The Americans had a daunting task ahead of them on Saturday night.
Faced with a three-point deficit heading into Day 2, 7.5 to 4.5 to Team Great Britain & Ireland, the U.S. team needed to mount an epic charge if they wanted to have any hope of retaining the Walker Cup on Sunday afternoon. Team USA has won the last three editions of the Walker Cup, while GB&I’s last victorious effort was the 2015 edition at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.
With 14 points up for grabs on Sunday (4 points in the morning foursomes and 10 points in the afternoon singles), the U.S. team would need to win 8.5 of those points to reach 13, the required total to retain the Cup. Team Great Britain & Ireland need 6 points to reach 13.5 to reclaim the Cup.
After suffering a 3-1 defeat in yesterday’s morning foursomes, the Americans knew they couldn’t allow that to happen again if they wanted to have a chance in singles. And the team rallied mightily. Battling strong gusts of wind at the Old Course at St. Andrews, the Americans won the morning foursomes session 3-1, tightening the score to 8.5 to 7.5.
Great Britain & Ireland extend lead through Day 1 at Walker Cup
Americans Caleb Surratt and Ben James prevailed 2&1 over John Gough and Matthew McClean, Americans Nick Dunlap and Gordon Sargent won 1-up over Connor Graham and Calum Scott, Americans Preston Summerhays and Nick Gabrelcik won 2&1 over James Ashfield and Alex Maguire, and Americans Dylan Menante and Austin Greaser fell 4&3 to Liam Nolan and Mark Power.
With only one point between the teams, there’s an extra element of electricity in St. Andrews for the afternoon. The Walker Cup’s finale features every member of both teams competing in 10 singles matches. You can watch the action on Golf Channel starting at 8 a.m. ET. Check out the singles matchups below.
Day Two Singles (Americans on right)
Calum Scott vs. Caleb Surratt
Barclay Brown vs. Nick Dunlap
Connor Graham vs. Stewart Hagestad
John Gough vs. Gordon Sargent
James Ashfield vs. Preston Summerhays
Matthew McClean vs. Dylan Menante
Jack Bigham vs. Nick Gabrelcik
Mark Power vs. Ben James
Liam Nolan vs. Austin Greaser
Alex Maguire vs. David Ford