USA Walker Cup Team Leaves GB&I in Fog, Rolls to 8-Point Win at Cypress Point

Perhaps it was apropos that the fog rolled into the Monterey Peninsula late Sunday afternoon. As the sun-splashed day morphed into a grey mist, the USA Walker Cup Team broke open what was a tight contest at Cypress Point to leave the visiting Great Britain and Ireland side in a fog, rolling to a 17-9 victory in the 50th edition of the biennial competition.

Dominating the singles portion for a second consecutive day, the USA produced 8.5 of the available 10 points after the two teams split the morning foursomes session (2-2) and trailed by a point going into the lunch break. Since 2009, when the Match expanded to 10 Sunday singles matches, it was the largest margin of victory in a final session (8-1-1), surpassing the two 8-2 marks in 2017 and ’19.

The USA, which won 5.5 of the eight available singles points on Saturday, has now won five consecutive Walker Cups since its defeat at Royal Lytham & St. Annes in 2015, and owns a 40-9-1 overall mark.

GB&I has only won twice on American soil, in 1989 and 2001, both coincidentally contested in the state of Georgia.

“I'm just blown away,” said USA captain Nathan Smith. “They showed up all weekend, in both singles matches in the afternoon, and I don't know if I've ever seen a Walker Cup team bring it like they did this afternoon in singles.”

Auburn University junior Jackson Koivun, the No. 1 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR®, and 18-year-old Mason Howell, whose victory in last month’s U.S. Amateur at The Olympic Club earned the Georgia high school senior a spot on the 10-man team, were the two American stars.

Koivun, who won both of his singles encounters against Florida State standout Tyler Weaver, GB&I’s highest-ranked player at No. 10 in the WAGR, posted a 3-1 mark, while Howell went 2-0-1 to join Jordan Spieth (2011) as the youngest players with the best overall record in USA Walker Cup history. But unlike Spieth, a future three-time major champion, Howell’s team hoisted the Cup at the Match’s conclusion. Koivun defeated Weaver, 3 and 2, and Howell, after producing two heroic shots during the morning foursomes session, tied fellow 18-year-old Connor Graham, a sophomore at Texas Tech who became the youngest player in Walker Cup history two years ago at St. Andrews.

Three-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Stewart Hagestad, a broker for BDT & MSD Partners competing in his fifth Walker Cup, secured the 13th point to guarantee the Americans retained the Cup with his 4-and-3 victory over Eliot Baker, holing a 20-foot birdie putt on the 15th green to close it out and make him 7-1 overall in singles play. All five of the USA Teams that Hagestad has played on have claimed the Cup.

Shortly thereafter, Preston Stout, who led Oklahoma State to the NCAA title this past spring, handed Luke Poulter a 2-and-1 defeat to give the USA its 14th point and ensure there would be no tie.

Tommy Morrison, Ethan Fang, Ben James, Jase Summy and Jacob Modleski added singles victories. Gavin Tiernan, of the Republic of Ireland, who was the lowest-ranked player in the Match at No. 465, had the lone singles victory for GB&I. The runner-up to Fang in this year’s Amateur Championship at Royal St. George’s, in England, defeated Michael La Sasso, 2 and 1.

Morrison, a University of Texas All-American, defeated Niall Shiels Donegan, a Scotland native who has spent the past 17 years living in Mill Valley, Calif., 3 and 2. Fang had the session’s largest victory, a 5-and-4 decision over Stuart Grehan, a 32-year-old reinstated amateur from Ireland. James, a University of Virginia senior who along with Hagestad was a member of the victorious 2023 USA Team, edged Charlie Forster, 1 up.

Reigning Western Amateur champion Summy, a University of Oklahoma standout who matched Koivun with a 3-1 overall mark, defeated left-hander Cameron Adam, 3 and 1, and Modleski, the first golfer from the University of Notre Dame to compete in the Walker Cup, took the anchor match, 1 up, over Dominic Clemons. 

“We came here with a focus to raise our standard, to emulate what's only been done twice in 100 years, which is to beat the U.S. [on the road],” said GB&I captain Dean Robertson. “But Nathan's team, big congratulations to them. They've played fantastic.

“We were in it. We fought hard. Our foursomes performances were exceptional. But for a few putts, I think the big difference for us is we need to be better putters.”

GB&I had high hopes going into the lunch break after gaining a split out of the morning foursomes contests, thanks to an amazing comeback in Match 2.

