Ryder Cup 'War on The Shore' and the Scottish golfing great who inspired New York victory

The Lothians legend was initially reluctant to give it another go after seeing his team beaten at Kiawah Island in 1991 then again at The Belfry two years later before being told by Ken Schofield, the European Tour’s executive director at the time, that the players wanted him to stay at the helm.

As was the case with Luke Donald after he led the Europeans to victory in the 2023 contest at Marco Simone Golf Club in Rome and now the Englishman is trying to emulate Gallacher by becoming a winning captain as well in the fourth most-populated state in the US.

Gallacher is the first to admit that Oak Hill, which is located more than 300 miles north-west of New York City, in Rochester, was nothing like what Donald and his players are bracing themselves for in the event’s 45th edition much closer to the ‘city never sleeps’, having happily discovered it “felt like Wentworth” and, therefore, the 1995 team feeling very much at home there.

However, the Bathgate man reckons his first captaincy on American soil in South Carolina, which was dubbed the ‘War on the Shore’ could be similar to what lies in store for Donald on Long Island as the Englishman bids to join Tony Jacklin as the only skipper to win both home and away in the transatlantic tussle.

“Yeah, it was the first time I can ever remember, and I'm going back to 1969, being involved in the Ryder Cup, the fans starting to get involved,” said Gallacher, speaking to The Scotsman at the aforementioned Wentworth, where a statue on the first tee of the iconic West Course marks his 25-year stint as the professional with the Surrey club and, as this correspondent can testify from our chat in the leisure centre, he remains an extremely popular figure with well-heeled members.

Stockton ‘had been working on support’

Referring to his American counterpart for that match, the 76-year old - he is looking great after coming back from the dead three times when he suffered a cardiac arrest at a golf day in Aberdeen in 2013 - added: “Dave Stockton had mustered the support. He had been working on it. He'd been going down in advance and saying we need your support, you're my 13th man. And it was overdone. We had this speculation of Hale Irwin's ball being thrown or kicked back into play on the 18th hole. I couldn't prove that, of course, but that's the type of involvement you don't want.”

Crowd monitors will be walking inside the ropes in a bid to ensure that notoriously-loud New York sports fans don’t cross the line in this match. What is believed to be a first in the biennial event, the step is being taken due to concerns about home supporters overstepping the mark.

“It would be if they try to interfere with play or put our players off,” said Gallacher, who made eight playing appearances in the event and also served as Tony Jacklin’s unofficial vice captain when he altered its history by transforming what had been a one-sided contest into a truly competitive contest. “It was nearly crossed at Kiawah Island. It was just pulled back, and I think Tom Watson and I helped in ‘93 to bring it back again. He made a big effort, and I made a big effort to make sure that our supporters didn't act the same as their supporters did at Kiawah Island.”

Gallacher famously jumped for joy after Irishman Philip Walton secured Europe’s victory in 1995, when an out-of-sorts Seve Ballesteros was effectively sent out as a lamb to the slaughter at the top of the singles order as the visitors trailed by two points at the start of the day as the captain got his positioning of players spot on in the concluding session.

“The good thing was I always felt the pressure fell on me, which is what the captain should do,” recalled Gallacher. “You can only go out and do your best, but I didn't want to be a three-time loser. By taking on the role for a third match, I felt I was being positive and I felt I had a very strong team. I don't play on being excited and I was more pleased for Philip Walton when we won. When I jumped for joy, it wasn't just because we won the Ryder Cup. Philip Walton was the man and the whole pressure fell on him - a rookie and he was playing a great player in Jay Haas.”

In addition to Gallacher, Jacklin, who achieved the feat at Muirfield Village in 1987 at Muirfield Village, Bernhard Langer at Oakland Hills and, most recently, Jose Maria Olazabal at Medinah in 2012 are the only other European captains to lead a side to victory on US soil. In the last two contests on the other side of the Atlantic, the Americans triumphed 17-11 at Hazeltine in 2008 before landing a record-breaking 19-9 victory at Whistling Straits two years ago.

“I think it is going to be very tough,” admitted Gallacher of the assignment facing Donald’s dozen. “Like we were in Rome two years ago, the Americans are out for revenge. You heard it at the Tour Championship when Tommy Fleetwood was playing. You could hear the “USA, USA, USA” chants, and although everybody was pleased for Tommy Fleetwood. I got the feeling they were starting to warm up for the Ryder Cup. So it's going to be tough there. But I think we can win if we can come to terms with the crowd. It is going to be like Kiawah Island but more because of those New York fans!”