Opening Golf to the World
Walker Cup
How George Herbert Walker's vision shapes the 51st Walker Cup
01 Sep 26
4 mins
The best male amateur golfers from Great Britain and Ireland and the United States of America assemble at Lahinch for the 51st Walker Cup because of George Herbert Walker’s vision.
Walker was United States Golf Association (USGA) President in 1920 when he travelled with other USGA officials to St Andrews for meetings with The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews. Walker left the home of golf with an idea that changed amateur golf forever. An international match was suggested during the meetings, a notion that captivated Walker. He returned home and began planning. The contest was initially to feature multiple countries but pared down to a match between the USA and GB&I. Walker loved the proposal. Born in St Louis in 1875, Walker studied at Stonyhurst in Clitheroe, England, before going on to Washington University. Hence he had a deep connection to the British Isles. Walker’s idea was outlined at a USGA meeting at the Links Club, Manhattan on 21 December 1920. He also donated a trophy and the Walker Cup was born. The inaugural match was held in 1922 but an informal contest took place at Hoylake in 1921. William C Fownes Jnr, the 1910 US Amateur champion, captained a USA team featuring Bobby Jones, Francis Ouimet and Chick Evans to a 9-3 victory over a GB&I side including Roger Wethered, Cyril Tolley and Tommy Armour.Archive footage from the first Walker Cup match in 1922.
Fownes captained the USA team to an 8-4 victory the following year at the National Golf Links of America. That inaugural match set a template of USA victories and GB&I losses. The USA won the first nine matches.
GB&I had to wait until 1938 to taste victory, a 7-4 win at St Andrews. It didn’t stop American dominance. The sides drew in 1965 before GB&I won again in 1971, again at St Andrews. That victory did not stem the American tide either. GB&I waited another 18 years for success with the 1989 victory at Peachtree Golf Club in Georgia the first GB&I win on USA soil.
It took a 19-5 drubbing at Interlachen in 1993, a match featuring this year’s home captain Dean Robertson, for change. A squad system was introduced for the 1995 match at Royal Porthcawl with potential team members gathering ahead of the match. The system paid off: the home team emerged victorious over an American side led by Tiger Woods.
That 1995 win brought parity to the contest with the sides splitting the next ten matches five apiece. It included an unprecedented three straight GB&I victories from 1999. However, since GB&I’s 2015 win at Royal Lytham & St Annes, the USA has resumed its dominance. The men in red, white and blue have won the last five matches.
Scrutiny of the World Amateur Golf Ranking® (WAGR®) offers perhaps some explanation. The last five matches have featured USA teams with an average world ranking position far higher than GB&I sides. The American team at Cypress Point last year had an average WAGR® ranking of 23 versus 96 for GB&I; in 2023 it was eight against 87; in 2021 13 against 69; in 2019 14 versus 48; and 16 compared to 39 in 2017.
The winning GB&I Team with the Walker Cup at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 2015.
Once again, this year the American team is the stronger on paper. However, that was the case in 2015 and 2011 when one factor arguably benefited GB&I: home course advantage.
Jordan Spieth, world number one Patrick Cantlay, Peter Uihlein, Harris English, Patrick Rodgers and Russell Henley, six of the world top ten, played in the 2011 USA team at Royal Aberdeen. Yet the visitors couldn’t cope with the wind and rain that swept over the Balgownie links and lost 14-12 to Nigel Edwards’ team.
Bryson DeChambeau spearheaded an American side at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 2015, one of six of the world’s top ten against GB&I’s one: seventh ranked Ashley Chesters. Yet another Edwards-led GB&I team triumphed, 16½- 9½ on a course they knew far better from playing the prestigious Lytham Trophy on an annual basis.
GB&I Captain Robertson knows Lahinch is perhaps the equaliser. He knows Walker Cups are not played on paper. He will be hoping the links of Lahinch add parity to this year’s eagerly-awaited encounter.
To view the full list of Walker Cup matches and scores, click here.