Being invited to the Walker Cup practice session does not guarantee a selection to the team.
The 50th edition of the Walker Cup is less than a year away, and those looking to earn a spot on the team have an excellent opportunity to impress captain Nathan Smith in December.
The U.S. Golf Association announced Monday that 16 players have been invited to a Walker Cup practice session next month in Florida. The golfers will attend a practice session from Dec. 14-16 at McArthur Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Florida, Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Florida, and The Bear’s Club in Jupiter, Florida.
Smith, who will also captain the 2026 team at Lahinch Golf Club in Lahinch, Ireland, won four U.S. Mid-Amateur (2003, 2009-10, 2012) and the inaugural 2015 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball.
“The amateur golf talent in this country is impressive, and I’m thrilled to gather with this group for a practice session next month,” Smith said in a release. “We have a strong list of young men attending; a mixture of seasoned veterans as well as up-and-comers of the game. I’m excited to spend more time with this group.”
Highlighting the team is top-ranked amateur Luke Clanton, a junior at Florida State, as well as Jackson Koivun, a sophomore at Auburn who is the reigning consensus national Player of the Year. Also invited is four-time Walker Cup participant Stewart Hagestad and Ben James, a junior at Virginia who joins Hagestad as the only players invited to the session with Walker Cup experience.
The 16 players invited to the Walker Cup practice session are: Evan Beck, Parker Bell, Blades Brown, Luke Clanton, Ethan Fang, Stewart Hagestad, Max Herendeen, Ben James, Noah Kent, Jackson Koivun, Michael La Sasso, Bryan Lee, Tommy Morrison, Jase Summy, Brendan Valdes and Jackson Van Paris.
Being invited to the Walker Cup practice session does not guarantee a selection to the team. Players not invited will also be considered. Seven of the 16 players from the December 2022 Walker Cup practice session competed on the 2023 United States team, where it defeated Great Britain and Ireland, 14½-11½, at the Old Course at St. Andrews.
The 50th Walker Cup will be contested at Cypress Point in Pebble Beach, California, on Sept. 6-7, 2025. The Walker Cup is a two-day event with 18 singles matches and eight foursomes matches. The U.S. leads the overall series, 39-9-1, though its advantage is only 11-7 since 1989.
Each team is comprised of 10 players. The R&A selects members of the GB&I team.
Architect Jay Blasi explains what makes Cypress Point Club special in his rater’s notebook.
Editor’s note: It’s not quite a seismic change in the Golfweek’s Best rankings, but this year Cypress Point in California has passed Pine Valley in New Jersey as the No. 1 Classic Course built in the U.S. before 1960. It’s a matter of decimal points as the top courses jostle each other for position on the various lists, and that’s the case with Cypress Point and Pine Valley as well. In 2023, Pine Valley was No. 1 with a 9.62 average rating, and Cypress Point was No. 2 with a 9.60 average rating. When our lists were extracted from the Golfweek’s Best database this year, Cypress Point averaged 9.62, while Pine Valley came in at 9.60. Below, golf course architect Jay Blasi – who works with Golfweek as a rater advisor and contributes occasional stories – shares his thoughts on Cypress Point and how it stacks up using our Golfweek’s Best rater criteria.
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Cypress Point long has been known as one of the most beautiful and exclusive golf courses on Earth. Golfers from around the world have seen the breathtaking photos in magazines of the coastline stretch and dreamt of playing the course.
Visitors to the Monterey Peninsula cruise through the golf course on 17-Mile Drive to within a few feet of the 15th tee, where the Pacific Ocean crashes hard against the rugged coastline. But only a tiny fraction of golfers will ever play the course. Those who do should understand that while the famed coastline holes are wonderful, it is the totality of the journey that sets Cypress Point apart.
For those guests lucky enough to get the invite, the anticipation is overwhelming. Turning into the driveway and past the sign that reads “CYPRESS POINT CLUB – MEMBERS ONLY” is a seminal moment in any golfer’s life. Players beaming with excitement meet at the tiny golf shop bursting with merchandise. It is a feeding frenzy as each player loads up on logo gear for themselves as well as every golf buddy they have ever met.
After the order of play is set and the caddies are introduced, it is time to hit the first tee shot – one of the scarier propositions in amateur golf. Here you are in the shadow of the golf shop, no warm-up, and you must tee off over 17-Mile Drive. The next four hours offer perhaps the greatest walk in golf.
