‘I would always put Brian on the spot on the 1st tee and make him hit first’

When Brian Barnes and Bernard Gallacher were paired together in Ryder Cups, which happened in four successive matches from 1973, it would always be Barnes who hit the opening tee shot.

“I don’t mind holing a four-foot putt on the 1st but I think you’re better off the tee,” Gallacher would tell him. “I knew how to play Brian.”

On Monday, Barnes will be laid to rest after dying of cancer on September 9. His great mate Gallacher will be there to pay his respects and here he remembers some of the best bits from their 50 years of friendship.

The early years

I first met Brian in 1968, we had the same management team and he was one of the stars of the stable and I had just turned professional.

I basically went on a belated honeymoon with he and Hilary as we all went off to Africa to play on January 1, 1969. She was pregnant with their daughter Didi.

He would stay at our house when he played in Scotland, we practised together and I was taught in the early days by his father-in-law Max Faulkner.

Our practice rounds would consist of Max, Brian, Tommy Horton and myself and, in some ways, I would enjoy the practice rounds more than the tournament. It was such good fun.

Family friends

We were always in touch, we used to go down and stay with them and it was so sad when his wife Hilary died in 2014 and he never really recovered from that.

Brian played on the senior’s tour in the States and he was successful there and they extended the garden. Hilary won the Daily Mail Gardener Of The Year so she was fantastic and Brian liked to sit in it.

Practice partners

We used to practise together and he would help me with my game and Max and I would try and help him with his short game. He was quite poor to start with but he never needed to do it much as he didn’t miss many greens.

Brian and I tied in the Coca-Cola Young Professionals’ Championship in 1969 which was for under-25 players at Clifton in Bristol so we had a playoff. I hit my second to the middle of the green, quite close.

Brian hit it well over the green into the rough. He then chipped in which was the least likely scenario of how that hole might have played out and he killed himself laughing!

Ryder Cup: the early years 

Brian was a bit older than me but it didn’t really matter. We didn’t play together at Birkdale in 1969 – I played with Maurice Bembridge and Brian played with Peter Alliss – and the first time we played together was the first morning at Muirfield (1973) when we beat Lee Trevino and Billy Casper. Then in the afternoon, we beat Tommy Aaron and Gay Brewer 5&4.

Then I took ill and we didn’t play together again that year. But we would partner with one another for the next three matches.

Ryder Cup: the partner

Brian always said I was a lousy driver of the ball and he was spot on. I would always put Brian on the spot on the 1st tee and make him hit first.

We played our own ball to drive, you could switch them in those days so there wasn’t much talk about that.

We also won the European Championships together at Hardelot so we were pretty good together.

If you asked him to look at a putt he would always refuse saying he didn’t know how hard I would hit it. He was very abrupt during a Ryder Cup, I had to play my game and he would play his.

In the team room, he was quite happy to sit back and smoke his pipe, he was always like an elder statesman.

He felt like the Ryder Cup was more of a social occasion so he would sit there with a pint of Guinness and his pipe. He was a gentle giant really.

Ryder Cup: Beating Jack Nicklaus

He was best known for beating Nicklaus twice in a day and I think he was very proud of that. But Jack would make him very relaxed and he liked to talk a lot and that would have helped Brian. Jack wasn’t like a lot of the Americans where it was like life or death.

Jack is a very laid-back guy on the course, much like Brian, and he was the first person to congratulate him afterwards.

It was a big thing as the other players all thought Jack was invincible. You might beat him once maybe if you got lucky but not twice.

Gone fishing

Brian was a very nervous person and he covered it up well but he could play well when he was nervous. He smoked a lot and even started to drink on the course to calm his nerves and he always played things down.

I have travelled with Brian when he’s gone fishing all night and then gone and played. He hadn’t been able to sleep so he took to fishing and he would do that a lot.

The potential

Brian could have been a major champion. He just didn’t quite have that strong enough desire to do it. He was basically a big, nice, easy-going guy but he had all the attributes – he wasn’t a good chipper but he became one – he had the driving and long irons and he was a fantastic putter.

He went off to America but he was missing the family and soon came back. The big thing was trying to get on the tour and come through the pre-qualifying but he did that.

He asked if I would go but I didn’t want to. He finished third at Doral and then came home. He just wanted to go back to deepest Sussex and just hang out.

When Didi sent me an email it was such a shock. He wanted to come and play Wentworth with Max’s son Guy so we had talked about that. We just ran out of time.

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