The 49th Walker Cup: Great Britain and Ireland lead USA 7 1/2 to 4 1/2
John Gough (R&A Photo)
On the first day of the 49th Walker Cup at The Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, the Great Britain and Ireland team grabbed a hold of the point advantage heading into the second and final day.
GB&I won the Saturday Foursomes Session 3&1 and then won the Saturday Singles Session 4 1/2 to 3 1/2 over the United States to take a 7 1/2 to 4 1/2 lead into Sunday.
Related: THE WALKER CUP: GB&I WIN THE SATURDAY FOURSOMES SESSION
Just like in the foursomes, The United States team got off to a good start, with
Caleb Surratt defeating Stanford standout
Barclay Brown 4&3.
Calum Scott defeated
Nick Gabrelcik 2 & 1 to get on the afternoon point board for GB&I.
Scott was one of two GB&I golfers to finish 2-0 on the day (John Gough).
"Coming down the stretch, I was super nervous, but I was just hitting good shots all day," Scott said. "I gave myself chances on Nos. 16 and 17 and holed both of them."
The match had eleven total birdies between Gabrelcik and Scott.
"It felt like we were making birdies on every other hole," Scott said.
Gordon Sargent won his Singles match against
Jack Bigham 1-up to become the only United States golfer to go 2-0 on the day.
Dylan Menante went 1-0 after sitting out Saturday Singles.
John Gough was the star of the day, winning in the Foursomes and then taking down 2023 U.S. Amateur Champion
Nick Dunlap in their singles match 6&5. Gough was 5-up after the first five holes.
Check back to later for the Day Two pairings and matches.
View results for The Walker Cup
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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