Stephen Gallacher doesn’t know where he found the surge that convinced Paul McGinley to make him a Ryder Cup player, but he still hasn’t come down from the thrill of learning his dream of a lifetime will come true.
The 39-year-old Scot ensures there will be a home presence on the team at Gleneagles in three weeks, as he was named as one of McGinley’s three wildcard picks, with Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood, at Wentworth on Tuesday.
The tipping point, identified by both captain and player, was Friday afternoon in Turin last week when Gallacher was close to missing the cut in his last chance to qualify for the European team, yet found a rush of six birdies to take him from the brink of elimination back into the reckoning.
“To go out to play looking at the leaderboard and see first place is 15 under par, you think ‘what a deficit to claw back’, but he did it,” said McGinley.
“He pushed himself over the line. I haven’t done Stevie a favour here, he did it himself. He deserves a spot in this team and should be very proud of what he’s done.”
Gallacher’s first reaction to his phone call from the skipper telling him of his success underlines their personal relationship and what selection means to the Scot.
“His first words were ‘That’s brilliant, wee man,’” revealed McGinley. “It was the second easiest decision for me (after Ian Poulter’s selection).
“His performance last week under massive pressure, which I know what is like and I can relate to from my own experience in 2004, is deserving of massive credit.”
Gallacher recalled that point last week, when it seemed his lifelong dream and the thing he’d geared his entire season towards was slipping away.
“Having come so close and not made it, I would have been distraught,” he said. “I did feel it was slipping away. I tried too hard out in the States (at the PGA and Wyndham Championship, where he missed the cut) and it was not my game out there.
“Then in Italy on the Friday, I don’t know where that came from. I had to dig unbelievably deep.
“I think if you want something badly enough, sometimes it can just happen. I just knew I had to have a big back nine. That was it right there, I had to do it. I almost willed myself to do it.”
In the end he finished a shot short of automatic qualification mark, but it turned out he’d proved to McGinley all that he needed to in that nine holes.
The skipper initially poured a little cold water on the widespread and publicly voiced acclaim from his peers and the public for Gallacher’s Italian Job on Sunday, asking for the emotion to die down and for the selection to be made in the cold light of day.
But even when things had cooled down and were looked at dispassionately – by McGinley and vice-captains Sam Torrance and Des Smyth the conclusion was the same, resulting in Monday night’s phone call.
For Gallacher, the draw of the Ryder Cup was greater than most given his uncle Bernard’s long association as player, vice-captain and three-time captain of Europe.
“You go down to Bathgate (his home club) and there’s pictures everywhere of Eric Brown and my uncle Bernard,” he said of the West Lothian club’s two previous Ryder Cup heroes.
“I always wanted to join them, I’ve dreamed about this all my life,” he continued.
“It is so very emotional. I knew I’d have to have the best year of my career to qualify and I put a plan in place to do it.
“It’s been 40 years since a Ryder Cup was in Scotland. My generation probably won’t see it again back here, this was my only chance. I’m chuffed to bits that I’ve done enough.”
Sunday’s flight home from Italy was a nightmare of not knowing, but then again the last two months have been like that for the Scot, one of the most popular players on the European Tour.
“I didn’t really know what to do, I still don’t know, I’m still in a bit of a daze,” he joked.
“I tried to take my mind off it. Paul said to me in Italy that ‘I’ll phone you regardless to tell you whether you’re in or out, but it will be a long day for you.’
“He was right, and it’s been tough the last couple of months to be honest. It’s been tough to get sleeping because the whole process has been coming to an end.
“I’m pretty sure I’ll sleep well now though!”
McGinley added that while Gallacher’s nationality was a welcome bonus, it had not been a vital factor in his selection.
“The pressure he’s going to be under in front of a home crowd is the same kind of pressure he was under in Italy, and he proved that he could do it,” continued the captain. “He’s going to stand out there so proud when everybody is cheering him from home country.
“He’ll be be proud of that, and so he should be. I’m not picking him because he’s Scottish, or even because he has a good record on that course. They were part of the decision, but the most important thing was that Stevie stood up last week when it counted.”
It’s possible that Gallacher’s inclusion will also have a big bearing on McGinley’s next move, which is to name what is likely to be another three vice-captains to bring his backroom team to five.
With Smyth and Torrance already in place, McGinley will complete his team in the next 48 hours with Miguel Angel Jimenez, Padraig Harrington and now – due to Gallacher’s selection – Paul Lawrie favoured to join the group at Gleneagles in three weeks.