Four down with eight to play, Poulter and Forster won five of the next six holes to completely flip their match against Oklahoma State teammates Fang and Stout to register a remarkable 1-up victory. That offset a rough finish by GB&I’s Graham and Weaver, who saw a 1-up lead against Koivun and Morrison evaporate with two costly bogeys on 17 and 18 in a 1-up loss.

The shot of the day came from Howell, who holed out a pitching wedge from 147 yards on No. 17 for a walk-off eagle 2 and a 3-and-1 victory with partner Modleski over Baker and Grehan. It came two holes after he rolled in a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-3 15th hole.

Adam and Shiels Donegan produced the other GB&I foursomes win, a 2-and-1 decision over La Sasso and Summy.  

Notable

• The next Walker Cup will take place one year from now at Lahinch Golf Club, in the Republic of Ireland. The Match is shifting to even-numbered years, so the Walker and Curtis Cups don’t conflict with the World Amateur Team Championships (odd years). The next Walker Cup in the U.S. will be in 2028 at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon. Nathan Smith will captain the 2026 USA Team.
  
  
• The last set of college teammates to play together in foursomes at a Walker Cup before Oklahoma State’s Ethan Fang and Preston Stout this week at Cypress Point came in the 2013 Match at National Golf Links of America. University of Alabama standouts Cory Whitsett and Bobby Wyatt were paired for both foursomes sessions, while University of California mates Michael Kim and Max Homa teamed up on Day 2. Whitsett and Wyatt went 1-0-1, and Kim and Homa won their match in the USA’s 17-9 victory.
  
  
• Ex-Northwestern teammates and Scotland natives Cameron Adam and Niall Shiels Donegan also paired up for a 2-and-1 victory in Sunday foursomes. Donegan transferred to the University of North Carolina over the summer after two seasons on the Evanston, Ill., campus, while Adam graduated in May.  
  
  
• For Ethan Fang and world No. 1 Jackson Koivun, there will be no rest from high-level golf competition. Both will play in this coming week’s PGA Tour stop in nearby Napa on sponsor’s exemptions.
  
  
• Nine-time PGA Tour winner and 1997 U.S. Amateur champion Matt Kuchar attended his second USGA championship of the summer as a spectator. A member of the 1999 USA Walker Cup Team, Kuchar supported his son, Cameron Kuchar, at this year’s U.S. Junior Amateur in July. Kuchar brought Cameron with him  to Cypress Point to check out Sunday’s action.
  
  
• The eight career points won by Stewart Hagestad moved the Southern California native into a tie for 10th all-time with Charles Coe.
  
  
• Nineteen of the 20 players in the Match produced at least one point. Dominic Clemons went 0-2 for GB&I.
  
  
• Playing for the USA is not over this year for Mason Howell, Ethan Fang and Preston Stout. All three are headed to Singapore in October to compete in the World Amateur Team Championship.

Quotable

“It's just an emotion I've never had in anything. It's hard to describe until you do it. I think the only thing I can say, I was just so honored to be their captain. Not only how they played on the course, how they gelled as a team, how they bonded, what everyone brought to the team. It was a level of professionalism, how they conducted themselves, how they went about getting ready to play. I'm just honored. I'm so lucky.” – USA captain Nathan Smith

“I was honored to go out first. I like going out early, like going out there and trying to get a point for the team and then going to cheer the guys on. I felt like I was right where I needed to be, and just happy that I could go get the job done, and then watch some great, great golf from my teammates coming down the stretch.” – Jackson Koivun on being sent out first in singles both Saturday and Sunday

“I couldn't even tell you what's been going on these last two months. It's been so much fun, and to do it with my family by my side the whole way, yeah, I look forward to keep going up, bring another USA victory in Singapore coming up, and I'm so much to look forward to next year, and just keep working hard, keep getting better, and hopefully some good results will keep coming.” – Mason Howell

“Cypress Point, the golf club, has been an amazing experience. The memories these kids are going to have are going to last a lifetime, and for a number of them they're going to get to come back I'm sure to Lahinch in a year's time, and they're doing to have to do it all again, but it's not going to be any easier; it's going to be equally as difficult. But they certainly have got the talent, and with a little bit of belief and a little bit more growth in their careers, then Lahinch could well be a real exciting match.” – GB&I captain Dean Robertson

“Obviously, we come here to win, and obviously everyone is a little disappointed, but I think we can look back knowing that we all gave it 100 percent, and I think that's all that really matters.” – Gavin Tiernan, who got the lone singles victory on Sunday

David Shefter is a senior staff writer at the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.