Playing in the Ryder Cup was Stephen Gallacher’s career goal for as long as he can remember.
Now he’s got another one that doesn’t stretch quite as far into the distance. In fact, it’s just two years away play in the Ryder Cup again.
Gallacher’s Gleneagles experience was everything he had hoped it would be, and even two defeats and a day spent on the sidelines couldn’t take the shine off the week.
So when the Bathgate man gets back to the humdrum of the European Tour in the Dunhill Links this week, it will be the first small step to making sure he won’t be a Ryder Cup one-cap wonder.
The 39-year-old said: “I’ve heard it said that when you play in one Ryder Cup, you never want to miss another. I understand that now.
“Sam Torrance phoned me up a couple of months back, before I’d even qualified, and he said this would be the best week of my life. And, give him his due, he was right.
“Sam has been around a lot of Ryder Cups, been vice-captain and captain, so he should know.
“This has been the best week of my life. To be in the company of the greatest players in the world has been something else.
“It’s allowed me to evaluate my own game, be up close with them, learn from them, study what everybody does.
“This gives me a massive motivation now.”
From a playing perspective, Gallacher’s first game in the Friday morning fourballs with Ian Poulter couldn’t have gone any worse.
Neither man played well and they were hammered by American youngsters Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed.
In the Sunday singles, Gallacher rose to the occasion and gave as good as he got for most of his encounter with the biggest name in the US side, Phil Mickelson.
The point slipped away on 15, 16 and 17, but it was a match which has convinced Gallacher he belongs in that company.
“I felt my game measured up pretty good,” he pointed out. “But it’s one of these things, match play can be a bit of a bugger at times. You can play great and lose, you can be rubbish and win.
“I thought I gave Phil one of the best players in the world, a man with five majors a good game. He played hard, I played hard, I just ran out of steam in the end.
Gallacher also insisted that even being sat down for Saturday’s two sessions wasn’t dispiriting.
“Every single one of them, the players and the vice-captains, spoke to me,” he recalled. “They made me feel so brilliant.
“A few of the players have been in a similar scenario, not playing a whole day but they pointed out that America left three guys out for the whole day.
“When you are leaving four guys out of a session, there are going to be people unhappy sitting on the sidelines.
“Yes, I would have loved to have been involved. But would I rather sit out and have the team win? Yeah, I would always rather the team win.
“And Paul has been brilliant. The camaraderie between everyone, players, caddies, guys, everyone, it’s been brilliant.
“Everything he’s done has just been almost forensic. He has gone into everything in detail you wouldn’t believe.
“He’s gone into stats, quotes, pictures. Every single thing he did had a reason behind it. Every single thing he said, every single player, every caddie, everything was thought out.
“He had two years to prepare and he absolutely nailed it.”
Gallacher has never been received on a golf course like he was at Gleneagles, and probably never will be again.
He commented: “The crowd were brilliant and the Americans I spoke to, Andy North and Tom Watson even, they said how great they were.
“They were our 13th man. I know it’s a clich but you only had to be on the course to know it’s true. Hear the roar.
“The first tee on Sunday, when I holed the putt on 10, I never heard anything like that in all my life. I got a fright!
“That’s why I practised hard to get here and that’s why I’m going to continue to practise hard and set new goals for Hazeltine in two years’ time.”