed that. And birdied the two par 5s from about 15 foot, knocked to abut eight-foot off the tee, missed that for eagle there.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Your only bogey of the day at 17?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: From about 50 foot, 40 foot, wind just gusted up on the way back.
SCOTT CROCKETT: And then you birdied 1 and 4.
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Actually I hit a poor second shot there, front edge of the green and chipped in.
5, probably a good 20-yarder.
4, I hit it to about eight-foot just left of the flag, it a good shot in there, tough flag. I hit 3-wood off the tee and had a chip with a middle wedge.
I had a few chances coming in, as well. I holed my share.

Q. How big of a contrast is that to your feelings last year at this time in this tournament?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, last year -- this is my last. I never played for three months after this last year. I think I played about four rounds before the Tour School. So a totally different schedule. Speaking to one of my mates, just shows you what a difference a year can make.
I'm not really looking back on that now, I'm trying to look forward. You know, that's probably helped me in a positive way.

Q. Looking beyond that, what happened to you in the last year or so, does it give you a new perspective on life, a new attitude towards life, having been down that road?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah, you just have to carry on. It's a good time you can sort of ask yourself some fine questions. Just how you are going along, you know, underachieving a wee bit, and I thought to myself, well, how can I get back to where I want to be and where you want to be as a player, in contention and that.
I worked hard in the winter on my short game with David Burns, and I've worked hard with Bob, Bob Torrance, and just trying to do the right things. You know, once my technique's got there, I've got a putter change, too, from a putting grip, been more consistent and that's what you've got to be out here. The top guys are all consistent week-in and week-out.

Q. Do you think there's an element, perhaps that when you had an experience like you had with problems in your home life, as well, that golf is maybe not the greatest thing and the most important thing in life, perhaps?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: It's very important for me, right. (Laughter).
Yeah, well, we went through a spell there where my wife had a couple of operations, and I had three operations within a month, so it wasn't very easy back then but you take your ups and downs. It's a great life when you're playing well, and it's a tough life when you're not playing well; it's like everyone else probably.

Q. How proud are you of playing so well since you've come back, does it pass expectations slightly?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: I set some goals at the start of the year obviously, and I've been changing them quite fine as I've been going along. Set your goals to keep your card and I set my goals to get into the Open and I've done that. So the next one is to get myself into the Top 100 in the world and get into The Race to Dubai. Just trying to keep it real, as well. Just contend; the more I contend, these things happen. It's a process rather than -- no expectations. I've met my first two goals, so I'd love to meet the next two.

Q. At this time last year, you left here and went on a family holiday; is that right?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: I did, first holiday since I've been married I think, went to Abbeymoor.

Q. Watch The Open at all?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Hard not to, watched 5 Live, watching it on the telly.

Q. I think you said you felt you were idling a bit and underachieving a bit; has that really changed a lot since you came back, and what changed it?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, I've always been pretty good at hitting the ball. But I've been coming -- you know, just going for my shots more, believing in myself a bit more, and then just holing a few more putts. That's basically how you put really. Played half decent and putt well, you have a chance. I realise that you watch the top guys, their putting is unbelievable. Even when they are playing bad to playing good, they just seem to go on rolls and shoot 63s, and that's what I was missing.
I was just a wee bit erratic, so I straightened my game a wee bit out and started to hole a few more putts. I spoke to Bernhard, as well, about it, my uncle, and in his days, he was 27 and a half putts a around or something like that, for his game. He said, you know, you have to try to get it better than 30 if you can, and I've been working hard at it. But the new systems seemed to help me straightaway.

Q. You said you were at home for both these weeks, how long does it take to get you to those venues?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, I was 55 minutes this morning and I'm probably half an hour next week. Yeah, I know the back roads of Fife. I've gone up there for years.
So I think -- I'm hoping I've learned a bit from playing in majors before where you kind of get caught up in it and overpractise and you're out of your routine and you can't get into any restaurants, that's pretty much every night at St. Andrews. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go up Monday, work on my putting and play at half six in the morning Tuesday with Simon Khan and a couple other guys and Wednesday maybe just go up and play nine or five or something like that.
Sleeping in your own bed, you don't get a chance to do it very much. There's a few factors.

Q. So you'll stay at home all week, will you?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: My dad is going to drive me up, so I can lie back and chill out.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Just like all of these guys here. You'll be fine.

Q. So how much of your practise do you spend on putting and short game?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: I probably spend a lot more time chipping and putting, probably three to one now; however long it is, I spend more time chipping and putting than I do -- you've just got to work on your weaknesses. No point in working on your strengths. You just work on your weaknesses, trying to get them up a percentage better every time until you get used to it.

Q. How do you actually practice your putting --
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Try to get the ball in the hole (laughter).
I do a lot of drills, two-handed, one-handed, eyes shut from five feet and hit them all the way back, just ones that help your pace, ones that help -- ones that if you're looking for par. And just change the way I go about my putting before I go out, as well, not half-hearted, try and make it structured.

Q. Why with your eyes closed?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: If you get your eyes shut, you can do it any way. Sometimes you think I have the eyes shut (laughter).

Q. Four generations of the Gallacher yesterday, your grand dad, your dad, Jack as well and is Jack following in the footsteps of yourself?
STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, he's pretty critical. He asked me what I did -- he walked with me in the practise round, felt like I've got two caddies this week. I hand it to Richard to compare, and I hand it to Jack and then he would hand it to Richard and he's looking at the lines warming up. It's great. Takes your mind off. When you get 28, 30 weeks away from them, yeah, it's great to have the family here as well.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Stephen, many thanks, as always. Good luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

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