Super coach Dave Stockton has welcomed Stephen Gallacher to his first Masters with the advice to treat this week as though it were a Scottish Open.
Gallacher will be among some 10 players Stockton will work with ahead of the year’s first Major Championship starting Thursday at Augusta National.
And it will be a European theme for the former victorious 1991 USA Ryder Cup captain who will be working not only with Gallacher but Rory McIlroy, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, Franscesco Molinari and newest recruit Welshman Jamie Donaldson who texted Stockton last week now asking for his input.
Gallacher is among 23 first-timers who will compete in the 78th staging of the Masters but at 38-years of age will be the oldest.
“Stephen has got to treat it like he was playing in say a Scottish Open or maybe Dubai,” said Stockton.
“I know that’s easy to say but then he can’t let himself get wrapped-up in the Masters even though it will be the best tournament he has ever seen.
“You can say what you want about the British Open but for a member of the public or you ask any player, the one tournament you would want to attend or play is the Masters.
“Everything about the Masters is spectacular and Stephen’s got the length off the tee to play Augusta well.
“But it’s all about dealing with the all the other stuff that goes on around him.
“I always thought it was the most fun Major Championship I ever played, and even though it’s even better with the driving range they’ve created and the putting greens plus the players are treated like royalty.
“So I think Stephen will have a hoot and my advice to him when I catch up with him will be to try and pretend it a Scottish Open or something.”
Apart from captaining the 1991 winning USA Ryder Cup team in the now infamous ‘War on the Shore’ at Kiawah Island, Stockton captured to PGA Championships (1970 & 1976) and was runner-up in the 1974 Masters to Gary Player.
Stockton was second also in the 1978 US Open to Andy North while he competed at Augusta a dozen times from 1969 to 1981.
“My only good US Open when I lost by one shot to Andy North in ’78 at Cherry Hills in Denver, and I just got so frustrated that I figured I should have played it if as though it was the Colorado Open,” said Stockton.
“I got there less than an hour before my tee time and I went and hit balls, and I just went out and played.
“You see, you can kill yourself before the tournament so Stephen can’t let himself get overawed by his first Masters.
“He needs to enjoy it so what I will say to Stephen also is to try and make more birdies than anyone, and the most important goal would be to have more fun than anybody else. You don’t want to be talking about making the cut.
“I feel that he would be satisfied with anything inside the top-10. The way I would play the Masters is to go out there and see what the 10thplace was the first day, and that may be something like a 68 or a 69, and that would be my goal the second day.
“So now I’ve got a target score and for somehow or another get away, and that would be the key. You can’t tell them that as you also want to make sure they make the cut.
“You don’t set out trying to make the cut so you set it low enough that if they do screw-up they are still going to make the cut.”
And Stockton was asked if Gallacher, as an Augusta rookie could repeat what just two players – Horton Smith (1934) and Fuzzy Zoeller (1979) – have managed and that was to win the Masters at a first appearance.
Stockton said: “Of course a first-timer can win, as we saw Fuzzy do it.
“But in saying that it is extremely difficult and I’m not sure but I think I finished top-10 my first time though there is a lot to learn.
“And from the era I played the golf course was a lot shorter compared to nowadays, and back then a lot more people had a chance but now you have to bomb it.
“So players like Stephen and the French lad Dubuisson but it will all down to the mental side.”
