Secret trip to California put weight on Stephen Gallacher

Stephen Gallacher flies to the US Open today with a ringing endorsement from one of the most respected men in golf.

Towards the end of last year, the Scot headed for California for some help with his short game from legendary instructor Dave Stockton.

There had been doubts in some circles that the 39-year-old had not confirmed the potential suggested by his win at the 2004 Dunhill Links Championship. Injury and a debilitating illness have got in the way, of course.

But only recently Gallacher came in for some criticism from Tony Jacklin when the former US and Open champion alluded to his ‘soft’ approach as the reason for the lack of sustained success. Stockton does not buy into Jacklin’s theory!

Indeed, he announces: “The sky’s the limit now for Stephen. Basically he came to me to fix his short game, and he picked up pretty quick what I tried to get over to him.

“His putting was not any great problem, so we fixed that part very quickly. He was putting conventional. But I’ve since seen that when he beat Rory McIlroy in the Desert this year, he was putting left hand low.

“By The Masters he had gone to a different grip but every single grip he was using he was very, very, good at.

“However, the thing I was really surprised with when Stephen came to me was that his wedges had the same weight ratio as he had on his irons.

“My own wedges are almost double the weight ratio of my irons, and I’d seen the same thing with Francesco Molinari. So I thought I was out of touch.

“Well, as soon as Stephen started using my wedges, his shots around the green really improved because, with a heavier weight ratio, he was getting more club-head speed through the ball.

“So I am very confident in the months ahead that his short game will be better than it has ever been.”

Stockton, a man who won 10 times on the US Tour and bagged two Majors when Palmer and Nicklaus were in their prime, dismisses Tony Jacklin’s suggestion that Gallacher has a soft side to him.

“I don’t know,” he says with a bewildered sound. “I did not see that and Stephen worked very hard when he was with me. And don’t forget he had enough gumption to come all the way to California to see me.

“He is a very, very, good student. His overall game is very good. He has the length, and now he has the short game to go with that. Believe me, I was tickled for him when I saw him at the Players. There was nothing I could tell him.

“I said: ‘Just go play, Stephen. Your technique is good any way you want to use it. And as for the short game, as far as I’m concerned you now have it.’

“I think the shots he is hitting around the greens are now better than anything he ever hit before.

“So I suspected he was going to do really well, and last Sunday where he was unlucky to lose the play-off in Sweden has kind of justified my thoughts.”

Let’s just hope the immensely likeable Gallacher can carry his recent upsurge in form into Pinehurst this week.