Scotland’s golf renaissance in safest of hands, insists Gallacher
STEPHEN GALLACHER believes that domestic golf is in a good place ahead of the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open, which starts on Thursday. With a host of world stars set to descend on The Renaissance in East Lothian for the first time, the former Ryder Cup player is convinced that the chances of a Scot winning the £5.5million event have rarely been stronger.
David Law became the first home-based player to win on the European Tour since fellow Aberdonian Richie Ramsay in 2015 when he enjoyed a maiden victory at the Handa Vic Open in February.
Law’s Australian triumph was quickly followed by Gallacher winning a fourth career title at the Hero Indian Open seven weeks later.
However, the 44-year-old from Linlithgow is not basing his optimism purely on these successes.
The rapid emergence of another rookie, Oban’s Robert MacIntyre, has added to Gallacher’s belief that there is a rich vein of talent running through the game in this country.
MacIntyre — one of four Scots graduates from the Challenge Tour along with Law, North Berwick’s Grant Forrest and Liam Johnston of Dumfries — has made a stunning start to his career.
Back-to-back secondplaced finishes at the British Masters and the Made in Denmark in May propelled him into the top 15 in the Race to Dubai and secured an Open slot for the 22-year-old.
His display at the Irish Open has hardly been any less impressive, leading Gallacher to declare: ‘These are exciting times for Scottish golf. Davie set the ball rolling early doors and gave us all a shot in the arm, myself included, and I’m glad I was able to chip in.
‘For me, the four young guys coming through at the end of last year has been pivotal in relation to what has been happening.
‘We’ve had young players come through before, but none of them managed to have the same impact and struggled to keep their cards.
‘But Bob has his tied up already and Davie looks to have his secured. Grant has also been doing well and Liam needs just one good week to get going.
‘Davie and I winning, and Bob
doing brilliantly, has had a snowball effect. I watched Bob at Hillside in the British Masters and he gave the appearance of someone who has been here for years the way he competed.
‘All these guys look comfortable in their environment and they are pushing on the rest of us, even us older guys.
‘Then you see Connor Syme doing so well on the Challenge Tour and winning, so the youngsters further down the scale take heart from that.
‘They tell themselves that if these four guys can come through the Challenge Tour, where one of them won and another has nearly beaten a stellar field a couple of times, there’s no reason to think that they can’t do the same.
‘Ewen Ferguson and Calum Hill also look promising. If the progress can be maintained and we get another two or three coming through, all of a sudden we could have 10 or 12 Scots playing every week. That’s what happened in England. A decade or so ago, they didn’t have a single player in the top 100 in the world — but now there’s a plethora of them. Success breeds success.
‘I think we’ll see this coming week that with The Open not being in Scotland, along with Davie and I winning and Bob coming so close, the home players will be well received by the crowds.’
Scots will make up roughly 10 per cent of the field, with at least 15 home players competing against the likes of major winners Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Henrik Stenson, Martin Kaymer and Padraig Harrington.
The event also represents Gallacher’s last hope of securing an Open place at Royal Portrush in 12 days’ time after he missed the cut at Lahinch.
But no matter that he is running out of chances, he is adamant he would never disrespect his national Open by focusing entirely on securing one of the three Open spots up for grabs.
He added: ‘While I’d love to play at Portrush, for us Scots the Scottish Open is second only to the majors, in terms of prestige.’