Listen: Road to Hoylake continues with Phillips, Smalley
One of the biggest amateur tournaments of the summer, the Western Amateur, went down this week in Benton, Mich., and the U.S. Amateur is coming up this month. This is what Ben Adelberg, host of The Back of the Range podcast, calls “The Road to Hoylake.”
As the U.S. Walker Cup team fills out for the Sept. 7-8 matches at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England, half the fun is getting to know the players in consideration for a team pick. The Back of the Range podcast is telling those stories, two by two.
This week, Adelberg features two men who have been in the Walker Cup conversation all summer.
Alex Smalley, who graduated from Duke in the spring, is a two-time Sunnehanna Amateur champion. When he defended his title at the prestigious amateur event in June, he became one of just fifth man to ever do that. The last one, Rickie Fowler, played in two Walker Cups.
As for
Chandler Phillips, a recent Texas A&M graduate, a trip to the Sweet 16 of the Western Amateur this week went a long way in boosting his stock.
Hear what both men had to say in this week’s latest episode.
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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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