Stephen's grandfather dies while he is in Dubai

I’ll stay and play for my grandfather, says Galllacher

FROM THE HERALDSCOTSLAND website
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/golf
By DOUGLAS LOWE 

Stephen Gallacher’s preparations for the lucrative Dubai World Championship were thrown into chaos yesterday when he was told that his 84-year-old grandfather, Barney, had died during the night after a heart attack.

The 36-year-old Scot, pictured, had played just five holes of a practice round on the Greg Norman-designed Earth Course that is hosting the season-ending tournament when he was told the news and he came off the course immediately.
Barney, also the father of Stephen’s uncle Bernard, the former European Ryder Cup captain, had been a regular follower of his grandson and was among four generations of the Bathgate family at Loch Lomond this year at the Barclays Scottish Open, where Stephen finished joint fourth.
“I’m utterly shattered,” said Stephen yesterday. “I didn’t know what to do, whether to stay or come home but my granny made up my mind by saying my grandfather would have wanted me to stay. It will be difficult to focus on golf because that’s the last thing on my mind at the moment, but I am going to stay and play.”
Gallacher qualified for the limited field event that begins tomorrow and ends on Sunday - there is no cut - with a No. 26 placing in the Race to Dubai order of merit and if he can remain in the top 30 he will be exempt for next year’s Open Champion ship at Royal St George’s.
He is one of only two Scots in the 60-player field chasing the €910,348 top prize, the other being Aberdonian Richie Ramsay who is lying No. 47 and will probably need a top-five finish if he is to make the leading 30 on the order of merit.
The current European No.1, Germany’s Martin Kaymer, who claimed his first major championship this year, the US PGA at Whistling Straits, has turned down membership of the US PGA Tour.
The 25-year-old, who was widely tipped to follow the example of world No.1 Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy in concentrating on the European Tour, finally made his decision in Dubai where, on Sunday, he hopes to be crowned the European Tour’s leading money-winner and maybe world No. 1 as well.
Kaymer, now an honorary member of the US tour along with US Open champion Graeme McDowell and Open champion Louis Oosthuizen, lives part of the year in Arizona, but even that was not enough to prompt him to play both circuits in 2011.
“I consider the European Tour as my home – that is where I feel comfortable,” he said. “I think you play against the best players in the world. You have all of the great players here and schedule-wise it doesn’t fit for me next year to play on the US PGA Tour.

“I have made my decision. I sat down last week with my manager and family and had a look at the schedule. I will play probably two or three more events in America, but mainly I will play in Europe.”

Westwood has put family first, while McIlroy has handed in his US Tour membership after just one season because he was "missing Europe."

As members of the US PGA Tour, the trio would have been required to play a minimum of 15 tournaments. The European Tour minimum has just been increased from 12 to 13.