Walker Cup: A Huge Nightmare for the American "DreamTeam"

The Great Britain & Ireland (GB&I) Walker Cup Team defeated one of the best U. S. Walker Cup teams that has ever been assembled.  It was a “Dream Team” loaded with some of the best American amateur golfing talent ever to lace up golf shoes. The combination of the Royal Aberdeen links, heavy winds and the feisty underdog GB&I team proved to be too much for the Americans lads.

This was the 43^rd time the Walker Cup Matches have been held.  The contest pits a team of the best amateur golfers from the United States against a team of the best amateur golfers from Great Britain & Ireland.  They are contested over two days and are comprised of four foursome (alternate shot) matches on Saturday morning and eight singles matches in the afternoon.  On Sunday the teams again play four foursome matches in the morning session followed by ten singles matches in the afternoon finale.

The first Walker Cup Matches were held in 1922 at the National Golf Links of America in Southampton, N.Y. That first U. S. team included legendary amateur golfers Charles (Chick) Evans Jr, Francis Ouimet and Bobby Jones Jr. They claimed the Walker Cup with a 8-4 win over GB&I. 

The United States has held a definite advantage over the years with an overall record of 34-7-1. The 2011 U. S. Team was comprised of some very highly touted youngsters. 

UCLA sophomore and No. 1 ranked World Amateur Golfer Patrick Cantlay is coming off of one of the most remarkable summer vacations of all time.  Besides being runner-up at the U. S. Amateur, he was the low amateur at the 2011 U. S. Open held at soggy Congressional and set a course record 60 in the PGA Tour’s Traveler’s Championship held at TPC River Highlands. He also finished in the top 25 in all five of the PGA Tour events that he played in over the summer. He would have earned around $750,000 in pro money.  That would definitely have kept him in pizza and beer at school this fall.  Cantlay finished 2.5-1.5 in the Walker Cup.

Former SMU golfer, Kelly Kraft had to get past Cantlay in the 36 hole match play finale to claim the 2011 U. S. Amateur championship at the end of August, held at Erin Hills just outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  He was definitely on a roll and one of the hottest golfers on the team heading into the Walker Cup, but could not cope with the cold, windy conditions at Royal Aberdeen and came away empty handed, 0-4.

A pair of University of Georgia teammates, Harris English and Russell Henley both captured titles this summer on the Nationwide Tour.  Henley outlasted the pros on his home course in May at the Stadion Classic at UGA. English won the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational held at OSU Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio in July.  Henley finished 1-2 and English was 2-2.

Not to be overlooked was the 2010 U. S. Amateur Champ, Peter Uhlein, who has had an outstanding collegiate career and will be entering his final year at perennial golf powerhouse, Oklahoma State.  Uhlein played in all four sessions with a record of 2-2.

Add a couple of teenage golfing sensations, University of Texas bound Jordan Spieth and Stanford frosh to be Patrick Rodgers—ranked No. 2 and No. 3 in the world respectively—and you have a team of biblical proportions that certainly would sweep the GB&I team off their feet and bring home the Walker Cup for a 35^th time. 

Spieth and Rodgers were paired together and first off on Sunday morning.  They won the only half point that the American team could muster in the Sunday Foursome matches.  Both left Royal Aberdeen undefeated, garnering 2.5 points each and accounting for nearly half of the point total for the American team.

GB&I won the overall scoring for the Walker Cup 14-12 and blitzed the American Team 6.5-1.5 in the eight foursome matches.  This seems to be the trend in all U. S. golf team competitions.  Dig a big hole by losing the team matches and try to dig themselves out in the singles matches.  This time the Americans just got too far behind.  Although they won 10.5 of the 18 points from singles, it just wasn’t enough.

Congratulations to GB&I Captain Nigel Edwards and his team.  They understood that singularly they could not match up with the American team.  Edwards placed the emphasis on the team portion of the matches and his strategy was rewarded.

It all adds up to a huge nightmare for the American “Dream Team."