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ABERDEEN ASSET MANAGEMENT SCOTTISH OPENJuly 9, 2014Stephen GallacherABERDEEN, SCOTLAND MICHAEL GIBBONS: Many thanks for joining us. Big week ahead. Thoughts and feelings. STEPHEN GALLACHER: It's great just to be playing your National Open on links golf. It's golf we very rarely get a chance to play these days. So to play a course that's superbly set up, a little bit of wind here and there and a little bit of variability. It's going to be an exciting week, especially with the stellar field that's here, as well. MICHAEL GIBBONS: From your own point of view, any extra pressure, Scotland's No. 1? STEPHEN GALLACHER: No, only if I let it get to me. It is what it is. It's just a case of you've got to thrive on it. You know it's great playing in front of your home fans and it's great playing in front of your family and stuff like that. Can spur you on a bit. So it's a thing that I'm looking forward to playing in this week to be honest. The course is fantastic and it's a different challenge to a normal weekly basis. So it's a challenge I'm looking forward to really. Q. You're obviously used to playing links golf in Scotland. What makes this place special this week? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, first of all, it's in unbelievable condition. The fairways are perfect. The definition, the cut of the rough, the greens; but it's just normal challenges with links golf. It's the risk and reward, whether you take the drive on or if you take the bunkers out of play. Very, very different game of golf than we normally play. It's more positional. You can run the ball in. You can change your ball flight. One ball you need to hit it low and the next hole you need to hit it high to carry stuff. It's a game that you're always thinking. There's always variables here. You can play a hole five different ways, where normally it's just a straightforward 3‑wood and a driver up the middle and a shot at the hole. It's how aggressive you feel, how good your game feels, how you want to use your short game. It's a great test and it's a great test to the character of your mind, as well, and visually how you see it. Q. Supposed to be pretty strong winds; does that please you or not in the circumstances? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Probably not. Getting used to the heat and the sun now. I'll get a good test today, though, playing in it today, because it's playing today. I've seen three different winds already, so that's normal links. It could be beautiful tomorrow. The weather's a bit dodgy, but it's one of these ones, you know‑‑ I'm practicing my shots on the range and practicing on the course for if you do get wind, so you're nudging the ball flight down a wee bit and working it right‑to‑left, left‑to‑right and just trying to hold it into the wind. So I'm trying to prepare for all manners of wind and weather type. So you've just got to deal with what you get on the day. Q. Could you tell us where Royal Aberdeen ranks amongst your favorite links courses, particularly the front nine? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah, the front nine's good. We are sort of blessed with plenty of links golf courses up there. But I think they have got it set up, you don't get the Seniors Open, the Walker Cup unless it's a special golf course, and it's a great links‑‑ a great old‑fashioned links course. If the wind is like that, it's a tough test, when it's across the course. Very narrow fairways; if you're off a wee bit, bunkers are deep‑‑ it's a brilliant test, great fun. Great for the guys that are in The Open. There's three spots up for that, as well. It's going to be good for the people for the next couple of weeks. Great practise for Hoylake, as well. Q. You got off to a flying start in France next week but didn't kick on. Is your game in good shape coming into the week? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Yeah, I was sort of 10th in driving accuracy, fourth in distance, second in greens last week. Just lost my rhythm in putting midway through the second round and just lost a wee bit of confidence from then on in. They were very fast and sort of subtle greens. Didn't really get my share at the weekend. But I'm still finishing top 18th. Maybe a wee bit disappointed I couldn't have finished a bit higher up but that's golf. You've just got to take the same level of hitting and driving this week and hopefully hole my share of putts. Q. Given the difficulty of the course and the possible weather conditions, what do you see being a winning score this week? STEPHEN GALLACHER: It's hard to tell, that one. All links golf, you need the elements. So if St. Andrews is flat calm, guys go around in 63. If it's flat calm, you can see some scores. If it's windy, it's like anything else. There will be guys that do well. But if it's as windy as that, par is good. Par is a good score around here, especially with the crosswinds. But there are numbers out there. There are birdie chances out there. The greens are so pure it's unbelievable and they are holding a little bit as well. So they are not too firm yet, but again it's all down to the elements, if it's really, really windy, you are doing well, especially with this layout, as well. You know you're straight out, straight back, old‑fashioned links, so depends if the wind is straight across the course or you get nine into and nine