Only one player went a perfect 4-0-0 over the two days of play at the Old Course at St. Andrews.
The American dominance in the Walker Cup continues.
The Red, White and Blue came back from a three-point deficit on Sunday to win the biennial bash against Great Britain and Ireland, 14½-11½, to claim the Cup for a fourth consecutive event.
Ten players comprise each team and there are four sessions of play with Foursomes and Singles on both Saturday and Sunday. Four teams of two compete in Foursomes on both days, while eight players compete in Singles on Saturday. All ten players play Singles on Sunday.
Leading the charge for the United States was the world’s top-ranked amateur, Vanderbilt junior Gordon Sargent, who went a perfect 4-0-0 over the two days of play at the Old Course at St. Andrews. Sargent is the only player of the 20 who competed to finish the week unbeaten and was one a few who earned three out of a possible four points.
Here’s how each player fared over the weekend at the 2023 Walker Cup at the Old Course at St. Andrews.
The U.S. flipped a three-point deficit on the final day to win once again.
ST. ANDREWS — The underdogs could not become the top dogs. At the end of the 2023 Walker Cup here in sun-soaked St. Andrews it was the USA who were the best in show as a team jam-packed with talent flung a star-spangled spanner into Great Britain & Ireland’s hopes of a famous win.
The hosts led by three points going into the closing day at the Old Course but the U.S., with eight of the world’s top-10 players in their midst and a strength in depth that is deeper than a burial at sea, were simply too good. Those global rankings don’t tell fibs. A Foursomes fightback and a singles surge completed a 14 ½ – 11 ½ triumph.
The supremely gifted Gordon Sargent, the No 1 amateur on this birling clump of space rock, reeled off four wins out of four during the two-day tussle as the USA claimed a fourth successive victory in the biennial bout.
For Scotsman Stuart Wilson, it was a second defeat as a GB&I Walker Cup captain. Losing is never easy to stomach.
“The Americans just handled the conditions slightly better than us, and, without being too harsh, I’m sure our boys will be quite disappointed in the way they played themselves,” he said. “They tried their hardest, but they didn’t turn up with their ‘A’ games I would say in some matches. I think the guys will be hurting.”
A bright and breezy day had dawned with GB&I holding the kind of comfortable cushion you would get in a Bedouin tent. That three-point lead forged on Saturday’s opening series of jousts was certainly handy. In the ebb-and-flow of match play golf, however, such an advantage can become as brittle as the autoclaved aerated concrete that is hogging the headlines just now.
The USA came out fighting in the morning foursomes and won the session 3-1 to haul themselves to within a point. “We got the morning we needed,” said Mike McCoy, the U.S. captain, of a telling thrust. The fact that 12 of the 16 matches played in the whole contest at that stage had reached at least the 16th green underlined the closeness of the tussle.
Recent history, though, provided a shudder of foreboding for GB&I. The 8 ½ – 7 ½ lead they held going into the singles yesterday was the same as the advantage they had at the same point at Hoylake in 2019. And the U.S. went on to win eight of the 10 afternoon ties that year to romp to victory.
Cue another singles tsunami? Well, a 7-3 sweep in the afternoon was certainly a comprehensive return as the U.S. eased over the winning line.
Calum Scott lost to Caleb Surratt, 3 and 2, in the opening tie as the U.S. drew level and when 32-year-old Stewart Hagestad beat 16-year-old Connor Graham by a similar margin, the visitors went ahead on points for the first time. They would not surrender their authority and set about fortifying that position.
They were given a little helping hand at times too. In a crucial match, GB&I’s Barclay Brown had been 3 up with four to play in the second match against U.S. Amateur champion Nick Dunlap but the momentum swung as wildly as a pendulum in a gale. Brown stumbled down the stretch and finally three-putted the 18th to give Dunlap an unlikely half-point. It was a morale-sapping blow for GB&I. For the USA, it was another high-fiving, back-slapping boost.
The marquee match involving Sargent and the sprightly John Gough, meanwhile, certainly stirred the senses. Gough, playing in his last event as an amateur, holed his second shot for an eagle on the sixth amid giddy scenes. It was Sargent, though, who came out on top and won on the last green as the U.S. moved to the brink of glory. David Ford’s 4-and-2 win over Alex Maguire got the champagne corks popping.
