Sports of The Times Walker Cup Returns to Roots, With a Twist By DAVE ANDERSON Published: September 1, 2013 Nearly a century later, the Walker Cup matches are returning to where they originated, the National Golf Links of America in Southampton, N.Y. The National, as it’s known, is one of golf’s cherished antiques, the site of the 44th duel Saturday and Sunday between an amateur team representing the United States and one representing Britain and Ireland. Its fabled course, designed by Charles Blair Macdonald, the father of American golf architecture, is virtually unchanged since it opened in 1911. New tees at the 7th, 14th and 16th holes have stretched it to 6,995 yards, only 122 yards longer than when Bobby Jones, Francis Ouimet and Chick Evans — three of golf’s revered names — won the inaugural cup matches there in 1922. Enriching the scene will be the National’s majestic tan stucco clubhouse and landmark windmill overlooking Peconic Bay — no different from when the 20-year-old Jones, who would win a record-sharing four United States Opens and five United States Amateur titles, teed off there. Before those 1922 matches, George Herbert Walker, the president of the United States Golf Association (and grandfather of the 41st president, George Herbert Walker Bush), put up an unnamed silver trophy for the winners. “Members of the press,” as reporters were called then, labeled it the “Walker Cup,” and it has been known as that ever since as American teams have built a 34-8-1 record in the biennial series. United States Amateur champions often led the American team. Jay Sigel played on nine teams, and Ouimet and Bill Campbell, who died Friday at 90, played on eight each. Ouimet, as a 20-year-old caddie, had shocked the British legends Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in the 1913 Open playoff, which awakened America to golf. But in a twist, the reigning United States Amateur champion, Matt Fitzpatrick, will be on the invading British and Irish team. Fitzpatrick, 19, at a wispy 5 feet 9 inches, was the low amateur in the British Open and became the first Englishman to win the Amateur since Harold Hilton in 1911. He has qualified for the United States Open and the British Open next year, and he will be invited to the Masters. As a freshman at Northwestern, however, he’s not about to turn professional as a teenager, as Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy did soon after the 2007 matches. “I’m pretty sure Dad’s going to have me under control,” Fitzpatrick told reporters at the Amateur, “because I know full well that he certainly didn’t want me to turn pro anytime soon and wanted me to get an education first.” For decades, Walker Cup teams featured players who were considered career amateurs, like Sigel, Ouimet and Campbell, businessmen golfers of enduring skill. Joe Carr, a prosperous Irish clothier, was on 10 British and Irish teams, twice as the captain. But every so often, a top collegian was too good to be ignored, notably Jack Nicklaus. He led the American victories at Muirfield in Scotland in 1959 when he was 19 and at Seattle Golf Club in 1961 when he was 21. He turned pro the next year. Over the last half-century, the best college golfers dominated the American teams before they turned pro — Curtis Strange, Craig Stadler, Scott Simpson, Hal Sutton, Jay Haas in the ’70s; Phil Mickelson, Corey Pavin, Davis Love III, Scott Verplank, Brad Faxon in the ’80s; Tiger Woods, David Duval, Justin Leonard, Matt Kuchar in the ’90s; Webb Simpson, Lucas Glover, Bill Haas, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler in the ’00s; Jordan Spieth, Russell Henley and Harris English in 2011. This year’s American team features three members of Alabama’s national champions — Justin Thomas, Cory Whitsett and Bobby Wyatt — and two University of California stars, Michael Kim, low amateur in the Open at Merion, and Max Homa. Patrick Rodgers of Stanford and 35-year-old Nathan Smith, a Pittsburgh financial representative and four-time Mid-Amateur champion, return from the 2011 team that lost, 14-12, at Royal Aberdeen in Scotland. The other Americans are 20-year-old Jordan Niebrugge, an Oklahoma State sophomore who is the Amateur Public Links champion; Michael Weaver, the 2012 Amateur runner-up; and 45-year-old Todd White, a high school history teacher in Hilton Head, S.C., who has won 11 various U.S.G.A. titles. Fitzpatrick’s teammates include England’s Garrick Porteous, the British Amateur champion, and Callum Shinkwin, who defeated Fitzpatrick in the English Amateur final; Ireland’s Kevin Phelan, who made the cut at the Open at Merion; Rhys Pugh, a 19-year-old Welshman who played in the 2011 matches; England’s Nathan Kimsey, Max Orrin, Neil Raymond and Jordan Smith; and Ireland’s Gavin Moynihan. Nigel Edwards, who played in four consecutive Walker Cup matches from 2001 through 2007, returns as the British and Irish captain. Jim Holtgrieve of St. Louis, who played on three winning American teams, again is the American captain who will choose his lineup for the morning foursomes (alternate-shot) Saturday and Sunday, and the afternoon singles Saturday and Sunday. “My responsibility,” Holtgrieve told reporters not long ago, “is to figure out the best teammates, the sequence of play, and to decide who wants to be in the last group if it comes down to the last hole or the last putt.” That last putt on the uphill 501-yard 18th hole near the cliff above Peconic Bay could be decisive, but the first hole, a par 4 of only 326 yards with an elevated lumpy green that turns putts every which way, will lure sadistic spectators. “It’s wise to lay up there in order to get a better angle to that round’s hole location,” said Jim Morris, the club pro. “But if you drive the green, as they say here, you might get a 6.” And with gallery ropes only near the tees and greens, the Walker Cup will be golf in a time capsule, allowing spectators to walk down the fairways. As they did when Bobby Jones played in the Walker Cup at the National.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Sep 2013 05:52:55 +0000
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