back. It's one of those ones where it's all down to the elements. All links golf is. Q. Given all of the things at stake for yourself this year, are you able to go out there and enjoy it? STEPHEN GALLACHER: No, it's a nightmare. (Laughter) I enjoy my golf anyway. The hardest thing for me just now is to try and‑‑ the thing I'm working on the most is not to try too hard. Not to focus on things that are out of my hand anyway. The thing I've got to do and the thing that's going to get me up the rankings and to do well in tournaments, Ryder Cup, anything, is by playing well, week‑in, week‑out. You've got to putt the numbers on the board and the only way I can do that is just to concentrate on my own game and get your routine sorted, get your game plan sorted and then just stick with that. Then everything else, all the outside agencies are gone. And when I do that, you do enjoy your game but it's when you get sidetracked and start thinking of other things is when it gets a bit toppy a bit. I've been working hard all year, every week really, from when I start playing, is to just focus on the task at hand. Q. How much better a player are you now since you've won in Dubai again, first player to successfully defend that championship; how do you think that's changed your game and your mind‑set? STEPHEN GALLACHER: The last two years, I've noticed that I've sort of‑‑ I've noticed I've sort of stepped up a level. I've consciously tried to work on every aspect of my game, whether it was mental, physical, short game, clubs, and all my focus on was to try to get my ball flight a bit higher, land it a bit softer. You get further with the driver, you get closer to the pins; when you do that, you give yourself percentages coming down and chances to hole putts, and that's the way you can shoot low scores. So I've worked hard on my technique, worked hard on my injury prevention. I've worked hard on mental side of it, down to the nutritional side. It was all a conscious effort to try and improve my game to the next level. It's still ongoing and I'm on course just now but there's room for improvement and you just have to keep at it all the time. There's these young guys coming in that are 20‑odd‑years‑old and I'm touching 40. So the things that you've got to do, the extra mile I've got to go to stay at this level. Q. When Martin Kaymer won the U.S. Open, you said you expected players like that to get an automatic spot to The Ryder Cup. Is McDowell another one in that category? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Again, I've not been one that I've looked at it or looked at any rankings or points lists or anything. But if I was to do that, I would go stir crazy. There's so many permutations. Guys like Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer, they are Major winners and they are big‑time players, played in a lot of Ryder Cups. I think McGinley will be happy with them winning recently, and it's probably ones that you would expect to get in any way. But it's totally down to me. It's a hundred percent down to me and the only way that I can do it is by playing well in tournaments like this, big events like this. Q. Where would you rate Hoylake in the rota of Open Championships, and what is your favourite hole in Open Championship golf? STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, Hoylake is a bit like this place here. I've not played it since 1994. Played the Home Internationals there. So I know it's changed a lot. Pretty much similar to this. I couldn't remember a lot. I could remember the first nine here but not the back nine; it's changed a bit. What I hear, Hoylake, guys that have played it and what I remember, it's quite a flat course, quite similar to Lytham in between house and stakes and stuff. Put it this way, R&A don't really pick rubbish courses, so I know it's going to be set up to perfection and it will be everything what you expect. But if I was saying, my favourite Open hole would probably have to be the 17th at St. Andrews because I hate it. (Laughter) Should be a par 5. Q. You've had a bit of misery there. STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, I don't know anybody that hasn't. It's just such a great iconic hole, isn't it. Takes you back. That and The Postage Stamp but I've not really played that. I've never played it in The Open, but just to watch people play it has been fun. Q. Difference between American attitudes towards golf and Scottish attitudes towards golf? STEPHEN GALLACHER: As in players or public? Q. Both. STEPHEN GALLACHER: Well, I think the Scottish public understand the heritage of it and understand the Home of Golf anyway and I think they have just been brought up with it, where it's relatively new in America, with the sort of big crowds. But you get the massive crowds in America, maybe a bit more boisterous than the Scottish fans or the U.K. fans. Certainly when I've played in America, the crowds have been unbelievable, very big, very patriotic towards their fellow Americans. You know, it's great to play. Every tournament I've played over there has been fantastic. Especially the ones near the majors. They have been unbelievable with the crowds. I just think it's great to play over there, as well. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Thanks for joining us. Good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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