Restored to full health in 2010 after requiring a medical exemption due to the effects of a debilitating viral infection, sarcoidosis, which attacked his lungs and joints, he ended up enjoying the second most profitable season of his 15-year career. A rise from 206th to 26th in The Race to Dubai was the reward. Continued in the same vein in 2011, finishing fourth in the Volvo China Open, third in the Irish Open presented by Discover Ireland and guiding Scotland, alongside Martin Laird, to joint fourth place in the Omega Mission Hills World Cup. But in finishing 61st in The Race to Dubai, he narrowly missed out on qualifying for the lucrative season-ending Dubai World Championship. In 2004 when, exactly 35 years after his uncle, the former Ryder Cup Captain Bernard Gallacher, won his maiden professional title, he made his long-awaited winning breakthrough at the Home of Golf, winning the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship via a sudden-death play-off against Graeme McDowell. His victory in front of a delighted home crowd finally fulfilled the promise he had shown since joining the professional ranks in 1995. His most recent illness was not the first time he has been incapacitated as, having won his card at the first attempt in 1995, a back injury in the summer of 1996 - sustained after removing his luggage from an airport carousel - meant he did not play from June onwards that year. Won the Scottish Amateur Match Play and Stroke Play Championships to set alongside his Lytham Trophy success. A member of the victorious Walker Cup side at Royal Porthcawl in 1995.