Stephen Gallacher learning from big guns

AS WELL as raking in a pile of money over the past few months, Stephen Gallacher has also used the experience of playing with some of the world's top golfers to help him become better equipped for the challenge of competing at the highest level.

The 35-year-old has partnered Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker, the world No 2 and No 4 respectively, in majors recently and believes those experiences can help him sustain a good run of form in this week's Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

Gallacher has racked up four top tens on the European Tour over the past three months, finished 23rd in The Open Championship and 18th in the USPGA Championship. He's lying 23rd in the Race to Dubai and is up to 79th in the world rankings, having started the year outside the top 400.

"You pick up things all the time when you are playing with good players," said the former Dunhill Links champion. "Take the day I played with Phil Mickelson at St Andrews, for instance. He had a 64 degree wedge in his bag and seeing how he used it encouraged me to put one in the bag the week after and it's made a big difference.

"Playing with Steve Stricker was also brilliant. You see these guys hitting bad shots, but it's the way they react to it that makes the difference. Their short games are also unbelievable. They just seem to get everything out of the round all the time. He (Stricker] shot level, but he could easily have been five over or something like that - and that's the difference."

Gallacher, who, surprisingly, wasn't given an invite to play in today's pre-championship pro-am on the PGA Centenary course, admits he's starting to do the same, pointing to last week's Czech Open as a perfect example.

"I struggled a bit there, but the difference is I finished 16th instead of missing the cut. I'm grinding out results when I'm struggling and that's certainly a positive," he added.

"My short game is good now and, after spending an hour and a half on the range with Bob (Torrance] this morning, I'm hitting the ball a bit better."

Despite his eye-catching form of late, the Scot is worried, due to the fact his current ranking is the one he gained at last year's Tour School, he might not get to play in some of the events between the Dunhill Links at the beginning of October and the Dubai World Championship at the end of the following month.

"That would be a shame so I have asked for some invites for events in Portugal and Spain," he revealed.