This article originally appeared in the September issue of NCGA Golf Magazine
Team USA Rolls to Victory at the 50th Walker Cup at Cypress Point
Team USA broke open what was a tight contest at Cypress Point Club to leave the visiting Great Britain and Ireland side in a fog, rolling to a 17-9 victory in the 50th edition of the biennial Walker Cup.
The USA has now won five consecutive Walker Cups since its defeat at Royal Lytham & St. Annes in 2015, and owns a 40-9-1 overall mark.
GB&I has only won twice on American soil, in 1989 and 2001, both coincidentally contested in the state of Georgia.
“I'm just blown away,” said USA captain Nathan Smith. “They showed up all weekend, in both Singles matches in the afternoon, and I don't know if I've ever seen a Walker Cup team bring it like they did this afternoon in Singles.”
Saturday’s opening action featured spectacular conditions that even had some fans looking for shade to cool off. On Sunday, the blue skies disappeared as Monterey Peninsula fog crept back in.
The event marked the first time that Cypress Point Club hosted the event since 1981. Attendance was limited to around 3,000 spectators per day, with tickets going as high as $1,000 once the event began.
Auburn University junior and Junior Tour of Northern California alum Jackson Koivun, and 18-year-old Mason Howell, whose victory at the U.S. Amateur at The Olympic Club earned the Georgia high school senior a spot on the 10-man team, were the two American stars.
Koivun, the No.1 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking/WAGR and a San Jose native, won both of his Singles encounters against Florida State standout Tyler Weaver, GB&I’s highest-ranked player at No. 10 in the WAGR, on his way to posting a 3-1 mark. Howell went 2-0-1 to join Jordan Spieth (2011) as the youngest players with the best overall record in USA Walker Cup history.
Three-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion Stewart Hagestad, a broker for BDT & MSD Partners competing in his fifth Walker Cup, secured the clinching 13th point to guarantee the Americans retained the Cup with his 4-and-3 victory over Eliot Baker, holing a 20-foot birdie putt on the 15th green to close it out and make him 7-1 overall in singles play. All five of the USA Teams that Hagestad has played on have claimed the Cup.
“We came here with a focus to raise our standard, to emulate what's only been done twice in 100 years, which is to beat the U.S. [on the road],” said GB&I captain Dean Robertson. “But Nathan's team, big congratulations to them. They played fantastic.”
Niall Shiels Donegan, a Scotland native who has spent the past 17 years living in Mill Valley and also competed on the Junior Tour of Northern California in the past, played for Team GB&I.
Donegan, who was a local favorite at this summer’s U.S. Amateur at The Olympic Club, finished Walker Cup play with a 2-1 record.
