Golf: Stephen Gallacher ready to ask for putter help

HAVING already helped Martin Laird transform his performances on the greens over the past 15 months, putting guru Dave Stockton Jnr is about to be asked if can do the same thing for Stephen Gallacher.

After chatting with Laird, as well as seeing for himself how useful his fellow Scot is with a putter these days, during the recent World Cup in China, Gallacher has decided that it would be worthwhile sounding out the American ahead of the 2012 campaign.

From tee to green, Gallacher had another strong season on the European Tour, finishing 18th for hitting the putting surfaces in regulation, but he averaged more than 30 putts per round and was down in 126th for putts on those greens he found with approaches.

“I spoke to Martin and he was talking about how Dave Stockton has turned his putting around,” said the former Dunhill Links champion. “Everything Martin said he went to him for struck a chord with me. I’m doing the same things and putting is more about breaking habits. It’s about routine and the way you go about it.

“Dave works more on how you approach the putt and read it. Martin talked about it and I wrote a lot of the stuff down, but I’m either going to give Dave a call or send him an email. I’m also going to go through it with my uncle Bernard when he comes up to have a look at my short game this week.

“I had chance to speak to Dave at this year’s USPGA Championship but didn’t want to do anything in such a big week. He might not want to work with me, but I am going to ask him and hopefully the fact he works with Martin might help.” It was at last year’s final major of the season that Laird, who subsequently won the Arnold Palmer Bay Hill Invitational on the PGA Tour to cement his position as Scotland’s top-ranked player, turned to Stockton Jnr, who also works with likes of Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott and Lee Westwood.

“The thing I noticed playing with Martin in the World Cup is his putting is so stress-free,” added Gallacher. “He hardly had to worry about a second putt, no matter how far away he was from the hole.”

For most of last season, when he finished 26th in the Race to Dubai, Gallacher used a putter with a two-thumb grip but felt his pace with that was “poor”. This year, he switched back and forward between a belly putter and one with a shorter shaft that he borrowed from his ten-year-old son, Jack.

“Some putting coaches dismiss certain methods, but I don’t think that should be the case,” said the 37-year-old. “Just look at some of the guys who go to Dave Stockton. Martin doesn’t put it in his belly while Matt Kuchar putts with a belly putter up his arm.

Gallacher, who missed out on the Dubai World Championship by a single spot, has already started his preparations for next season by paying a visit to Largs to see his coach, Bob Torrance, and is also hoping a short-game session with his uncle Bernard later this week will give him something to work on at his base at Kingsfield, near Linlithgow.

“The way I’m looking at it is that I’ve finished 61st averaging 31 putts per round,” he said. “I’m striking the ball well and you just wonder how much higher I could have finished if my putting had been better. If I can improve my short game, the sky is the limit.”