McCoy was part of the last U.S. side to lose a Walker Cup as a 52-year-old back in 2015 at Royal Lytham. He was going to savor this moment. “This one is going to be a great ride home,” he said with mighty grin. “It’s pretty special. It’s certainly the pinnacle of my golfing life. They (the US players) just played hard, right to the bitter end. I just drove the sunscreen around.”
In the end, it was Team USA who enjoyed another day in the Walker Cup sun.
The event returns in 2025 at Cypress Point Club in Pebble Beach, California before returning to the United Kingdom a year later in 2026 at Lahinch Golf Club in County Clare, Ireland. Future venues already announced include Bandon Dunes Golf Resort (2028), Oakmont Country Club (2032) and Chicago Golf Club (2036).
Matthew was a three-time Curtis Cupper and the first captain to lead Europe to back-to-back Solheim Cup wins.
For those who don’t follow the Curtis Cup closely, the appointment of Catriona Matthew as captain of the 2024 Great Britain and Ireland team at Sunningdale might seem like a no-brainer. Of course she’s qualified for such a position as the three-time Curtis Cupper and major champion became the first captain to lead Europe to back-to-back Solheim Cup victories in 2019 and 2021.
What’s historic about the appointment, however, is that a professional player has never captained a Curtis Cup team. Matthew will be the first LPGA pro to lead the team of eight in the biennial competition against Team USA. GB&I last won the Curtis Cup in 2016 at Dun Laoghaire.
The 43rd Curtis Cup match will be played at Sunningdale’s Old Course for the first time, Aug. 30-Sept. 1, 2024. Matthew has practically seen it all in the event. She was on the losing side in 1990, the winning side in 1992 at Royal Liverpool and again in 1994 when GB&I retained the trophy.
Winner of the 2009 AIG Women’s British Open and the 1993 Women’s British Amateur, Matthew still works in a mentoring role with Scottish Golf.
“As a player I remember the emotions of competing in the Curtis Cup,” said Matthew in a statement, “the excitement of being on a team rather than competing individually, as well as the desire to perform well for your team and pressure you put on yourself not to let them down. As a captain, it is my job to navigate the players through these situations and to help them believe what is possible.”
Last summer, GB&I lost to the Americans at Merion by a score of 15½-4½. The USGA has also traditionally appointed outstanding amateur golfers to captain its Curtis Cup squads.
“The Curtis Cup has long been a prominent event for women’s elite amateur golf and Great Britain and Ireland has enjoyed some fantastic wins,” said R&A CEO Martin Slumbers in a release. “We are now seeing the amateur level of the sport evolve into a more competitive era and believe that Catriona is the best placed captain to guide the team in this period.”
The biennial matches between America’s best female amateurs and their counterparts from Great Britain & Ireland have arrived.
Many amateurs base their whole year – or even two years – around the opportunity to represent their country in an international team competition, with the Walker Cup and Curtis Cups the frontrunners.
After the 2020 playing of the Curtis Cup was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, two teams of the best female amateurs in U.S. and Great Britain & Ireland have landed at Conwy Golf Club in Wales for the latest matches.
The U.S. team includes the Nos. 1 and 2 amateurs in the world in Rose Zhang and Rachel Heck. Both players are headed to Stanford shortly after the conclusion of the Cup. On the GB&I side, three players are coming straight from making the cut at the AIG Women’s British Open, the final women’s major of the season: Louise Duncan, Annabell Fuller and Lauren Walsh.
Consider this your primer on all things Curtis Cup before the matches begin on Thursday Aug. 26.
There was a lot to learn from the 48th Walker Cup.
JUNO BEACH, Fla. – Cole Hammer has long seemed destined for the kind of Walker Cup glory he found on Sunday at Seminole Golf Club. Hammer won his third match outright (after tying his morning foursomes match) to secure the Cup once again for the Americans. A few minutes later, 30-year-old Stewart Hagestad claimed the 14th and winning point.
“It means the world. I honestly had no idea that my match was going to be the clinching point but it is really special,” Hammer said. “Waited two years for this. It was really close going into this afternoon and to be able to be the one to clinch it is a cool deal.”
The Americans didn’t romp to a blowout victory the way many predicted they would this week. A stomach bug – which also affected the Great Britain & Ireland team – threw a wrench in the plans on both sides. Sickness aside, here are the major takeaways from the 48th Walker Cup:
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At the end of the day, WAGR is just a number.