No. 9 at Cypress Point Club in California (Photo by Martin Miller/MillerBrown)
The journey is like a nature stroll starting with a trek to the dunes on Nos. 1-3. From there you head inland to the forest for Nos. 4-7, then wander back into the dunes at 8 and 9. After looking out to the sea from the dunes, you dip into the forest at 10 and 11 then start a thrilling march out to the sea through the dunes at Nos. 12-14.
From No. 14 green, players cross the famed 17-Mile Drive and walk 85 yards overlooking the Pacific Ocean before arriving at the 15th tee. Nos. 15-17 all play along and over the rocky coastline with seals or sea lions as sleepy onlookers. The 18th plays from the coastline back into the forest uphill toward the clubhouse.
Most golfers know that Dr. Alister MacKenzie designed Cypress Point, and many know Marion Hollins was the developer. However, few know that before MacKenzie was hired, Hollins had engaged Seth Raynor – famed designer of such revered layouts as Chicago Golf Club, Fishers Island, Yale and Yeamans Hall – to design the course. Raynor’s sudden death in 1926 opened the door for Hollins and MacKenzie to become perhaps the greatest developer/designer team of all time.
Following is how I have rated Cypress Point in the 10 categories that Golfweek uses for each course. The hundreds of raters who help compile Golfweek’s annual best-of course lists look at 10 topics, then give each course an overall ranking. Each category is assigned a rating of 1 through 10, then a course is given a non-cumulative overall rating.
No. 18 at Cypress Point Club in California (Photo by Martin Miller/MillerBrown)
1. Routing: 9 (on a scale of 1 to 10) The way the course weaves through the dunes, forests and coastline is a master class in routing. Had the 18th hole turned left instead of right and finished below the clubhouse with the coastline as the backdrop, it would undoubtedly be the best routing in the world.
2. Consistency with original design: 10 Over the past 10 years or so the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw has worked with the club to ensure the course is presented in line with its origins.
3. Overall land plan: 9 The clubhouse is situated where it can look over the ocean without taking away frontage from the course. The maintenance facility is discreetly hidden amongst the forest. Homes on the perimeter of the course don’t detract from the beauty.
4. Greens and surrounds: 8 With a mix of sizes, shapes and contours, each fits beautifully into the varied landscape. Perhaps the most noteworthy is the uber-skinny ninth set within the dunes almost perpendicular to the line of play.
5. Variety and memorability of the par 3s: 10 The long 16th over the ocean to an isthmus is often considered one of the top par 3s in the world. Its little brother, the coastline-hugging 15th, might be more loved as it plays only about 130 yards. The inland one-shotters at 3 and 7 make great use of the biggest dune on the property.
6. Variety and memorability of the par 4s: 9 The drivable ninth is one of the better short 4s around. The stretch of 11-14 – all playing west and each moving from left to right – sounds repetitive, but each is a brilliant use of natural landforms.
7. Variety and memorability of the par 5s: 7 MacKenzie broke the rules at CPC with three par 5s in the first six holes, including back-to-back at Nos. 5 and 6. A draw off the tee will help at 2, 5 and 6. The bunkering on No. 5 in the forest is some of the most beautiful you will find.
8. Tree and landscape management: 9 The team at CPC has gone to great lengths to restore dune scapes and manage forests. The cypress and Monterey pines add to the allure as players weave from one landscape to another.
9. Conditioning: 9 Jeff Markow, the longtime superintendent at CPC, has the golf course and grounds better than ever leading up to the 2025 Walker Cup. The playing surfaces are firm and true, while areas off the fairway are beautiful and playable.
10. “Walk in the Park” test: 10 In March of 2022 I was lucky enough to join my good friend, Jason Bruno, for a day at Cypress Point. He even had me invite my dad to join us, something I had been trying to do for 20-plus years. As we walked up the 13th fairway heading towards the Pacific, I asked my dad, “So, what do you think?” He replied “I’ve been playing golf for almost 70 years, and this is my favorite round of golf ever.”
Overall: 9.3 One of the greatest golf courses in the world. The breathtaking beauty of the setting and the brilliance of the routing may be unmatched in the game. If ever given the chance to play Cypress Point, the answer is always, “Yes, I’m available.”
Golfweek caught up with Smith recently to talk Walker Cup, Cypress Point and amateur golf.
Nathan Smith was able to get some early scouting in last week.
Smith was in California at the Cypress Point Classic. Famed Cypress Point is hosting the 2025 Walker Cup, the 50th edition of the Ryder Cup-style battle between the best amateurs from the United States and Great Britain and Ireland.
