No. 16 at Cypress Point Club
(USGA Photos)

For the time on U.S. soil, the 48th Walker Cup Match will be played in the spring. The biennial team competition between 10 amateur players representing the USA and 10 amateurs representing Great Britain and Ireland is scheduled May 8-9, 2021 at Seminole. The dates of the 50th Walker Cup Match are Sept. 6-7, 2025. The competition returns to Cypress Point for the first time since 1981, the club’s only previous USGA competition.

“The selections of Seminole Golf Club and Cypress Point Club as Walker Cup venues are emblematic of what George Herbert Walker intended when he helped create the first Match in 1922,” said Stuart Francis, USGA Championship Committee chairman. “To have two of the United States’ greatest courses as host sites will not only produce memorable competitions but reinforces the stature of amateur golf in this country.”

Seminole Golf Club will host its first USGA event and the first Walker Cup Match in the state of Florida. The course, designed by Donald Ross, opened for play in 1929. The course’s routing encompasses two dune ridges, one that peaks to the west and another along the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Members have included U.S. presidents, business and industry leaders and golf elite. Ben Hogan, a four-time U.S. Open champion, practiced and played there, while Henry Picard, who won two major professional titles, served as club professional for 26 years.

Seminole Golf Club has also been a friend to amateur golf and annually hosts the George L. Coleman Invitational. USGA champions and USA Walker Cup Team members Michael McCoy (2015) and Tim Jackson (1995, 1999) are recent Coleman champions.

“Seminole Golf Club is honored to host the 2021 Walker Cup Match and the best amateur players from both sides of the Atlantic,” said Jimmy Dunne, club president. “The club and its membership are proud to showcase Donald Ross’ architectural masterpiece to a worldwide audience.”

Cypress Point Club was designed by Alister MacKenzie in collaboration with Robert Hunter and opened for play in 1929. Beginning in coastal dunes, the course then enters the Del Monte Forest before remerging to rocky coastline along the Pacific Ocean. In addition to the 28th Walker Cup, the club hosted “The Match,” a 1956 four-ball competition between professionals Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson and amateurs Ken Venturi and Harvie Ward, and was one of three courses used for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for more than 40 years.

The Walker Cup Match will be held in California for the third time and west of the Mississippi River for the fifth time. In 1981 at Cypress Point, the USA defeated Great Britain and Ireland, 15-9. Jodie Mudd, a two-time USGA champion, and Corey Pavin, who went on to win the 1995 U.S. Open, were the USA’s top point producers. GB&I’s Roger Chapman, the 2012 U.S. Senior Open winner, won twice in singles play and one foursomes match.

“The members of the Cypress Point Club are honored to give back to the game of golf and share our wonderful treasure with one of the world’s greatest amateur competitions,” said Peter K. Barker, club president. “We have been proud to host a number of notable match-play events throughout our club’s history. In all, the course and the competitors performed superbly. We enthusiastically look forward to the 2025 Walker Cup.”

The Walker Cup Match is played over two days and consists of 18 singles matches and eight foursomes (alternate-shot) matches. The USA leads the overall series, 35-9-1, but each side has won seven times since 1989. Four of those 14 matches have been decided by one point.

The 46th Walker Cup Match will be played at The Los Angeles (Calif.) Country Club’s North Course, Sept. 9-10, 2017, and the 47th Match will be held at Royal Liverpool Golf Club (Hoylake), in Merseyside, England, Sept. 7-8, 2019. The site of the 2023 Match has not been announced.