Bernard Gallacher, OBE (born 9 February 1949) is a Scottish professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

er.

Early life and amateur career

Gallacher was born in

Bathgate Bathgate ( sco, Bathket or , gd, Both Chèit) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, west of Livingston and adjacent to the M8 motorway. Nearby towns are Armadale, Blackburn, Linlithgow, Livingston, West Calder and Whitburn. Situated south ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. He took up golf at the age of eleven. In 1965 he won the Lothians Golf Association Boys Championship. He won the 1967

Scottish Amateur Open Stroke Play Championship The Scottish Men's Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship is the national amateur stroke play golf championship in Scotland. Entry is open to all amateur golfers. It has been played annually since 1967 and is organised by the Scottish Golf. The f ...

and turned professional the same year.

Professional career

He won the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year award in 1968. His first professional wins came in 1969; a pair of them in Zambia and another pair in Europe in the equivalent of

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fi ...

events. (The European Tour wasn't established until 1972.) He finished 1969 as Order of merit winner earning the

Harry Vardon Trophy The Harry Vardon Trophy is awarded by the European Tour. Since 2009 it has been awarded to the winner of the Race to Dubai. Before then it was awarded to the winner of the "Order of Merit". From 1975 to 2008 the Order of Merit was based on prize mo ...

. He accumulated ten wins on the European Tour between 1974 and 1984 and finished in the top ten on the European Tour Order of Merit five times between 1972 and 1982, with a best placing of third in 1974. In 1969, at the age of 20, Gallacher became the youngest man to represent Great Britain in the

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is named af ...

up to that time. This record was subsequently beaten by

Nick Faldo Sir Nicholas Alexander Faldo, (born 18 July 1957) is an English retired professional golfer and television commentator. A top player of his era, renowned for his dedication to the game, he was ranked No. 1 on the Official World Golf Ranking fo ...

and others. He went on to play in the Ryder Cup eight times and was non-playing captain of the European Team in

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

and

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

. All three of those matches were very close; Europe lost the first two but won the third. After turning 50, Gallacher played on the

European Seniors Tour The Legends Tour is the current branding of the European Senior Tour, a professional tour for male golfers aged 50 and over, run by the PGA European Tour. The tour was branded as the Staysure Tour for the 2018 and 2019 seasons after UK-based insur ...

. His first senior win came at The Mobile Cup in 2002.

Private life

Gallacher was the professional at the

Wentworth Club Wentworth Club is a privately owned golf club and country club in Virginia Water, Surrey, on the south western fringes of London, not far from Windsor Castle. The club was founded in 1922. Beijing-based Reignwood Group bought the club in S ...

near London for 25 years until the end of 1996. His daughter

Kirsty Kirsty or Kirstie is a feminine given name and nickname. It is a Scottish diminutive of Christine in English-speaking countries and is also linked to Kirsten — the Scandinavian version of Christine. People * Kirstie Alley (1951–2022), Ame ...

was a presenter on Sky Sports News for 20 years. Gallacher also wrote a column for Scottish golf magazine ''

bunkered ''bunkered'' is a Scottish golf magazine published by DC Thomson. Based in Dundee, Scotland, the magazine was launched in 1996 and is published eight times per year. It covers the entire spectrum of golf, with a particular emphasis on Scottish ...

'' from 1998 until 2008. In August 2014, Gallacher was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' opposing

Scottish independence Scottish independence ( gd, Neo-eisimeileachd na h-Alba; sco, Scots unthirldom) is the idea of Scotland as a sovereign state, independent from the United Kingdom, and refers to the political movement that is campaigning to bring it about. ...

in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.

Amateur wins

*1967

Professional wins (23)

European Tour wins (10)

European Tour playoff record (2–2)

Other wins (12)

*1969 (4) Eagle Open, Cock o' the North, Schweppes PGA Championship, W.D. & H.O. Wills Tournament *1970 (1) Mufulira Open *1971 (1)

Martini International The Martini International was a men's professional golf tournament that was held from 1961 to 1983. It was hosted by several different golf clubs in England, Scotland and Wales. It was part of the British PGA tournament circuit, which evolved int ...

*1973 (2) Coca-Cola Young Professionals' Championship,

Scottish Professional Championship The Scottish Professional Championship was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament which was open only for Scottish players. The final champion was John Higgins. History The Scottish Professional Championship was held in Edinburgh in Dec ...

*1974 (1)

*1977 (1)

*1981 (1) Sanyo Open *1983 (1)

European Senior Tour wins (1)

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the half-way cut (3rd round cut in 1969 Open Championship)
"T" = tied
''Note: Gallacher never played in the U.S. Open or the

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships ...

.''

Team appearances

(representing Great Britain and Ireland/Europe): 1969, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1991 (non-playing captain), 1993 (non-playing captain), 1995 (winners, non-playing captain) *

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

(representing Scotland):

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses ( February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events J ...

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C ...

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

* Double Diamond International: 1971, 1972, 1973 (winners), 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977 * Marlboro Nations' Cup/Philip Morris International (representing Scotland): 1973 (winners), 1976 *Sotogrande Match/

Hennessy Cognac Cup The Hennessy Cognac Cup was a biennial team golf tournament contested from 1976 to 1984. The contests in 1976, 1978 and 1980 were between teams of professional male golfers; one team representing Great Britain and Ireland, the other team representi ...

(representing Great Britain and Ireland): 1974 (winners), 1978 (winners), 1982 (winners), (representing Scotland) 1984 (captain)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gallacher, Bernard Scottish male golfers European Tour golfers European Senior Tour golfers Ryder Cup competitors for Europe Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Bathgate Sportspeople from West Lothian Scottish people of Irish descent 1949 births Living people