{"id":762216,"date":"2026-09-06T20:46:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T20:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/762216\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T20:46:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T20:46:22","slug":"walker-cup-miracle-by-the-inagh-as-great-britain-and-ireland-storm-singles-to-take-down-usa-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/762216\/","title":{"rendered":"Walker Cup: Miracle by the Inagh as Great Britain and Ireland storm singles to take down USA \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The captivation of team matchplay golf was exhibited in all of its raw beauty in this 51st edition of the Walker Cup<\/a> on the Old Course at Lahinch, as Great Britain and Ireland \u2013 seemingly with all hope lost after a disastrous whitewash in the morning foursomes \u2013 produced their very own Miracle by the Inagh estuary with a masterful singles session that saw them power back to defeat the United States by 13\u00bd to 12\u00bd to claim the prized silver trophy for the first time since 2015.<\/p>\n

And with the match on a knife-edge on an absorbing afternoon of singles played in weather that threw squalls and sunshine at the players, the outcome came down to the last putt on the last green of the last match, where Josh Hill, ranked 93rd in the world, played an exquisite bunker shot to three feet to set up a birdie to defeat world number two Tyler Watts by one hole to secure victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have lot of confidence in my bunker game anyway, but I don\u2019t really know how I handled myself over that three-footer. I was shaking. I\u2019m just glad it went in to be honest, because this is absolutely unbelievable,\u201d said Hill of his own dramatic giant-killing act that sealed the deal.<\/p>\n

Captain Dean Robertson \u2013 who had walked down the 18th fairway to let Hill know that a win, and only a win, in his match would claim the trophy \u2013 would later equate Hill\u2019s bunker shot to the one executed by Matt Fitzpatrick in capturing the US Open at Brookline. Maybe this was better, even.<\/p>\n

\"JoshJosh Hill celebrates winning his match against Tyler Watts of the USA on the 18th green at Lahinch to secure the Walker Cup for Great Britain and Ireland for the first time since 2015. Photograph: Warren Little\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Having trailed by three points headed into the final session of 10 singles, Robertson \u2013 who believed in his men even when faced with the huge task of taking down an American team featuring nine players ranked in the world\u2019s top-12 \u2013 never doubted his team when, most likely, others had lost faith.<\/p>\n

Not Robertson, though. Not the crowds, either, as the sell-out galleries of 8,000 \u2013 most in waterproofs to defy the weather \u2013 who acted the part of the 11th man in backing the fightback of fightback, for the largest comeback in Walker Cup history.<\/p>\n

Robertson changed his order on the back of the foursomes setback and front-loaded his team. The answered the call and delivered, with Stuart Grehan, the Amateur champion, leading brilliantly in taking down world number one Preston Stout for a second successive day in singles and followed in turn by Luke Poulter, Jack Whaley and Tyler Weaver to take the top four singles.<\/p>\n

Niall Sheils Donegan got a hard-earned halved match with Kihei Akini. But it remained for those behind to complete the job and, for a long time, it didn\u2019t look like they would as the Americans rallied with Josiah Gilbert and Ryder Cowan winning. <\/p>\n

\"GreatGreat Britain & Ireland players celebrate the winning putt at Lahinch Golf Club. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Yet, when it came down to it, GB&I found a way with Eliot Baker birdieing the last to defeat Stewart Hagestad; Connor Graham winning the last two holes in his match with fellow-teenager Miles Russell to claim a crucial half point, and then Hill birdieing the 18th for a one-hole win over Watts to ecstatic scenes from the galleries. In effect, those players won every hole that had to win with no room for error, margins of the most thinnest variety.<\/p>\n

This was the greatest comeback by any team in the long, rich history of the Walker Cup, eclipsing the two points fightbacks of the GB&I teams of 1971 at St Andrews and 2003 at Ganton.<\/p>\n

And when it was put to Luke Poulter \u2013 the son of Ian, part of that famed Miracle of Medinah win for Europe in the Ryder Cup of 2012 \u2013 that this possibly matched that, the younger Poulter responded: \u201cMedinah is his little thing, but this is my thing now. This is the Legend of Lahinch.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, for former tour player Robertson, a winner of the Italian Open back in 1999, the team picture eclipsed the individual one. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis absolutely supersedes everything. This is incredible,\u201d said the Scot, who had brought his team back from the heavy defeat at Cypress Point to prove their superior in dramatic fashion by the Wild Atlantic Way.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s morning foursomes: GB&I 0 USA 4<\/p>\n

Stuart Grehan\/Eliot Baker lost to Preston Stout\/Ethan Fang 3&2<\/p>\n

Luke Poulter\/Sam Easterbrook lost to Jay Leng Jnr\/Kihei Akina 4&3<\/p>\n

Tyler Weaver\/Connor Graham lost to Miles Russell\/Tyler Watts 3&2<\/p>\n

Niall Sheils Donegan\/Josh Hill lost to William Jennings\/Ryder Cowan 4&3<\/p>\n

Overall score: USA9 \u00bd GB&I 6\u00bd Sunday\u2019s afternoon singles<\/p>\n

Stuart Grehan bt Preston Stout 2&1<\/p>\n

Luke Poulter bt Ethan Fang 3&1<\/p>\n

Jack Whaley bt William Jennings 8&7<\/p>\n

Tyler Weaver bt Jay Leng Jnr 4&3<\/p>\n

Niall Sheils Donegan halved with Kihei Akina<\/p>\n

Eliot Baker bt Stewart Hagestad 1 hole<\/p>\n

Connor Graham halved with Miles Russell<\/p>\n

Josh Hill bt Tyler Watts 1 hole<\/p>\n

Ben Bolton lost to Ryder Cowan 3&2<\/p>\n

Sam Easterbrook lost to Josiah Gilbert 4&3.<\/p>\n

Singles result: GB&I 7 USA 3Day two result: GB&I 7 USA 7Overall result: GB&I 13\u00bd USA 12\u00bd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The captivation of team matchplay golf was exhibited in all of its raw beauty in this 51st edition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,245808,50,251692,56,54,55,55530],"class_list":["post-762216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-lahinch","tag-news","tag-stuart-grehan","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-walker-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}