Tough, uncompromising, controversial? That tends to be the way at a US Open.
The USGA often seem so hell-bent on protecting par, you half expect them to put a police cordon around the greens.
Stephen Gallacher may not have played in “any of the really brutal ones” but his three appearances in the US Open down the years have given him an appreciation of the event’s extreme, often excessive, rigours.
The Scot would have loved to have been at Shinnecock Hills this week but his wider duties in golf gave him plenty of satisfaction yesterday as he helped unveil The My Name’5 Doddie Foundation and Leuchie House, a respite centre in East Lothian, as the official charity partner of next month’s Scottish Open at Gullane.
Gallacher will have to settle for watching the US Open unfold from afar but he is relishing the examination that lies in wait for the great and the good of the global game.
“It could be a brute this week,” he said. “Shinnecock is always windy and if the course stays firm the winning score could be over par.
And that’s what they [the USGA] want. “Do I like that? It’s a once
a year thing. You would
never want it all the time.
But punters like to see the
top guys struggle in a perverse way.
“It has always been renowned as the toughest test in golf. It’s more psychological than anything. You just have to have high acceptance levels and know that eight-over-par might make the cut.”
Given all that, Gallacher has his own favourite for honours in mind. “Justin Rose is always very good mentally going into this type of tournament,” he added.
“He won at Merion (in 2013) at one-over-par. And that was 600 yards shorter than this place. The other thing is that he has the bit between his teeth to try to get to No.1 in the world. I fancy him to have a really good week.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here