FAR HILLS, N.J., (July 17, 2013) – The United
States
Golf Association today
announced the selection of five of the 10
amateur
players who will comprise the
2013 USA Walker Cup Team. The 44th Walker
Cup
Match against Great Britain
and Ireland will be played Sept. 7-8 at the
National
Golf Links of America in
Southampton, N.Y., which is hosting the Match
for
the first time since it hosted
the inaugural Walker Cup in 1922.
“We are proud of the players who have been
chosen
to represent the USA when
the Walker Cup returns to its historic
birthplace,” said
Thomas J. O’Toole, Jr.,
USGA vice president and chairman of the
USGA’s
Championship Committee. “I
have no doubt that every one of these young
men is
ready for the challenge
presented by the team from Great Britain and
Ireland.
Each will perform with
distinction and bring honor to a competition
and a
place that have a unique
connection to the game’s history.”
The first five players named to the 2013 USA
Walker
Cup squad are:
Max
Homa, 22, of Valencia, Calif. – Homa
won
the
Pac-12 Conference
Championship in early May and was the
individual
medalist at the 2013 NCAA
Men’s Division I Championship to close out his
career
at the University of
California-Berkeley. In his senior year of
2012-
13, he
captained a team that won
11 tournaments. His individual honors include
being named
as
a first-team All-
American and to the All-Nicklaus Team, both
awarded
by the Golf Coaches
Association of America. In June, he survived a
playoff
at sectional qualifying to
make the field for the 2013 U.S. Open at
Merion Golf
Club, where he missed the
cut by three strokes. Homa also advanced to
the
quarter finals of the 2010 U.S.
Amateur.
Michael Kim, 20, of Del
Mar, Calif. – Kim won four collegiate
events in his
sophomore year at the
University of California-Berkeley and was
honored as
the 2012-13
Golfweek/Sagarin Player of the Year and the
Pac-12
Conference Golfer of the
Year. He was first-team All-American and
named to
the All-Nicklaus Team, Palmer
Cup, All-West Region and All-Pac 12. He also
won the
2013 Golfstat Cup for
having the lowest adjusted scoring average
entering
the NCAA Championship. In
May, he won the Jack Nicklaus Award as the
NCAA
Division I player of the year,
and in June the Fred Haskins Award as the
national
collegiate player of the year
as determined in voting by collegiate golfers,
coaches
and members of the
national media. He was one of three finalists
for the
Ben Hogan Award presented
annually to the top men's NCAA Division I, II
or
III,
NAIA or NJCAA college golfer.
He finished as the low amateur by five strokes
at the
2013 U.S. Open at Merion
Golf Club, tying for 17th place. He also tied
for
38th
in the PGA Tour’s Greenbrier
Classic in July.
Patrick Rodgers, 21, of Avon, Ind. –
Rodgers is a
returning USA Walker Cup
Team member, having competed at the 2011
Match
at Royal Aberdeen Golf Club
in Scotland. Rodgers wrapped up his
sophomore
season at Stanford with three
intercollegiate victories and six top-10
finishes,
leading the Cardinal with a 70.88
stroke average. For the second consecutive
year, he
was named first-team All-
American, first-team All-Pac 12 Conference,
and was
a Palmer Cup selection. He
was also named to the All-Nicklaus Team this
year.
During the 2011-’12 college
season, Rodgers produced two tournament
wins and
10 top-10 finishes, was
named to the All-Freshman Team, and was a
finalist
for the Ben Hogan Award.
The 2011 Porter Cup champion, Rodgers was
also a
quarterfinalist at the 2011
U.S. Amateur, where he lost to eventual
champion
Kelly Kraft. He finished tied for
15th at the 2013 PGA Tour’s John Deere
Classic.
Justin
Thomas, 20, of Goshen, Ky. – In his
sophomore
season at the University of
Alabama, Thomas was named as a second-
team All-
American and first-team All-
Southeastern Conference with two wins and
six top-
10 finishes. In 2012, he was
selected as a first-team All-American with
four
wins
and nine top-10 finishes, and
was a Palmer Cup selection in each of the past
two
years. Thomas played an
integral part in Alabama winning the 2013
NCAA
Division I National Championship,
the first in the school's history, as well as the
2013
SEC Championship. He also
played for the victorious USA Team in the
2012
World
Amateur Team
Championship at Antalya, Turkey, where he
finished
tied for seventh. Thomas
advanced to the semifinals at the 2012 U.S.