There was never a head-to-head match at Seminole Golf Club where a GB&I player out-ranked his opponent. The Americans were wildly ahead according to the rankings, but if we’d all paid attention to those, and awarded points accordingly, this thing would have been over before it even started.
The closest Sunday singles match, according to the WAGR, was the one between Alex Fitzpatrick (No. 12) and Pierceson Coody (No. 2). Coody birdied the 17th hole to close out Fitzpatrick for the second day in a row.
Ranking doesn’t account for much in Fitzpatrick’s mind – especially not in match play. In fact, a better ranking might even create more pressure.
“The chances are that the higher ranked player is probably a better player, but that doesn’t mean that they’re going to win,” he said.
Asked if talk of rankings discrepancies lit a fire under his team, GB&I captain Stuart Wilson said he was unaware of it.
“There were a lot of comments about us hanging in well and fighting really hard,” he said. “I was more of the opinion we were letting the Americans away with it. My mindset on the whole thing, the guys played well and played really well. I think on another day, the match would have been a totally different result.”
Stuart Wilson, L-R, Mark Power and John Murphy watch the action on the 18th green during Foursomes at the 2021 Walker Cup at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla. on Sunday, May 9, 2021. (Scott Halleran/USGA)
What was GB&I’s secret sauce?
Windy conditions with firm, fast greens seemed to play a bit into GB&I’s hands this week, but the close outcome wasn’t so much about what GB&I did surprisingly well, as Wilson noted, but where they played solidly. There was no keep-it-close mindset, and GB&I displayed that all week.
Ultimately Wilson felt a few loose shots cost his team the victory, and took that all the way back to the foursomes sessions.
“Maybe let the Americans get away with a little but too much and a few slack shots here and there,” he said.
His plan was to win foursomes on Sunday (check) then frontload the singles lineup to try to pull it off. At times, it looked as if the math would work in their favor.
Wilson highlighted preparation and on-site practice early week, even if it was interrupted by illness, as being key in GB&I’s success.
“I felt like we were bonding really well all week, had some great team morale, some great advice from Paul McGinley, just felt good out there,” GB&I player Joe Long said.
The United States Walker Cup team, with only one player (John Pak) not pictured. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
What if the alternates were always in play at the Walker Cup?
As a Walker Cup alternate, it would be hard to bring a better disposition to the occasion than the one Cooper Dossey brought to Seminole. He found out three weeks before the matches that he would serve as an on-site alternate, a decision made in light of COVID.
As a stomach bug ripped through the team, Dossey had a real chance of playing. Ultimately, his fellow alternate Mac Meissner got into the opening four-ball session, but Dossey only spent the week outfitted with an earpiece. He appeared on the first tee with the team and walked most of Sunday afternoon with an ailing Tyler Strafaci.
“I got here on Saturday and that’s what really intrigued me was they have treated me like I was on the team from the get-go,” he said. “I’ve played every practice round with them, I’ve gotten every piece of gear they’ve gotten, my own hotel room. It’s been pretty sweet.”
Only eight players compete in the first three sessions as it is and choosing who sits among the core 10 players is already a hard decision. Interestingly, in 2019 Crosby had all four lineups decided before the matches ever started – that meant he ended up sitting some of his hottest players, notably John Pak. Crosby indicated he’d have done that again but for have to deal with so much sickness.
While alternates were certainly necessary this week, it seems unlikely they’ll be in the mix again anytime soon.
“I’m not so sure we really need traveling reserves in a regular year,” Wilson said. “I think the 10-man squad is quite good as it is because you’ve kind of got natural two reserves naturally for the first three sessions as it is. I think the 10-man squad is quite good as it is because you’ve kind of got natural two reserves naturally for the first three sessions as it is.”
Jack Dyer of Team Great Britain and Ireland (L) meets with Tyler Strafaci of Team USA after Dyer won their match during Sunday singles matches on Day Two of The Walker Cup at Seminole Golf Club on May 09, 2021 in Juno Beach, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
Applaud Strafaci simply for staying on his feet.
Strafaci, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, took himself out of Saturday singles at the last minute. The 22-year-old said later, after a trip to the hospital for IV fluids, that he was seeing two golf balls while he was trying to warm up. In close matches such as these, it was arguably the most heroic move he could have made – Strafaci’s withdrawal allowed William Mouw to step in and score a point against Ben Jones.
