{"id":883142,"date":"2026-09-07T10:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T10:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/883142\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T10:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T10:32:10","slug":"the-walker-cup-was-the-most-exciting-golf-event-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/883142\/","title":{"rendered":"The Walker Cup was the most exciting golf event of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\tGreat Britain and Ireland defeated the United States of America 13\u00bd-12\u00bd to win the 51st Walker Cup at Lahinch<\/a> in one of the most dramatic finishes in the match\u2019s 104 year history.<\/p>\n

\tTrailing 9\u00bd-6\u00bd going into this afternoon\u2019s singles session, Dean Robertson\u2019s side conjured up a comeback for the ages which culminated in Josh Hill securing the winning point on the 18th hole with the last putt of the match to secure GB&I\u2019s first victory in the historic encounter since 2015 at Royal Lytham and St Annes.<\/p>\n

\tThe victory by GB&I at the iconic links on the County Clare coast ends the streak of five victories in the Walker Cup by the USA and is GB&I\u2019s tenth win overall.<\/p>\n

\t\"Walker<\/p>\n

\t(Image Credit: The R&A)<\/p>\n

\tFoursomes<\/p>\n

\tThe USA swept the morning foursomes 4-0 for the first time since the 2007 match at Royal County Down to cruise into a 9\u00bd-6\u00bd lead before this afternoon\u2019s singles.<\/p>\n

\tWorld number one Preston Stout and Ethan Fang got the better of home favourite Stuart Grehan and Eliot Baker by a 3&2 margin, highlighted by an eagle two at the par-4 13th.<\/p>\n

\tWith the scoreboard turning red in favour of the visitors, Kihei Akina and Jay Leng Jr edged the USA in front in the match overall with a resounding 4&3 defeat of Luke Poulter and Sam Easterbrook, before William Jennings and Ryder Cowan dominated their encounter with Niall Sheils Donegan and Josh Hill to win by the same margin.<\/p>\n

\tThis morning\u2019s complete dominance by the USA was confirmed shortly after thanks to Miles Russell and Tyler Watts beating Tyler Weaver and Connor Graham 3&2.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tSingles<\/p>\n

\tUS Amateur Champion Jack Whaley got GB&I\u2019s comeback effort off to a flying start when he blew away William Jennings 8&7 to reduce the deficit to two points. In doing so he equalled the second largest margin of victory in a singles match in the Walker Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\tGrehan, the lone Irishman in Robertson\u2019s side, then delighted the home galleries by coming back from two holes down against Stout to win 2&1 in the top match of the draw before Poulter drew the sides level at 9\u00bd-9\u00bd by defeating Fang 3&1.<\/p>\n

\tHome hopes rose further when Weaver edged GB&I back in front in the match with a convincing 4&3 scoreline against Leng Jr while Donegan kept his composure at the last to secure a vital half against Akina after the American missed a putt to win the match from close range.<\/p>\n

\tThe USA responded shortly after when Josiah Gilbert defeated Sam Easterbrook 4&3. Baker then claimed another point for the hosts when he birdied the last against Walker Cup veteran Stewart Hagestad to win by one hole before Cowan looked to have put the visitors in a commanding position as the match headed towards its conclusion with a 3&2 defeat of Ben Bolton.<\/p>\n

\tWith only two matches left out on the course, the USA only needed a point to retain the trophy while GB&I needed one and a half points to win the match outright.<\/p>\n

\tGraham secured an important half point in his match against Russell, coming back from three down at the 11th, to win the last with a birdie and leave Hill requiring a point against Watts in the last match on course.<\/p>\n

\tThe Englishman found the greenside bunker with his approach but dug deep to produce a wonderful recovery which left him a three foot putt. With Watts unable to convert his birdie chance from long range, Hill calmly holed out to delight the thousands of fans thronging around the 18th arena and set off celebrations which will go late into the night.<\/p>\n

\tDean Robertson, captain, Great Britain and Ireland, said:<\/p>\n

\t“We are so elated. We’re hardly able to put it into words. There’s a lot of emotion, a lot of happy tears. But pride, pride is the word I would use to describe this.<\/p>\n

\t“There was most definitely a belief in the players and even though we were swept 4-0 this morning, there wasn’t a despondency. The American team were outstanding this morning. The quality of the golf was sensational. It really was and you’ve really just got to tip your cap and say well played.<\/p>\n

\t“When we came in at lunch time I had to change the order and we had to bring some energy so that we could feed off of that. Stuart Grehan, he brought the energy, as did Luke Poulter, Jack Whaley, and Tyler Weaver. They kind of started to kind of grow from there. And then Josh Hill produced a Matt Fitzpatrick bunker shot at the last and holed it and we’ve got the Walker Cup.<\/p>\n

\t“The boys have delivered and I am incredibly proud of each and every one of them.”<\/p>\n

\tOther Content to Read<\/p>\n

\tNathan Smith, captain, United States of America, commenteed:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t“The match was incredible. It was definitely a tale of two days with what happened this morning and going forward now and how they played this afternoon.<\/p>\n

\t“We knew how great their team was. They’re a great team. They’re a deep team. We knew they were capable of anything. Really at no time did we take the foot off the accelerator. But they played great. All you can do is really tip your cap to them. They played great.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Great Britain and Ireland defeated the United States of America 13\u00bd-12\u00bd to win the 51st Walker Cup at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-883142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}