For the second time in three starts Stephen Gallacher will tee up on a golf course he is more familiar having watched the event on TV than playing it first hand.
Gallacher wound up his Players Championship preparations playing nine holes yesterday (WED) after playing two full 18 hole practice rounds the prior two days.
And his first visit a month go to Augusta National, Gallacher’s only knowledge of this week’s host venue was what he’s seen on TV.
Stephen Gallacher faces the media ahead of the his maiden appearance in the 2014 Players Championship.
“It’s a great track but then the onus is going to be keeping it on the fairways with the greens becoming a lot firmer by the day,” he said.
“I’m a bit of a student to golf course designers and Pete Dye is right up there as one of my favourites even though there is a lot of visual things like bunkers, hazards and railway sleepers to try and put you off.
“He’s a very clever designer as he’s also go trees overhanging greens, but it’s like any tournament course and that is you have to have a game plan and just stick with it.
“And just like the Masters, it’s been a tournament I’ve been watching on TV for a long while and the guys who have won the Players is like a who’s who of the legends in golf.
“Also, and I’ve said this before this year since winning Dubai for a second time, and that is you want to be in these big events testing yourself against the best players in the world.”
As is customary, Gallacher’s caddy Damien Moore got to try his hand playing the infamous par three, 17th island green.
“The 17ths a great hole and I managed to find the green on each occasion in practice and so did Damien hitting a 9-iron to 27-feet,” he said.
“But he didn’t manage to get it inside me (smiling).”
Gallacher will lead out the three Scots teeing up at 9.11am local time (2.11pm UK) and with Martin Laird out at 2pm (7pm UK) and Know in the last group out at 2.21pm (7.21pm UK)