On Sunday, a slightly-recovered Strafaci appeared in two sessions and by late afternoon was bending over slowly and walking gingerly. Strafaci failed to put a point on the board on the final day – though he did nearly hole his final bunker shot on the closing hole – but the sheer strength it took just to stay on his feet will be a lasting memory from these matches.
The U.S. team got the win everyone predicted. Captain Nathaniel Crosby received the proper curtain call. And Seminole Golf Club dazzled.
JUNO BEACH – The U.S. team got the victory everyone predicted Sunday.
U.S. captain Nathaniel Crosby received the proper curtain call.
And Seminole Golf Club dazzled like everyone expected.
That’s how the 48th Walker Cup Match will be remembered: For the golf, the drama and the incredible beauty that is Seminole.
Florida sophomore Ricky Castillo went 4-0 for the U.S. and Cole Hammer scored the deciding point as the heavily-favored Americans held off a valiant effort by Great Britain-Ireland for a 14-12 victory. It was the fifth consecutive victory for the U.S. team on home soil and improved its series lead to 38-9-1.
“It means the world to me,” said Hammer, who went 3-0-1. “I had no idea I was the clinching putt. Living up to expectations are hard. We looked great on paper, but winning is still a difficult deal.”
Castillo defeated Joe Murphy, 2 and 1, and Hammer easily beat Ben Schmidt, 4 and 3. Castillo and Hammer were a combined 7-0-1.
“It’s a pretty cool experience for my first Walker Cup,” Castillo said. “This is the pinnacle of amateur golf.”
Stewart Hagestad, at 30 the oldest player on the U.S. team, struggled while losing his first two matches and lost his first two holes to Ben Jones. But Hagestad won five consecutive holes, starting at No. 9, to coast to a 4-and-2 win and give the U.S. its 14th point.
“I feel very lucky to be a part of it,” Hagestad said. “These guys are so talented and they are going to go on and have great careers.”
Paced by Austin Eckroat’s 7-and-6 trouncing of previously undefeated Mark Power and Pierceson Coody’s 3-and-1 victory over Andrew Fitzpatrick, the Americans got an early boost to gain the 4 ½ points they needed in singles.
“I had the momentum the whole round,” Eckroat said. “It was one of those days where I made all the putts and he missed them all.”
GB&I had closed the U.S.’s advantage to 8 ½-7 ½ after Sunday’s foursomes, but never could gain the lead.
“There’s been a lot of chatter about us hanging in there,” said GB&I captain Stuart Wilson said. “But we let the Americans away with too much.”
GB&I’s Joe Long, who was playing for the first time after being sidelined by the stomach virus, took advantage of John Pak’s shot into the penalty area and a chunked trip on the 18th hole to keep the visitors alive with a 2-up victory.
GB&I got more late heroics from Matty Lamb, who won the 17th hole to beat Davis Thompson, 2 up, but the U.S.’s Quade Cummins won the 18th to get a halve over Barclay Brown.
Reigning U.S. Amateur Tyler Strafaci finally got a chance to play in the Walker Cup after also being sidelined by stomach issues and taken to the hospital for fluids on Saturday. He lost both matches Sunday, however.
Seminole certainly didn’t disappoint
With dignitaries such as the 43rd U.S. President George W. Bush – his great-grandfather George Herbert Walker donated the Walker Cup – and legend Jack Nicklaus on hand, the Donald Ross gem amazed and confounded some of the world’s best amateurs with its ridiculously quick greens.
It’s the first time Seminole has hosted a Walker Cup, which was probably overdue considering the membership includes nine former players and 11 former captains. Seminole president Jimmy Dunne decided it was better late than never.
Tyler Strafaci of Team USA plays his shot from the bunker on the 18th hole during Sunday singles matches on Day Two of The Walker Cup at Seminole Golf Club on May 09, 2021 in Juno Beach, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
“Seminole is a really special place,” Dunne said as the final pairings teed off Sunday. “It was always our dream to open it to the amateur world.”
Crosby, a longtime Seminole member who first visited the club with his father Bing in the mid-1970s, is glad he decided to serve another captaincy after leading the team to a victory in 2019 at Royal Portrush. He originally hesitated after the thrill of two years ago.
