Teams from Europe won the 2012 Ryder Cup and the 2013 Solheim Cup, but the Walker Cup is coming back to the United States.
The U.S. Walker Cup Team polished off the team from Great Britain & Ireland by a 17-9 margin on Sunday.
GB&I won the last Walker Cup in 2011 at Royal Aberdeen in Scotland. The 2011 U.S. Walker Cup team consisted of top amateurs, Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Harris English, Peter Uihlein and Russell Henley. Many considered the 2011 U.S. Walker Cup team to be one of the finest in the history of the competition, but they couldn’t handle the Europeans at home in Scotland.
The 2011 GB&I Team was not impressed with the American Team. They dominated in the foursomes winning 6.5 of the possible eight points in the two foursome sessions.
Even though the U.S. Team won 10.5 points in the singles matches they could not catch GB&I and lost 14-12.
The 2013 U.S. Walker Cup team vowed to not repeat the failure of that 2011 team and took back the cup with solid play from the entire ten-member team.
Saturday morning foursomes found GB&I once again taking an early advantage. They won two matches outright and halved a third giving them the 2.5-1.5 lead.
The Americans rolled in the Saturday afternoon singles matches, however. They won the first six matches out, halved the seventh and only Patrick Rodgers lost to Gavin Moyniham in the final singles match.
This gave the U.S. Team an 8-4 lead after the first day of play and put the GB&I Team in a very big hole.
GB&I could only manage to split the Sunday morning foursomes 2-2 with the Americans and were down by a score of 10-6 heading to the final singles session.
Once again the U.S. Team dominated in singles play. They won seven of the ten matches and the Walker Cup by a 17-9 total score.
Even though the U.S. Team has an overall 35-8-1 record over the GB&I Team, the past ten competitions have seen each team winning five cups.
Many Walker Cup participants have gone onto find success on the PGA and European Tours. Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Webb Simpson and Rory McIlroy are just a few PGA Tour champions that competed in the Walker Cup as amateurs.
The 2013 Walker Cup was played on the National Golf Links in Southampton, New York. It hosted the first Walker Cup in 1922 and provided an excellent venue to host the competition 91 years later.
The Walker Cup always gives golf fans a chance to see the best young amateurs in action over one of the best golf courses in the world.
Remember the names, you will be seeing them winning on the PGA Tour soon.