V S G A GOLFERS OF THE YEAR
VSGA SENIOR MEN’ S GOLFER OF THE YEAR
Jim Gallagher
HOME CLUB: Tidewater Amateur Golf Tour
QUICK TIP Gallagher’ s best advice to competitive players: play, anywhere and everywhere. Sounds simple, right?
“ What has matured for me in the last two years is the portability of my game,” Gallagher said.“ I’ ve learned to play a lot of different golf courses, courses that aren’ t necessarily familiar to me, and it’ s made my game really portable. You can go somewhere else and play and execute your shots. You’ re executing your shot, not necessarily doing something that you’ ve done with a lot of repetition on your home course.”
Considering Gallagher’ s success both locally and away from Virginia— he played well in big-time events in Canada and the United Kingdom— that’ s advice worth taking.
CHAMPIONSHIP MOMENT Gallagher turned the page to 2016 in the fall of 2015, when he traveled to South Carolina to win the Golfweek Senior Amateur Tour Championship. That victory helped him get off to a strong start in’ 16. Though he didn’ t win any VSGA championships last year, he was in the hunt in nearly every one of them, including the VSGA Senior Stroke Play and Senior Amateur championships, the
VSGA Senior Four-Ball Championship and the Senior Open of Virginia.
Even so, he dealt with a little adversity come mid-summer.
Because of injuries sustained while serving in the U. S. Air Force, Gallagher has always had to work around issues with his lower back. They flared up big time this summer, yet Gallagher was still able to qualify for both the U. S. Mid-Amateur and U. S. Senior Amateur Championships, reaching match play in the latter.
“ That was a confidence booster,” Gallagher said.“ Because I realized that even if I was dealing with my back, I could grit it out and still be competitive. So it was a good season from a lot of perspectives.”
OFF THE COURSE Ever wonder why Gallagher grows his hair long at the end of the year? He’ s a regular in AMC’ s television show Turn. That makes sense considering Gallagher’ s big off-course passion.
“ I’ m a pretty avid historian, focused on the American Revolutionary War,” Gallagher said.“ I volunteer at the Yorktown Victory Center and I’ m on the board of directors for the Williamsburg-Yorktown Revolutionary War roundtable. I do some
2016 ACCOMPLISHMENTS
» No. 1 in VSGA Senior Men’ s Player Rankings by 110 points over runner-up Keith Decker.
» Tied for third at the 31st VSGA Senior Stroke Play Championship, finishing one shot out of a playoff; tied for fourth at 11th Senior Open of Virginia.
» Reached match play at the 69th VSGA Senior Amateur Championship before falling in the round of 32 to David Partridge, who won the 2015 Senior Amateur title.
» Reached match play at the 2016 U. S. Senior Amateur Championship and took second at the Canadian Men’ s Senior Amateur Golf Championship. Made the cut at the British Senior Amateur. Qualified for the 2016 U. S. Mid-Amateur.
» Won Golfweek Senior Amateur Golf Tour championship in Hilton Head, S. C., for the second straight year, shooting 144 to finish two shots clear of Rich Campbell of Columbus, Ohio.
re-enacting. … There have been 30 episodes( of Turn) so far and I’ ve been in 23 of them. And we’ re ready to start filming on season four now.”
30 V IRGINIA G OLFER | J ANUARY / F EBRUARY 2017 vsga. org