Smith has played in three Walker Cups as a part of a decorated amateur career that included four U.S. Mid-Amateur victories. He’s also set to lead the squad at Cypress Point, No. 2 on Golfweek’s Best 2023 for top Classic Courses in the United States, in two years.
Golfweek caught up with Smith recently to talk Walker Cup, Cypress Point and amateur golf.
Colson Brown is thankful he was being nosy in the training room one day.
Colson Brown is thankful he was being nosy in the training room one day.
The walk-on true freshman quarterback at Georgia Tech was receiving treatment one day on his shoulder, and Yellow Jackets’ men’s golf coach Bruce Heppler was also in there talking with trainer Mark Smith. The duo were discussing golf and Brown chimed in.
“I can’t really recall when I found out I was playing at Cypress Point,” said Brown, who won a state championship in high school at North Augusta, South Carolina. “I think it sunk in the day before we left where I was going to play.”
Once Brown introduced himself to Heppler and heard of Heppler needing another player for a tournament this week, Brown expressed his interest in playing. Georgia Tech was committed to two tournaments and needed 11 total players while only having 10 available due to one redshirting.
Brown showed the coach videos of his swing and gave him his number. A couple weeks later is when Heppler called, saying he cleared everything with the football coaches for Brown to join the golf team in California earlier this week.
“I started going to practice at their facility on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Brown said. “I knew my swing was in a good spot, but I just didn’t want to go out there and embarrass myself.”
The Georgia Tech golf team took him in. He practiced with the likes of Christo Lamprecht, No. 2 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, and others from the 2023 national runner-up squad. All of this while having football practice and classes.
“The guys took me in and made me feel really comfortable,” Brown said.
A couple days before leaving, Heppler called Brown into his office and provided him with all the gear he would need for the tournament: a golf bag, travel bag, shirts and hats, and even more.
Colson Brown at the 2023 Cypress Point Classic. (Photo: Georgia Tech)
Brown hopped on a plane and traveled to the Monterey Peninsula. The tournament consisted of six players from each team playing match play in three sessions: foursomes, four-ball and singles.
The first day was 36 holes, starting with foursomes. Brady Rackley was paired with Brown, and though the duo fell 4 and 3 to Texas’ Tommy Morrison and Jacob Sosa, it was a memorable morning.
“Tommy and I talked a lot during the day,” Brown said. “Everyone sort of knew the circumstances, and everyone was great to me the whole time.”
The duo was paired again in four-ball but fell 2 and 1 to Auburn. When he finally looked at his phone after the long day, he couldn’t believe the thousands of notifications waiting for him.
“People were so jealous of me and calling me the luckiest man in America,” Brown said. “I guess it still hasn’t set in.”
On Tuesday was singles, where Brown faced Illinois’ Piercen Hunt. He fell 9 and 7, but again, said Hunt was great to play against and provided great commentary through the round.
Brown returned and got back into his routine Wednesday, and his football teammates had nothing but questions for him when he returned.
Brown said he enjoyed getting to see the difference in how the golf team and football team interacted with each other, but he is thrilled with how supportive the golf team was of him stepping in and how accepting the football team was of him being gone.
Now, Brown has one heckuva story to tell for the rest of his life, and he’s got plenty of Georgia Tech golf equipment (that Heppler let him keep) to prove it.
“I really cant say that I was Tiger Woods out there,” Brown said, “but I hit the ball about as well as I could’ve considering the circumstances.”
Colson Brown traded in his shoulder pads and helmet for his golf clubs.
Georgia Tech freshman quarterback Colson Brown hasn’t played a snap for the Yellow Jackets this fall. However, he did participate in the starting lineup for the Ramblin’ Wreck at one of the most famed venues in the world.
This week, he traded in his shoulder pads and helmet for his golf clubs.
Georgia Tech committed to two events this week, the first being the East Lake Cup at Atlanta Athletic Club. The other being the Cypress Point Classic at, you guessed it, famed Cypress Point, No. 2 on Golfweek’s Best 2023 for top Classic Courses in the United States.
The Yellow Jackets needed five players for its lineup at the East Lake Cup, which is where their top five went. In California, Georgia Tech needed six, however, with junior Ben Reuter redshirting this season, there were only five available bodies.
Enter Brown, who played high school golf at North Augusta High School in South Carolina, just across the river from Augusta, Georgia. The 6-foot-4 Brown stepped in so Georgia Tech didn’t have to withdraw from the tournament it won in 2019.
The Cypress Point Classic is a two-day, Walker Cup-style event with foursomes and fourball sessions on Monday and singles Tuesday.
