Pebble Beach, California – The UK and Ireland Walker Cup team’s journey to Cypress Point passed through Stanford University last Friday. There, 10 visitors continued their drive to the Monterey Peninsula. However, about 30 minutes to the last two hours of the two-hour leg, the team bus broke down and stuck on the side of the road for nearly two hours.
“Something about the turbo just exploded,” Luke Poulter said. “We’ve heard pop, then we’re round this corner and doing this massive climb before us.”
Perhaps there is no better relative phor.
Entering this 50th Walker Cup, the US dominated the competition, leading the greatest series of all time, earning four straights and eight straights out of the last 10 editions. At home, the Americans were almost invincible, falling only twice in American soil.
The Walker Cup doesn’t necessarily win on paper, but US teams certainly enjoy the advantages of clear rankings. This year’s team is no different as the American team boasts the top six players in the world’s No. 1 Jackson Kovrun and the world’s top six amateur golf rankings.
The GB&I team doesn’t even have six in the top 50. Tyler Weaver is the top-ranked player in the world, ranked 10th.
“From a legacy perspective, we have no illusions about how challenging we are, playing against such a powerful US team, perhaps the most powerful paper ever, on the paper we’ve ever built,” said GB&I Captain Dean Robertson, who went through his own drab as a player on the GB&I team, which suffered a 14-point defeat at Interlachen in 1993.
“But we look forward to it.”
Available for just 26 points in two days, Robertson and US Captain Nathan Smith recognize the importance of Fast Starts. The US has overcome the fact that they have not claimed a single opening foursome session in their winning streak of four matches, but they can’t afford to get off early as GB&I has never won the Away Walker Cup when they lose a Fourthorm session.
Visitors cleaned the Fourthom with both GB&I victory on American lawns at Peach Tree in 1989 and Ocean Forest in 2001. Robertson hopes to send out the same lineup Saturday morning from last month’s St. Andrew Strophy.
“I know that the foursome pairing is probably a few weeks, quite a few weeks,” Robertson said. “…afternoon singles, not that much.”
Ah, single. In the last 10 Walker Cups, GB&I has brought Foursomes Ledger to less than one point, but in the singles it went from 73.5-102.5 at Chicago Golf Club since 2005.
Deep down, Smith knows his group is considered a heavy favorite, but he still hasn’t taken anything for granted.
“Every team is different. …the captain is different, the players are different. That’s 0-0,” Smith said. “If you look at the teams over the past few years, there are a lot of people out of the 10 players playing college golf. …I think this is one of the best teams I’ve seen in a while. I think that when I’m talking about those games, all of them were very close.
“This week will be a big test for us.”
Saturday
Foursome
8am Pt -Tyler Weaver/Connor Graham vs. Jackson Birch/Tommy Morrison
8:15 AM -Luke Poulter/Charlie Forster vs. Ben James/Stewart Hagestad
8:30am – Stuart Grehan/Eliot Baker vs. Preston Stout/Ethan Fan
8:45 AM – Cameron Adam/Dominique Clemons vs. Jays Sammy/Michael Lassasso
single
1:45 PM PT – Tyler Weaver vs. Jackson Birch
1:55pm – Shields Donaghan vs. Jacob Modresky
2:05 PM – Luke Poulter vs. Mason Howell
2:15pm – Conner Graham vs Benjames
2:25 PM – Gavin Tiernan vs. Stewart Hagestad
2:35 pm – Stuart Grehan vs. Ethan Fun
2:45pm – Charlie Forster vs. Preston Stout
2:55pm – Elliot Baker vs. Jace Sammy
