'Twas the night before the singles and all through the Gleneagles house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
We're not suggesting that the plush Perthshire resort has a problem with mice, of course. The Ryder Cup is certainly not the place for timorous beasties and, on the eve of one of the biggest days of his golfing career, we can only wonder how Stephen Gallacher was feeling.
Hopefully better than he felt on Friday afternoon. His introduction to the tumult of a Ryder Cup was as comfortable as 40 winks on a bed of nails. The chastening 5&4 fourballs thumping that he and playing partner Ian Poulter suffered at the hands of the fearless American rookies Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed was hard to stomach. The stomach will no doubt be churning ahead of today's closing session, but that same belly will also be full of competitive fire. Well, that's what his uncle Bernard is hoping for anyway.
The first Ryder Cup in Scotland for 41 years has unravelled without much of a Scottish presence on the course so far. Following his heavy defeat on Friday morning, Gallacher was left out of the afternoon's foursomes and didn't feature at all yesterday as Team Europe forged a commanding 10-6 advantage over their American rivals during a series of captivating tussles that pushed them closer to an eighth victory in 10 meetings.
The battle for Samuel Ryder's little gold chalice will reach a conclusion today with a frantic shoot-out that will make that OK Corral skirmish look like a pillow fight. Gallacher will be right in the merry midst of it all as he goes off in the fifth tie against multiple Major champion Phil Mickelson. Should a strong European top order get off to a flier, Gallacher could be the man to win it. Now that would be a story.
This will be the purest form of golf; man to man, head to head in a pendulous, unpredictable matchplay discipline of fluctuating fortunes. The 39-year-old should relish the close quarters combat and Bernard Gallacher, the three-time Ryder Cup captain, is hoping that his nephew, who will still be nursing the wounds of that painful pummelling on the first day, finds some kind of redemption on this super Sunday.
"I do think being sat out since then will fire him up," said Bernard, who urged the younger Gallacher to draw on the spirit of his Dubai Desert Classic win this year when he successfully defended his title in a stellar field that included Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods. "Look what Graeme McDowell said about not playing in the first session on Friday. He was dying to be out there and he went out to watch a few holes in the morning.
"That made him hungry in the afternoon and he went out and won. Graeme ran out there with Victor Dubuisson and played brilliantly and that's what happens. If you don't play you still want to support the team, but you want to be out there. You are hungry for it and that's how it will be with Stephen going into the singles.
"Stephen is not a young guy, he knows how this whole things works. OK, it didn't go to plan on Friday, but he has tasted that atmosphere and now he'll be anxious to get back on the course playing singles. That's the kind of attitude that I was looking for when I was captain and Paul McGinley will want the same.
"It has been difficult to find the right chance to put him back in there again because Paul has to put the best fourball guys in and at the same time he'd want to keep the guys who played well in the foursomes on Friday. The matches are too tight to take any chances. I've done this with other players myself and Paul will have explained that to Stephen. What he is doing is the best thing for the team, but the important thing for Stephen is to keep his head up for the singles."
Of course, the Ryder Cup is full of final-day fairytales. You only have to go back two years to find the most recent example of a Sunday salvation. Martin Kaymer, like Gallacher, played only once on the opening day, suffered a defeat and did not feature at all on the Saturday. By Sunday night, though, he was a European hero in a team packed full of them when he holed the winning putt that completed the Miracle of Medinah as the rampaging visitors fought back from 10-6 down to claim an unforgettable triumph.
"You just don't know what's in store on the final day," added the 65-year-old Gallacher. "It might fall on Stephen, it might not but he has to be prepared and he will be."
With Team Europe asserting their authority on this 40th Ryder Cup, Gallacher will be desperate to stamp his own mark on affairs with a final flourish and become a Monarch of the Glen.
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