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OMEGA DUBAI DESERT CLASSICFebruary 2, 2014Stephen GallacherDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES MICHAEL GIBBONS: Stephen, many congratulations, OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic Champion again. Didn't make it easy, did you? STEPHEN GALLACHER: I never do. I never do anything easy I'm afraid. What a day. Emotions are gone and I'm a nervous where you can. It's just one of those ones, I never really played the front nine well that well all week. I don't know, it was a carbon copy of yesterday apart from I holed a couple of putts for par and got a bit lucky yesterday but today I was in bushes and trees and stuff. But I just kept saying to myself, you know, stay patient. I played the back nine well and no one was really running away with it at the time. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Just sum up quickly what it means, first man to defend. STEPHEN GALLACHER: When you look at the guys who have won it, is brilliant. And to win it on the 25th anniversary, it was a good field with all the champions playing, makes it even more special. Q. What was the key, just patience and confidence on the back nine? STEPHEN GALLACHER: I think the key was a holed a putt on 11 for birdie. I was disappointed not to birdie 10, and then I looked at the leaderboard and I was tied for the lead with seven to go and I thought, wow, that's not a bad spot to be in considering. It's almost start from fresh from there. Q. Don't want to dominate the questions, but coming up 18, did you know par was going to be good enough? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah. Q. Were you told that by someone? STEPHEN GALLACHER: No, I had a look at the board. Q. And that was that? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah. Q. And so the decision to lay‑up? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, I didn't really hit a good drive. I kind of knew 15 was in but I didn't really‑‑ I had to, if I needed to do it, I'd have had to hit a proper 3‑wood to get it over there. So that was a touch and go one anyway. If I really needed to I could have hit 3‑wood but I just hit 9‑iron instead and middle wedge, and that little rain was the only backspin I had all week. My heart was in my mouth for a second. Just that little rain and a little slope and a wee bit of grain, just shows you, because I tried to leave myself a number, I left myself a perfect number that didn't spin and it did spin. So I couldn't believe it. I thought it was going to be stone dead. But there you go. Q. Moving up to 37th in the World Rankings, what does it mean to get into the Match Play, the Cadillac and the four Majors? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, brilliant, isn't it. That was my goal. I was into Doral and I'm into the Open. The key was to try and get into all the big events, the majors. If you have aspirations of playing Ryder Cup, it's pretty hard to get in if you're not playing them. But you need to do well in them obviously. But getting away to a fast start was crucial, as well, so delighted, it's all going to plan so far. Q. Jack sort of took it in his stride but your little daughter looked emotional. STEPHEN GALLACHER:  Well, she normally goes to the crèche, but she walked a bit of the back nine, she's normally in the crèche helping out with the babies, and my son, he's old hat, he walks around and he knows the score. He is probably expecting me to win it because I won it last year; that's what they do, isn't it. But yeah, it was great for my mum and dad and my family here, it was nice. Q. The start was a carbon copy of last year. How much of an impact was last year to today in terms of keeping it going? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, so many similarities to last year, it was unbelievable. It rained the last round, lead going in, pretty similar to the Saturday I had last year and getting off to the same start and then having to rally the back nine. I just kept on saying to myself, just, you know, I know I can play the back nine good and nobody was racing ahead. That was the key. If somebody came out of the traps quick and got off it a bad start it would have been maybe a bit different. Q. Black and grey, last day colours every tournament or just keep it for here? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, it was the only thing was ironed to be honest. But it wasn't the same colour grey trousers, so I'm not that superstition. But black top, I like wearing black my last day. Q. I can't imagine that this is an easy thing to get your head around, but we've been looking at Google maps and you grew up 37 miles where the Ryder Cup is going to be staged, I think you can finally start maybe entertaining that possibility after all this time. STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, I'm not going to get too far ahead of myself, but certainly with a‑‑ my uncle played in it eight times, captained it three and vice captained it two, so it's pretty much all I grew up watching and stuff. And then, when it's 37 miles from the house, in my generation, it's never going to be in Scotland again, so it's always been a long‑term goal of mine to play in a Ryder Cup. It just so happens that the best spell I'm having is the one that's in Scotland. But it's seven months to go and a lot of golf to be played and a lot of good golf needed to get into it. That's my long‑term goal but the short term is to try to get into all these big events, but then you need to play well in them, as well, to amass the points to give Paul a headache, hopefully. Q. Because that's where all the money is? