STEPHEN GALLACHER'S woes continued at the Volvo World Matchplay Championship yesterday when he suffered a 10th consecutive matchplay defeat.
All-square playing the 18th, the Scot lost to Pablo Larrazabal when the Spaniard chipped in from 50 yards to end an equally frustrating run of defeats and seal his opponent's fate.
Having also been beaten by Ireland's Shane Lowry in his opening group match, 39-year-old Gallacher will be playing for pride alone today against Ryder Cup team-mate Victor Dubuisson, whose 3&2 victory over Lowry yesterday assures the 24-year-old Frenchman of a quarter-final place along with Dutchman Joost Luiten, whose 4&3 defeat of Alexander Levy also maintained his 100% record.
The odds had swung in Gallacher's favour at the final hole when Larrazabal sent his tee shot into a bunker. Having extricated himself from the sand, his third shot also flew right, leaving him facing an extremely tricky up-and-down while Gallacher, who had found the fairway with his drive, pushed his second shot and had to take a drop when his ball landed close to an advertising sign.
Fate intervened, though, as Larrazabal somehow conjured up his birdie while Gallacher chipped to 15 feet and missed his putt for a half. It was a huge disappointment as he had come from two down after two holes to lead with three birdies in four holes from the third.
Gallacher was quick to dismiss all talk of a jinx. "I was five under today and I've played two guys that didn't have any bogies. It's not a jinx," he said. "What happened at the last is typical matchplay golf - he's won it with a birdie without having been on the fairway.
"I had a chance to shut the door on him but I hit a poor second shot. If I'd knocked it on to the green, it would have made his fourth shot a bit more difficult.
"Was I expecting him to hole his fourth shot? You expect opponents to hole everything in these situations.
"I had chances in both games where I was at the side of greens but didn't get up-and-down and you can't afford to do that in matchplay.
"I had chances to put my foot down but I didn't do it and I am gutted to have lost like that. I'm also feeling a bit tired, to be honest, but I've got a bit of pride to play for. You don't want to be beaten at all, far less three times in the same event."
Graeme McDowell, the defending champion, has work to do against Luiten after being beaten 2&1 by Finland's Mikko Ilonen yesterday, while Sweden's Henrik Stenson beat the Italian Ryder Cup player Francesco Molinari 2&1. The South African George Coetzee, a 2&1 winner over Thongchai Jaidee, of Thailand, has three points, as does Stenson.
It is still all to play for in the Marc McCormack Group after Jamie Donaldson beat Jonas Blixt 3&2 and Patrick Reed won 2&1 against Paul Casey, which left all four players with one win and one defeat.
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 hereComments are closed on this article