GB&I Face Uphill Battle at Walker Cup Against Powerhouse U.S. Team
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – The Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team’s journey to Cypress Point hit an unexpected snag last Friday. After hitting balls at Stanford University, their team bus broke down about 30 minutes into the final leg to the Monterey Peninsula, leaving them stranded for nearly two hours.
“Something with the turbo just exploded,” Luke Poulter said. “We heard a pop, and then we turn this corner, and we have just this massive climb ahead of us.”
No metaphor could be more fitting.
The U.S. has dominated the Walker Cup, leading the all-time series 39-9-1 while winning four straight and eight of the past 10 editions. At home, the Americans have been nearly unbeatable, losing only twice on U.S. soil – most recently over two decades ago.
This year’s American squad might be the most formidable yet. They’re led by world No. 1 Jackson Koivun and feature all six of the top-ranked players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
The GB&I team doesn’t even have six players in the top 50, with Tyler Weaver being their highest-ranked player at No. 10 in the world.
“In terms of legacy, we’re under no illusions as to just how challenging it is to come up against such a strong United States team and arguably on paper the strongest ever assembled,” said GB&I captain Dean Robertson, who experienced a drubbing of his own as a player on the GB&I squad that suffered a record-breaking, 14-point defeat at Interlachen in 1993.
“But we’re looking forward to it.”
With just 26 points available over two days, both captains know the importance of fast starts. While the U.S. has overcome early deficits during their current win streak, GB&I can’t afford to get down early. They’ve never won an away Walker Cup when losing a foursomes session.
In both GB&I victories on American turf – 1989 at Peachtree and 2001 at Ocean Forest – the visitors swept the foursomes. Robertson is hoping to replicate that success by sending out the identical lineup from last month’s St. Andrews Trophy, where GB&I won 7.5 out of a possible eight foursomes points against continental Europe in Madrid.
“We’ve probably known the foursomes pairings for a good few weeks now,” Robertson said. “… The afternoon singles, not so much.”
Singles matches have been GB&I’s downfall. In the past 10 Walker Cups, they’ve kept foursomes close, within one point, but in singles, they’ve gone 73.5-102.5 since 2005 at Chicago Golf Club.
U.S. captain Nathan Smith knows his team is favored but isn’t taking anything for granted.
“Every team is different. You have different captains, different players. It’s 0-0,” Smith said. “If you look at their team in the last couple years, they have a lot of guys, maybe nine out of 10 players that play college golf over here. I think this is one of their best teams that I’ve seen in a while, and if you look at those matches, they were extremely close. Even St Andrews last year, they were up going into Sunday, and there were a couple matches that flipped on the back side or it would have gone their way.”
“It’s going to be a big test for us this week.”
Saturday
FOURSOMES
8 a.m. PT – Tyler Weaver/Connor Graham vs. Jackson Koivun/Tommy Morrison
8:15 a.m. – Luke Poulter/Charlie Forster vs. Ben James/Stewart Hagestad
8:30 a.m. – Stuart Grehan/Eliot Baker vs. Preston Stout/Ethan Fang
8:45 a.m. – Cameron Adam/Dominic Clemons vs. Jase Summy/Michael La Sasso
SINGLES
1:45 p.m. PT – Tyler Weaver vs. Jackson Koivun
1:55 p.m. – Niall Shiels Donegan vs. Jacob Modleski
2:05 p.m. – Luke Poulter vs. Mason Howell
2:15 p.m. – Connor Graham vs. Ben James
2:25 p.m. – Gavin Tiernan vs. Stewart Hagestad
2:35 p.m. – Stuart Grehan vs. Ethan Fang
2:45 p.m. – Charlie Forster vs. Preston Stout
2:55 p.m. – Eliot Baker vs. Jase Summy