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah, definitely. Q. It's been said a lot that your talent has not all been matched by how much you've won and what you've done, but your record is changing now, and do you agree with that and why do you think that's changed in recent times? STEPHEN GALLACHER: I don't know, I've just started to putt a bit better to be honest. I've always played well and struck the ball well. You know, it's hard to win. I've put myself in positions to win. The crucial one was last year was to get the second win after so long, and I've been working hard on my game obviously all the time. Worked with Bob and work with a few other guys and been helped with fitness guys and well, and it's more than a team effort. I've tried to see every part of my game that needs improving and I've tried to get the right person in to help for short game, chipping, putting, my fitness, my long game, everything. So there's a lot of people involved. But it's just a case of being comfortable in the positions I think, trying to get yourself into contention and then being comfortable there. That's what the top guys do there all the time when they are in contention; it just becomes the norm. Q. Mentally, you seem strong. STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah, I just look after the process. I don't try and‑‑ I can only hit one shot as good as I can and where it goes is just how you accept it. You know, if you accept where it ends up, then start again. Just try and do the best shot you can hit for there. It hard to do, but when you get it going, that's when you can get on runs and things like that like yesterday. Q. When you get on the 17th tee, you're tied for the lead; were you aware of that and did that in any way put any doubts in your mind that you should not have been driving‑‑ STEPHEN GALLACHER: I think there was two and a half million reasons going through my mind why I hit driver. It wasn't‑‑ if I had a six‑shot lead, maybe, but I didn't really know to be honest. There was no board there. I knew I was tied or close to it but the shot was to hit driver anyway. You could get it on the front edge or get on the green, so it was just‑‑ my game plan was just to hit driver anyway. Q. Were you surprised with the way the scores stagnated and bunched? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, to be honest, the greens firmed up today and they were obviously last day flags, wind was a bit up, started to rain a bit; so it wasn't easy. But there was only sort of‑‑ there was Rory and there was a couple of guys and then there was a four‑shot difference. There was a lot of good scores from the guys just below us, but the four or five guys right next to me I don't think broke 70. So that helps. But, you know, you can only deal with what happens at the time, and that's what I've done. Q. How big a dream has Augusta been for you? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, any golfer that's never played it; I've had the opportunity to play it, but I say that I would never go unless I got in the tournament, so I'm delighted at my age that I can go now. I've watched it as a kid when I was all the way through and it's always been‑‑ we used to get it on the terrestrial TV and everything like that. It was just a tournament I got allowed to watch when I was a young kid.  I can remember Sandy Lyle and Woosie and all these guys winning, Fred Couples back in the day. So I'd love to ‑‑ I'm delighted. Hopefully I've done well enough to get into it. That's definitely one of my dreams to play in Augusta. Q. You said you don't want to get ahead of yourself, but playing with Tiger and Rory; career‑high ranking, confidence must be sky high at the moment? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Definitely, absolutely. I was pleased with the way I played the first couple of days in that. That because the first time I've played with Tiger since the Walker Cup apart from Tuesday. All yous guys cutting about him inside the ropes, it's putting us off all the time. But it's definitely hard. It's a different level of intensity and it's one that you've just got to get used to. Thankfully I was playing well enough to just get on with my own game and enjoy it and that's first and foremost was I enjoyed playing with both of them and felt that like, you know, you belong and you want to play with them. So that's a nice feeling, as well and they are both normal guys, as well. They are both great to play with. Q. How important is the 13th hole been in your two successes? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, when you're fighting a hook all day and there's a right 90‑degree dogleg‑left, it's pretty‑‑ I can hit it as hard as I want because I'm not going to hit it right. I came in practice‑‑ one of the things I've done here is I've practised a lot for the last two, because I don't generally, I'm quite a low ball flighter but I've worked hard to get the ball up. One of the things I do is you just need to get it up high and hook it, and if you hit a high hook, you're hitting out. Like I hit wedge in yesterday and I've hit 7‑iron in today, so it's a par 5 that you can capitalize with a good drive. So it's worth the hit. Q. Your patience was very impressive today and you say that you look after the process, shot for shot. Have you always been like that as a golfer or have you had help in my respect on the mental side? STEPHEN GALLACHER: I've had help‑‑ well, I don't work with a psychologist or anything like that but I've read a few books and spoke to a few people. Ultimately that's all you can do is just look after‑‑ if you can have 100 percent clarity and commitment to every shot, then it's down to the acceptance levels. If your acceptance levels are brilliant, you've got a chance of getting a score; if your acceptance levels are poor, forget it. Q. Any particular book you read? STEPHEN GALLACHER: No, it's nothing really. It's just being on the Tour for 20 years or whatever; knowing if I get angry I play crap and if you don't get angry, you do all right. It's pretty black and white. Q. If you would give us your view on Rory's game; playing brilliant the first round but struggled a little bit. You've seen him up close, what do you think? STEPHEN GALLACHER: His first round was unbelievable. I shot 66 and it was like shooting 75. Even Tiger was saying, for such a slight guy, hits it so far. Ball flight just phenomenal. I've never played with anybody who flights it as good as his, such high and penetrating. I think he's‑‑ you know, obviously it's hard to emulate the year he had before and last year he still won and he's top in the world and people think that's the slump. But I think he'll be contending with Tiger for the No. 1 spot. He's a class player. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Many congratulations again. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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