Paul Lawrie has warned Scots to lower their expectations and pressure on his friend and colleague Stephen Gallacher as he strives to make the Ryder Cup team at Gleneagles.
Gallacher’s repeat victory in the Dubai Desert Classic has given the 39-year-old from Bathgate a fighting chance to make Paul McGinley’s European side, and into the bargain a succession of potentially lucrative starts in American tournaments including the Masters.
However, Lawrie, using his own experience of his brilliant run into the European team for Medinah in 2012, cautioned against those already fitting Gallacher for a team uniform.
“He has a huge opportunity to get in the team, but he knows to do that he still has to play some unbelievable golf to get in there no matter how good the events he’s now playing in,” said Lawrie yesterday.
“I watched the last round at Dubai while in the gym on Sunday, and like everyone else I thought he had blown it. Four over at the start was not what he was looking for, but to show the character to come back and win shows you how good he is playing.
“We all know he has always been a great ball-striker. Now he is holing putts he needs to hole, he’s a better putter than he’s ever been.
“He used to miss a lot of putts between six and ten feet. Now he’s a great holer-out, and what a difference that makes.”
However, a few more have to roll in if Stevie’s to get back to Gleneagles, where he lost in play-off in the Johnnie Walker Championship last August, and Lawrie believes he has to strike in the events he’s now in, the Matchplay and Doral WGC events and the Honda Classic, Arnold Palmer Invitational and most probably the Masters.
“We have to be careful that we don’t label him that he is in,” continued Paul.
“The media are asking all the time, and we all understand that. He is in a lot of big events in America, but you need to play well in them. If you play poorly in them like I did in 2012, you go down the rankings as I did.”
Lawrie and Gallacher are close friends on tour and Gallacher has used the former Open champion’s template for establishing his foundation in West Lothian, like Lawrie’s hugely successful operation in the North-east.
“He’s a great lad and he has his foundation putting something back into the game, which is great to see,” continued Paul.
“I’d love to help him with advice about qualifying if he needs me, we have dinner together on tour quite a bit and I’m sure he’ll ask. It might end up that he gets in easily and finds it a dawdle.
“I don’t think there’s anything bigger than getting in a Ryder Cup team in your own country. Ideally, you’d love a Scotsman in the team, the crowd we would want it and right now, he is by far our best bet.
“But he’s got a lot of work to do to make it and he knows that. I think he has maybe 600,000 euro now, I think 2.3 million euro got in last time.
“He has to make 1.7, 1.8 million more. That’s a big ask, that’s a lot of proper golf he has to play, but it’s still a fantastic opportunity.
“The other thing he will have in the back of his mind is that McGinley has three (wildcard) picks. Even if he doesn’t make the team, he’d be a fantastic pick.
“The way he is playing and the way he is talking, I can’t see him not getting in. But he still has to play some great golf.”