The Walker Cup: GB&I win the Saturday Foursomes session
Alex Maguire celebrates during morning foursomes (R&A Photo)
The 49th Walker Cup started this morning at the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, and it was the Great Britain and Ireland team that was able to get the early point lead on the United States.
The U.S., which has won three straight Walker Cups, have split each of the last three opening sessions. When the GB&I last won the Walker Cup in 2015, they took a 3-1 lead after Day 1 Foursomes.
For GB&I, Jack Bigham and Liam Nolan sat out Saturday Foursomes, while Connor Graham and James Ashfield are sitting out Saturday Singles.
For the United States, Austin Greaser and Nick Gabrelcik sat out Saturday Foursomes, while Ben James and Dylan Menante are sitting out the Saturday Singles.
Gordon Sargent and Dylan Menante were the first off for the United States and got off to a good start, defeating Barclay Brown and Mark Power 3 & 2 to earn the first point of the Walker Cup.
From there, it was all GB&I.
Calum Scott and Connor Graham defeated Caleb Surratt and Ben James 3 & 2 to tie it up at one point each.
Matthew McClean and John Gough defeated Preston Summerhays and David Ford 1-up and Alex Maguire and James Ashfield defeated Nick Dunlap and Stewart Hagestad 1-up to take the 3-1 point advantage heading into the afternoon's Saturday Singles.
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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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