Amateur,
and was the runner-up at
the 2010 U.S. Junior Amateur. Thomas won
both the
2012 Fred Haskins Award
and the 2012 Jack Nicklaus Award as the
nation's top
collegiate golfer, as well as
the 2012 Phil Mickelson Award, for the
outstanding
freshman in Division I men's
golf. He won the 2012 Jones Cup, and finished
tied
for 30th in the 2013 PGA
Tour’s Travelers Championship.
Cory
Whitsett, 21, of Houston, Texas –
Whitsett, who
just completed his junior
year at the University of Alabama, secured
the
clinching points for the Crimson
Tide in its first-ever NCAA Division I National
Championship victory. In 2013, he
was selected as a first-team All-American and
to the
All-Nicklaus Team with three
wins and eight top-10 finishes, and was the
only
player to win all three matches
at the 2013 NCAA Championship. Whitsett
continued
his winning ways after the
collegiate season, leading the USA to victory
over
Europe in June in the Palmer
Cup, compiling a 3-0-1 record in the matches
at
Wilmington (Del.) Country Club.
He then captured the prestigious Northeast
Amateur
with a 10-under-par 266
total at Wannamoisett Country Club in
Rumford, R.I.,
closing with a round of 63,
the lowest final-round score by a winner in the
tournament's 52 years. Last year,
Whitsett was named second-team All-
American
with
two wins and five top-10
finishes. He is also the 2011 Patriot All-
America
winner and the 2007 U.S. Junior
Amateur champion.
“It is an honor to be involved with this
prestigious
match and these fine young
men who will represent the USA in Walker
Cup
competition,” said Jim Holtgrieve,
captain for the USA, whose stellar amateur
career
includes a winning record as a
member of three victorious USA Walker Cup
Teams
and the captaincy of the USA
Team at the 2011 Match at Royal Aberdeen
Golf Club
in Scotland. “I appreciate
the commitment on the part of these talented
players
who were chosen and
those who are still being considered.”
The final five players of the 2013 USA Walker
Cup
Team will be named later this
summer following the conclusion of the 2013
U.S.
Amateur, scheduled to be
played Aug. 12-18 at The Country Club in
Brookline,
Mass.
The prestigious Walker Cup Match is a biennial
10-
man amateur team competition
between the USA and a team composed of
players
from Great Britain and Ireland.
It is played over two days with 18 singles
matches
and eight foursomes
(alternate-shot) matches. The USA leads the
overall
series 34-8-1, and has not
lost on American soil since the 2001 Match at
Ocean
Forest Golf Club in Sea
Island, Ga.
Many of the game’s greatest players have
taken part
in Walker Cup competition
including U.S. Open champions Francis
Ouimet,
Bob
Jones, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger
Woods for the USA and Graeme McDowell,
Rory
McIlroy and Justin Rose for GB&I.
The first USA Walker Cup Team in 1922, which
defeated the GB&I side, 8-4, at
the National Golf Links of America, is
considered
among the best teams ever and
included Ouimet, Jones, Charles “Chick” Evans
and
Jess Sweetser.
ABOUT THE The Walker Cup
The Walker Cup Match is a biennial 10-man
amateur
team competition between the USA and a team
composed of players from Great Britain and
Ireland
and selected by The R&A. It is played over two
days
with 18 singles matches and eight foursomes
(alternate-shot) matches.
The first United States Walker Cup Team, which
in
1922 defeated the GB&I side, 8-4, at the
National Golf
Links of America, is considered among the best
teams
ever and included Francis Ouimet, Bob Jones,
Charles
“Chick” Evans and Jess Sweetser. Many of the
game’s
greatest players have taken part in Walker Cup
competition, including U.S. Open champions
Jack
Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth for
the
USA
and Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy and Justin
Rose
for Great Britain and Ireland.
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