{"id":836681,"date":"2026-09-04T22:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T22:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/836681\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T22:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T22:44:11","slug":"walker-cup-pairings-saturday-foursomes-will-include-preston-stout-ethan-fang-no-jack-whaley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/836681\/","title":{"rendered":"Walker Cup pairings: Saturday foursomes will include Preston Stout, Ethan Fang; no Jack Whaley"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAHINCH, Ireland \u2013 When the McCormack Medal was handed out during Thursday evening\u2019s Walker Cup gala at Lahinch Golf Club<\/a>, the recipient, Preston Stout, wasn\u2019t there to accept it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, he can\u2019t be here tonight as he is feeling unwell,\u201d R&A CEO Mark Darbon told the room, which was missing Stout and two of his American teammates, William Jennings and Ethan Fang, who had missed the entirety of Thursday\u2019s practice while dealing with stomach illnesses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

U.S. captain Nathan Smith contended the situation was nowhere near as dire as 2021 at Seminole, where 16 members of both teams were affected by a stomach bug. But just in case, Smith phoned first alternate Max Herendeen<\/a> \u2014 who was back on campus at the University of Illinois \u2014 and told him to be on standby.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt turned out we really didn\u2019t have to do much because they\u2019re all available,\u201d Smith said on Friday afternoon after all three sick players returned to at least hit balls, chip and putt; Stout and Fang even joined their teammates, playing as a sevensome, for the last bit of their practice round.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we can only play eight three out of the four matches. But the guys are ready. We were ready to pivot if we had to, but I think we feel good about our teams that we\u2019re going to be sending out in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Jennings will sit Saturday morning\u2019s foursomes session, Stout and Fang will team for a third time after going 0-2 as a foursomes duo at last year\u2019s Walker Cup at Cypress Point. They will face the lone Irishman, Stuart Grehan, who has played Lahinch an estimated 30 to 40 times and will team with England\u2019s Eliot Baker.<\/p>\n

Scotland\u2019s Connor Graham and England\u2019s Tyler Weaver will reunited for Great Britain and Ireland. They took down Jackson Koivun and Tommy Morrison on Saturday morning at Cypress before falling to the same pair the next day. This Saturday, Graham and Weaver draw Kihei Akina and Jay Leng, the latter of whom is arguably the hottest player on the planet having won the Western Amateur and finished second at the U.S. Amateur in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

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\"Image<\/p>\n

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Watch the leading male amateurs compete in Day 1 of the 2026 Walker Cup at Lahinch Golf Club in County Clare, Ireland.<\/p>\n

As expected, American teens Miles Russell and Tyler Watts, ranked fifth and second in the world, respectively, will partner opposite Englishman Luke Poulter and Sam Easterbook. It\u2019s believed to be the first time ever that two players who have yet to hit a college-golf shot have teamed in an opening Walker Cup session<\/a>; Jordan Spieth and Patrick Rodgers were sat for the first session in 2011.<\/p>\n

The anchor match will pit Scotland\u2019s Niall Sheils Donegan and England\u2019s Josh Hill, a surprise selection, against Ryder Cowan and Josiah Gilbert.<\/p>\n

Sitting for GB&I captain Dean Robertson are Englishmen Ben Bolton, who is not 100%, and Jack Whaley, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion. Whaley\u2019s absence marks the third time in the last four Walker Cups that the U.S. Amateur winner has sat the first session; Mason Howell (2025) and Ty Strafaci (2021) were the others during that span. The sitting U.S. Amateur champion hasn\u2019t won his opening match since Matt Fitzpatrick in 2013.<\/p>\n

Here are the complete Saturday foursomes pairings and starting times:<\/p>\n

Stuart Grehan\/Eliot Baker vs. Preston Stout\/Ethan Fang, 3:30 a.m. ETConnor Graham\/Tyler Weaver vs. Kihei Akina\/Jay Leng, 3:40 a.m. ETSam Easterbrook\/Luke Poulter vs. Miles Russell\/Tyler Watts, 3:50 a.m. ETNiall Sheils Donegan\/Josh Hill vs. Ryder Cowan\/Josiah Gilbert, 4 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

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\"The<\/p>\n

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Burko and Brentley are live from Lahinch Golf Club in Ireland, and after a few days walking the course, talking to players and captains, and enjoying the town, they are ready to preview the 51st Walker Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAHINCH, Ireland \u2013 When the McCormack Medal was handed out during Thursday evening\u2019s Walker Cup gala at Lahinch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-836681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}