“This is full circle for me,” Crosby said. “It was a miracle beyond miracles we had the event when everyone started getting sick. The Walker Cup is a spectacle. To win at Seminole is a dream for me.”
Crosby pointed out the Walker Cup, without spectator ropes, provides a rare chance for golf fans to walk among some of the game’s top players before they become famous. It’s not like that in other sports.
“Fifty percent of these guys will go on to become Tour stars,” he said. “People understand college basketball, but I think they really miss seeing these guys before they become marquee.”
The Walker Cup is so special that Bob Ford, Seminole’s head professional since 2000, waited until the event was held before he retired after a brilliant career that included 37 years as head pro at Oakmont Country Club. It proved to be a fitting curtain call.
“It exceeded my expectations,” Ford said. “The members are so proud. I don’t think anything could have gone better.”
Golf fans were treated to a more competitive Walker Cup than most imagined. The U.S. never trailed the last two days and finally found a way to win the Cup.
Sure, there was a pesky stomach virus that altered pairings, made life miserable for the players and complicated for the captains. But in the end, it was all about the golf.
The GB&I Walker Cup team will travel to Seminole in May while the Curtis Cup team will try to win a third straight match on home soil.
The Walker Cup and Curtis Cup, coveted biennial matches for male and female amateurs, will be played in the same calendar year in 2021. Chalk it up as another rarity caused by COVID.
Last month, the USGA released a list of 16 male amateurs who were invited to a Walker Cup practice session to take place at Bay Hill in Orlando, Florida, this month. A similar band of female amateurs were assembled a year ago in anticipation of the Curtis Cup, which was moved from June 2020 to August 2021.
The R&A has now released similar lists for those matches. The Great Britain & Ireland practice squad for the Walker Cup includes 15 men. That eventually will be whittled down to the 10-man team that will compete May 8-9 at Seminole Golf Club in Junior Beach, Florida.
The initial squad includes:
Jake Bolton (22, Ogbourne Downs, England)
Barclay Brown (19, Hallamshire, England)
Callum Farr (22, Northamptonshire County, England)
Alex Fitzpatrick (21, Hallamshire, England)
Angus Flanagan (21, St George’s Hill, England)
Benjamin Jones (21, Northamptonshire County, England)
Matty Lamb (22, Hexham, England)
John Murphy (22, Kinsale, Ireland)
Tom McKibbin (17, Holywood, Ireland)
Joseph Pagdin (19, Lake Nona, England)
Mark Power (20, Kilkenny, Ireland)
Caolan Rafferty (27, Dundalk, Ireland)
Benjamin Schmidt (18, Rotherham, England)
Sandy Scott (22, Nairn, Scotland)
“We have selected a talented group of players to work with in preparation for the match against the United States of America next year,” GB&I Walker Cup captain Stuart Wilson said in a release. “We will be closely monitoring their form and results in a number of important events over the coming months while other players still have time to play their way into contention before we finalize the team which will travel to Florida. We will go to Seminole with belief in ourselves and will give it our best shot to win back the trophy.”
On the women’s side, the GB&I team has won the past two matches at home – at Nairn in 2012 and Dun Laoghaire in 2016. The Curtis Cup will be played Aug. 26-28 at Conwy Golf Club in Wales.
There are 17 women on the initial GB&I Curtis Cup squad, and by August, that number will be cut to eight team members.
“We have a good blend of youth and experience in the squad but there is still time for other players to make their case for inclusion in the final teams selected. I know the girls will relish the opportunity to compete and try to win the two matches,” GB&I captain Elaine Ratcliffe said.
That squad includes:
Hannah Darling (17, Broomieknowe, Scotland)
Annabell Fuller (18, Roehampton, England)
Chloe Goadby (23, St Regulus, Scotland)
Paula Grant (27, Lisburn, Ireland)
Charlotte Heath (19, Huddersfield, England)
Lily May Humphreys (18, Stoke by Nayland, England)
Hazel MacGarvie (21, Royal Troon, Scotland)
Julie McCarthy (21, Forrest Little, Ireland)
Caley McGinty (20, Knowle, England)
Shannon McWilliam (21, Aboyne, Scotland)
Olivia Mehaffey (23, Royal County Down Ladies, Ireland)