Brown lost both his matches on Monday. Playing with Brady Rackley, they fell 4-and-3 in foursomes to Tommy Morrison and Jacob Sosa from Texas and then lost to Auburn’s Brendan Valdes and Reed Lotter in fourball, 2 and 1.
On Tuesday, Brown will lead off for the Yellow Jackets, taking on Illinois’ Piercen Hunt in singles.
While the rest of Georgia Tech’s football team is preparing for its game against Virginia, its freshman quarterback is playing one of the most famous courses in the world while representing his school. Not a bad start to the week.
Golfweek’s experts have ranked the Top 200 courses built before 1960, such as Augusta National, Pebble Beach and more.
Are you a big fan of Golden Age golf architecture? You’re in the right spot. Welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of the Top 200 Classic Courses opened before 1960 in the United States.
The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce these rankings. The top handful of courses in the world have an average rating of above 9, while many excellent layouts fall into the high-6 to the 8 range.
To ensure these lists are up-to-date, Golfweek’s Best in recent years has altered how the individual ratings are compiled into the rankings. Only ratings from rounds played in the past 10 years are included in the compilations. This helps ensure that any course in the rankings still measures up.
Courses also must have a minimum of 25 votes to qualify for the Top 200 Modern or the Top 200 Classic. Other Golfweek’s Best lists, such as Best Courses You Can Play or Best Private, do not require as many votes. This makes it possible that a course can show up on other lists but not on the premium Top 200 lists.
Each course is listed with its average rating next to the name, the location, the year it opened and the designers. The list notes in parenthesis next to the name of each course where that course ranked in 2022.
After the designers are several designations that note what type of facility it is:
All eyes are on Augusta National, but how does the Georgia stalwart stack up against Alister MacKenzie’s other layouts?
The golf world’s attention is focused on Augusta National Golf Club this weekend, bringing plenty of attention to famed golf course architect Alister MacKenzie. But the annual home of the Masters, as great as it is, isn’t even MacKenzie’s top-rated layout.
Golfweek’s Best ranks courses every year based on the input of more than 800 raters worldwide, and Augusta National in 2022 ranked No. 3 among all classic courses in the United States built before 1960. Golfweek’s raters judge each course on a scale of 1 to 10, with only the top handful of courses in the world surpassing an average rating of 9.
Augusta National – which has been heavily modified over the decades – comes in at 9.51 out of 10, so clearly MacKenzie and the architects who followed with renovations at Augusta National did great work on the old tree farm. Funny thing, though, it’s not even the best course in the U.S. designed by the Scottish surgeon.
Alister MacKenzie
That honor belongs to a club out west. Click through to see MacKenzie’s top courses in the world, as rated by Golfweek’s Best.
It’s worth noting, MacKenzie laid his hands and intellect on many courses. The ones below include tracks that were MacKenzie originals or received substantial MacKenzie input, often with help from other designers. Several clubs he worked on, such as California Golf Club, were not included in the following calculations because much of his work has been redone in subsequent renovations or he didn’t have the majority of the design input.
Monterey Peninsula and its famed golf courses are pounded by extreme weather steered by an ‘atmospheric river.’
Northern California has been battered in recent days by strong winds, rain and even snow, and there is more extreme weather on the way, according to Weather.com. Two people have died in the storms so far and more than 176,000 are without power as of Thursday evening, the site reported.
The area’s famed golf courses are not immune to what is called the atmospheric river that’s driving the storms. That’s especially so for the layouts close to the Pacific Ocean coastline as massive waves and flooding threaten golf holes. Even inland, many course operators are dealing with flooding and the effects of winds that reached 80 mph at elevation and 50 mph in San Francisco and Sacramento. It will be days before the full effects of the storm can be tallied.
Sometimes called “rivers in the sky,” atmospheric rivers are a major factor in extreme rain and snowfall in the West.
Long, narrow corridors of air heavy with moisture form when warmer air from the tropics moves toward the poles ahead of powerful storm fronts. They can carry huge amounts of water over thousands of miles.
Atmospheric rivers function much like rivers on the surface but can carry even more water than the Mississippi River.
One coastal golf club that appears to have been hit hard is Monterey Peninsula Country Club, home to two layouts – the Dunes and the Shore – that both are ranked by Golfweek’s Best to be among the top 10 private clubs in California. Several posts to social media and other clips sent to Golfweek have shown apparent damage to the club’s Dunes Course along the water.
It’s worth noting that despite the tweet’s reference of Chernobyl, the full extent of the damage isn’t clear, though it certainly is eye-opening. A call to the operators at Monterey Peninsula Country Club went to voicemail Thursday afternoon.
