Gallacher's on form for Old Course
STEPHEN GALLACHER, Scottish golf's man of the moment, says there will be nothing simple about the Old Course at St Andrews in today's Open Championship.
The West Lothian star is heading into the world's oldest major on the crest of a wave, having maintained his recent red-hot form by finishing in a tie for fourth in the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond last week.
"Having played in the first two rounds of an Open there (in 2005] I know what to expect," said the 35-year-old. "It's not as simple as the Dunhill – I remember seeing some of the flags in places I hadn't seen them before."
Gallacher believes the R&A have taken some measures to try and speed up play, which is normally a problem on the world's most famous course.
"St Andrews is poor for pace of play because of players hitting it down the left," he added.
"I was speaking to a couple of R&A guys and they said they were trying to force people down the right a bit more – but good luck to them with that."
Few other players in the field can be feeling more confident than the man who was born and bred in Bathgate.
He's never looked back since tying for fourth place in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth six weeks ago and is now up to 18th – a rise of ten spots – in the Race to Dubai after a sparkling display at Loch Lomond.
"I'm delighted with that, especially when the weather was so bad when we were teeing off," he said.
"It doesn't bother me that I'm the highest-placed Scot here since Monty in 2000 – I'm just happy that I got the job done.
"I'm hoping to get into the top 100 in the world rankings to get into the USPGA Championship and I'm going the right way."
Another good finish at St Andrews might even get him there.
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Weather for Bathgate
Monday 21 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 6 C to 15 C
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