DP World Tour Reinstates Stephen Gallacher With 'Unreserved Apology' After Admin Error

Stephen Gallacher spent six months mainly on the sidelines after a DP World Tour error led to him wrongly losing his card

Stephen Gallacher
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Four-time winner Stephen Gallacher is back on the DP World Tour after a remarkable administrative error saw him wrongly lose his card for six months.

The DP World Tour has issued an “unreserved apology” to the 48-year-old Scot, who has played just a handful of their tournaments on sponsor invites and Challenge Tour events in the last six months having thought he’d lost his card.

Gallacher finished 173rd on the Race To Dubai last season to seemingly lose his playing privileges, until it was recently discovered that he in fact should have kept his card due to his standing on the Career Money List.

After over 600 DP World Tour starts, Gallacher went back to Q-School last year for the first time since 2009, but failed to make it through so was convinced he’d lost his status.

However, the 2014 Ryder Cup winner has now been fully reinstated on the DP World Tour, and has also received an exemption for 2024 by way of further apology and to make up for the time he’s missed out on this year.

“I am really delighted at today’s news, and I am very pleased how the DP World Tour has handled the matter once they realised that the mistake had been made,” Gallacher said in a statement on his management company Bounce’s website.

“The past six months have been hard, and sitting on the sidelines watching Tour events is no substitute from playing in them. 

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"I am as competitive now as I have always been, and from Qualifying School, to last minute DP World Tour invitations, through to Challenge Tour events, my ambition and desire to get back playing and winning has never wavered.

“I am still hugely motivated and I can now plan my schedule for the rest of this campaign to try to secure my card back based purely on my results on the course.”

Gallacher is playing on the DP World Tour this week in Belgium at the Soudal Open before he can now plan on getting stuck into the summer tournaments.

Paul Higham
Contributor

Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website.  Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.