{"id":1186443,"date":"2026-09-04T17:54:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T17:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1186443\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T17:54:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T17:54:21","slug":"walker-cup-great-britain-and-ireland-in-quest-to-prevent-sixth-consecutive-usa-win-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1186443\/","title":{"rendered":"Walker Cup: Great Britain and Ireland in quest to prevent sixth consecutive USA win \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the wind blew a hooley to test the fabric of the madly waving flags attached to swaying poles, Dean Robertson \u2013 the non-playing captain of the Great Britain and Ireland (GB&I) team aiming to end the winning streak of a United States team targeting a sixth Walker Cup<\/a> win in succession \u2013 allowed himself a wry grin.<\/p>\n

\u201cAm I happy about it? I\u2019m very happy about it,\u201d said the Scot, his wish for such windy conditions, in perhaps levelling out the examination to be played on the magnificent Old Course at Lahinch Golf Club<\/a>, coming to pass and expected to stay around for the two-day match \u2013 morning foursomes followed by afternoon singles on each day \u2013 in this 51st edition of the Walker Cup.<\/p>\n

The USA have won the past five matches, including last year\u2019s one-sided affair at Cypress Point by 17-9, but Robertson\u2019s due diligence in preparing his 10-man team, including one Irish player in Amateur champion Stuart Grehan, with advance visits to the links and using the wisdom of former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley should \u2013 especially with the wind \u2013 ensure a much closer affair.<\/p>\n

While the USA <\/a>feature seven players from the world amateur rankings\u2019 top 10, among them world number one Preston Stout and number two Tyler Watts, to just two GB&I players, Tyler Weaver (3) and Luke Poulter (7), Robertson\u2019s confidence in his men to use the pain of last year\u2019s loss as a motivating factor has fuelled the team. <\/p>\n

As Weaver put it: \u201cIt\u2019s definitely fuel to the fire. I had a challenging week last year. Obviously playing against Jackson Koivun [who won the 3M Open on the PGA Tour on his third start as a professional] was hard. He\u2019s obviously shown how great he is now on the other level.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut like I said, it\u2019s fuel to the fire. You learn so much from experiences like that. I think this year with the crowd being behind us, being on home soil, it\u2019s just even more fuel. Everything is just kind of building up to this, and we\u2019re so ready to go.\u201d <\/p>\n

Weaver has recovered from an oblique strain which limited his competitive golf through the summer.<\/p>\n

\"EliotEliot Baker and Stuart Grehan of Team GB&I during a practice round before the Walker Cup at Lahinch Golf Club on Friday. Photograph: Warren Little\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

The past few days have enabled players from both teams to become acquainted with the links and wind, to such an extent that players had an easier day of it on the final practice session before getting down to business for the actual match. For the GB&I players<\/a>, much of the shortened time on the course was confined to short game matches with each other, adding a fun element before the serious business.<\/p>\n

Can home advantage provide an edge? Only time will tell, with recent history and those world rankings weighed in favour of the Americans. Yet, familiarity \u2013 not least in Grehan\u2019s case \u2013 as well as the wind could make for a closer match, certainly than last year, in GB&I\u2019s quest to prevent a sixth straight USA win. <\/p>\n

Grehan, unsurprisingly, has been selected to play alongside Eliot Baker in the opening morning foursomes. The logic of getting Grehan out early is understandable with an 8,000 sell-out crowd. Grehan and Baker have been pitched against Stout and last year\u2019s Amateur champion Ethan Fang.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve played here a bunch of times, probably 30, 40 times out here, and I don\u2019t have to practise as much around the greens as most of the guys,\u201d said Grehan. \u201cI kind of know the little subtle breaks. I\u2019ve been trying to give my best advice to them, but look, they\u2019re all really good players and we\u2019ve done incredible prep, I feel like, over the last few days, and we\u2019ll see how it goes. But I think we\u2019re all very, very happy where we\u2019re at.\u201d <\/p>\n

Several American players had suffered from \u201ca bug\u201d, as USA captain Nathan Smith described it, which led to him considering the possibility of drafting in a reserve. However, all have recovered and Smith \u2013 a former Walker Cup player \u2013 said all 10 were fit and ready to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel good about our team. We\u2019re a very tight team. I\u2019ve got 10 guys that I\u2019ve really gotten to know real well, and I think all the guys feel that way about each other. It\u2019s a very close team, and we\u2019ll need that this weekend to hang with them because they\u2019re a really deep team, and the crowd is going to be rocking,\u201d said Smith of the bond established in their quest to extend American dominance.<\/p>\n

Robertson, too, has been impressed with his own team\u2019s bonding. But he has also looked for the sell-out crowd to provide the \u201c11th man\u201d effect, knowing any little edge could make all the difference.<\/p>\n

\"PlayersPlayers on a practice round before the Walker Cup at Lahinch Golf Club, Co Clare. Photograph: Getty Images Saturday Foursomes tee times<\/p>\n

GB&I v USA<\/b><\/p>\n

8.30am:<\/b> Stuart Grehan<\/b>\/Eliot Baker v Preston Stout\/Ethan Fang<\/p>\n

8.40am:<\/b> Connor Graham\/Tyler Weaver v Jay Leng Jnr\/Kihei Akina<\/p>\n

8.50am:<\/b> Luke Poulter\/Sam Easterbrook v Miles Russell\/Tyler Watts<\/p>\n

9.0am:<\/b> Niall Sheils Donegan\/Josh Hill v Josiah Gilbert\/Ryder Cowan<\/p>\n

Format<\/b><\/p>\n

The Walker Cup has a long-established two-day format of foursomes and singles. Each of the two competition days features foursomes matches in the morning followed by singles matches in the afternoon. On Saturday, there are eight singles matches, while all 10 players from each side compete in singles on Sunday. <\/p>\n

One full point is awarded for each victory, while a half-point is earned for matches that are all square after 18 holes. There are 26 points available. The USA needs 13 points to retain the Cup, while GB&I requires 13\u00bd points to reclaim it. GB&I last won in 2015 at Royal Lytham and St Annes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the wind blew a hooley to test the fabric of the madly waving flags attached to swaying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1186444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,221290,1144,712,16,15,1764,109238],"class_list":["post-1186443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","category-uk","category-united-kingdom","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-lahinch","tag-northern-ireland","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales","tag-walker-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117214059395956663","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1186443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1186444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1186443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1186443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1186443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}