Pebble Beach, California – Stewart Balde Stud is becoming synonymous with the Walker Cup.
The 34-year-old middle school student from Newport Beach, California, has represented the United States in his past five matches against the UK and Ireland. He doesn’t have many foursome records, but “stew” is almost invincible when it comes to singles.
And on Sunday, when his team was looking for something closer at Cypress Point, Baldstad was there again. The bald stud saw him swipe a broom putter with a golf ball and bump towards the back of the cup, in the perfect blend of land, sea and mist. You will not leave the center. The crowd exploded, vibrating the mist that engulfed the Monterey Peninsula. That’s over.
The Baldey of Bald Stud on the par 3 15th hole Sunday afternoon was a US maintenance point for the 2025 Walker Cup. It helped the Americans win five straight wins, topped with GB&I 17, the biggest winning margin since 2017. Always in the Walker Cup Singles competition, he remains unbeaten 5-0 as a player in the match.
“I think with a single you can get hooked on your space and focus like what you’re doing,” Hagestad said. “As you’re the older guy you have, you probably value the team component of it more, and that might help reduce the pressure a little from the singles.”
US Captain Nathan Smith is a four-time US mid-amateur champion and three-time Walker Copper, giving a big hug to Bald Stud when the two hugged the 16th tee. Perhaps Smith is looking at Hagestad’s future as Shue-in to become the Walker Cup captain, but his playing days in the competition seem far from the end in the next competition at Rahinch next year.
And the stew is far from the only dominant performance on Sunday, starting at Cypress Point, ranked number one on the best list of US classic courses in Golf Week, and some holes were lost while cloaking in the marine layers, basking in the sun before the fog erupted around 5pm local time.
When Hagestad and Baker stepped into the 15 greens, the flag was barely visible just 130 yards away. They looked at each other, shrugged, and both hit shots. However, when Baker missed putts on a similar line to Baldstad, the latter didn’t miss his opportunity, as he scored clinch points at the Los Angeles Country Club in the first Walker Cup in 2017.
“Stew and I think we’ve had a relationship and we’ve had a great relationship for years,” Smith said. “I think that’s what he did in some mid-ams that he plays in the majors, and that brought us a bit together. He asked me a question.
“Then I loved his game, respected his game, was the captain of the Walker Cup team and couldn’t imagine him not on my team. He played incredible this summer, and he chased it.
Around the same time Hagestad scored the retention points, it was world No. 4 Preston Stout who scored victory points, throwing the darts to No. 17, knocking off Luke Poulter, 2 and 1.
The US led one point ahead of Sunday’s singles, with Smith sending the world’s No. 1 Jackson Covon first, as he did in the previous three sessions. He then sent Tommy Morrison. Then, our amateur champions Mason Howell and Stout. Then Ethan Fun, Hagstad, Ben James and Jace Sammy.
All of these eight players are ranked within the top 10 of the world’s amateur golf rankings, have Walker Cup experience, or in Howell’s case, they have proven matchplay winners. And they proved that.
In their first eight games, the US scored 7½ of the 8 points available. In the overall singles, he scored 8½ of the 10 points. The results were focused as more groups marched on courses designed by Alistair Mackenzie when the game began, as the boards were lit up red. As if there was a question in the first place.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a Walker Cup team bring it like this afternoon in the singles,” Smith said.
Even as the celebration began on the course, the match was still played in the thick fog. But the words of American success quickly crossed, as if the mist was carrying it all across the course. Players marched through the fog and marched into the holes they had made in the match, waiting for celebration and encouragement. Even Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley tweeted congratulations to the Walker Cup team, and Bryson Deccanbo gave his team encouragement on Saturday night on Sunday.
But in a competition where there is a lot of juice shortage (the US currently leads the best series 40-9-1 of all time), the Americans have confirmed that there is no drama on the world’s most dramatic course. The only theater in the stretch was where the ball landed as it fell out of the fog.
“We still had to win, but we’re hating Nathan Smith and the US team because we were outstanding in singles this afternoon,” said GB&I captain Dean Robertson. “In fact, they were both days on singles, and that was really the difference. The US teams drilled more putts at key moments that were important putts.”
You won’t wait for two years for the next Walker Cup. This is because next year, competitions will be held before returning to the two-year schedule to escape from the Ryder Cup on a calendar. I’ll head to Ireland in Rahinch in 2026.