Alan Shipnuck of Fire Pit Collective reported later in the day that the club anticipates being able to repair the damage to No. 14 on the Dunes Course and that the hole will be closed “for just a little while.”
I just talked to J.J. West, the general manager at MPCC, and he says the damage is repairable and the 14th hole of the Dunes will be closed “for just a little while.” But to understand the waves that hit Pebble this morning, the top of the Lone Cypress is 150’ above sea level! https://t.co/XpWKbWCTnCpic.twitter.com/fhxYP8KcYg
There are several other famed courses exposed to the weather pounding Monterey Peninsula, including Cypress Point, Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill, the Links at Spanish Bay, even the popular municipal Pacific Grove Golf Links. Golfweek reached out to several course operators without hearing back. California Governor Gavin Newsome has declared a state of emergency, and evacuations have been issued in parts of Monterey County and other areas.
Any damage – with none reported so far – to Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spyglass Hill or Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Shore Course could prove problematic for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the annual PGA Tour event scheduled Feb. 2-5. Pebble Beach also will be host to the U.S. Women’s Open in July.
USA Today’s Janet Loehrke, Ramon Padilla and Dinah Voyles Pulver contributed to this article.
If I ever play Cypress Point, I want it to be with this guy.
On Nov. 4, SMU golfer Christian Clark aced the iconic par-3 16th hole at Cypress Point — and it was caught on camera.
The video made its way around social media, even grabbing the attention of the GOAT, Tom Brady, who commented “amazing” on Instagram.
Then, just over a week later, another ace at the 16th was caught on camera and there’s one spectator who’s green with envy.
The same Cypress Point member who hosted Clark had a group of friends out for a laid-back 18 when one of them canned a hole-in-one at the breathtaking seaside par 3.
The best part — he used a driver from the back tee box!
A #CypressPoint member brings out an SMU player & he made an ace on 16 from the back tee.
A week later the SAME member brings a group of friends & one of them makes another ace on 16 from back tee!
An ace at the iconic 233-yard par 3 16th hole at Cypress Point? That’s priceless.
There are hole-in-ones and then there is making a hole-in-one at one of the great cathedrals for golf.
It doesn’t get much better than what SMU freshman golfer Christian Clark accomplished on Friday, making an ace at the iconic 233-yard par-3 16th hole at Cypress Point in Pebble Beach, Calif.
“Is it the holy grail of 1’s?” tweeted golf broadcaster Gary Williams.
No less than NFL legend Tom Brady labeled it “amazing!” in a comment on Instagram.
Indeed, it was.
The only thing better than a hole-in-one at 16 at Cypress? Having video of said ace.
SMU freshman golfer Christian Clark, a Highland Park alum, had a hole in one on 16 at Cypress Point in Pebble Beach, Calif.
Casual 230-yard Par 3 over water on the signature hole.
You can hear the waves crashing against the jutted Pacific coastline below, which must be drowning out the sound of Clark’s heart pumping with anticipation.
It doesn’t look as if Clark, a Dallas resident whose SMU team played in the Cal-Poly Invitational in Carmel, California this week, ever considered bailing out left and boldly took a fairway wood and dead aim over the chasm and at the green.
“Go in,” someone said, shortly before it did just that, and Clark and everyone on the tee lost their minds. (I love how Clark is jumping up and down, his mind is blown. Note: there are a few F-bombs dropped in the video. Earmuffs, kids!)
This is how famed sports writer George Plimpton once described the tee shot at 16: “The golfer stands on a small elevated tee facing the Pacific Ocean that boils in below on the rocks, its swells laced with long strands of kelp. Occasionally, a sea lion can be seen lolling about, turning lazily, a flipper up, like a log in a slow current. It would be a clear shot to the horizon if it weren’t for a promontory that hooks around from the golfer’s left.”
Plimpton noted that at the1952 Crosby the average score of the entire field on the hole was five, an average bolstered by Lawson Little getting a 14 and Henry Ransom an 11. Ben Hogan got a seven. A year later, Porky Oliver famously made a 16 at the 16th.
But not, young Christian Clark of SMU. He made a one at one of the signature holes in golf for his first hole-in-one. An ace at No. 7 at nearby Pebble, the 12th at Augusta National, the 17th at TPC Sawgrass are also in the conversation for signatures holes to make an ace. But Clark’s arguably is as good as it gets, and so cool to have it and the celebration that followed on video for posterity. As one of the people on the tee put it, “That’s awesome.”
