The Walker Cup will soon have a new home in the golf schedule.
On Monday, the USGA and R&A announced a schedule change that will bring the Walker Cup to even years, an effort aimed at keeping the event from interfering with the remainder of the golf schedule, particularly the Olympics.
The changes will bring one of golf’s most historic events more efficiently in-line with other events on the golf schedule, and will allow the event to return to its traditional timeslot on years opposite golf’s other biennial matchplay competition, the Ryder Cup.
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“The re-emergence of golf in the Olympic Games has had a ripple effect on the overall golf calendar,” USGA chief championships officer John Bodenhamer said in a release distributed Monday. “This is just the next step in that as we make sure team competitions have a balanced schedule and in this case, encourage participation by the world’s best amateurs without unnecessary conflict.”
The Walker Cup, founded in 1922 as a competition between amateur golfers from the United States and those from Great Britain and Ireland, will play back-to-back years in 2025 and 2026 to enact the change. The final odd-year Walker Cup, in 2025, will be played at the famed Cypress Point Golf Club in Northern California for just the second time ever, and the first time in more than four decades. (Cypress Point ranked second on GOLF’s latest ranking of the Top 100 Courses in the World.)
“We have looked at this carefully with the USGA and believe that this change creates the best schedule for the players and for the Walker Cup Match itself,” said Phil Anderton, the R&A’s chief development officer. “The Walker Cup is at the forefront of men’s amateur golf and we want to ensure that its status is reflected in its position in the golf calendar.”
The Walker Cup will next be contested in 2023, when it follows the Open Championship to St. Andrews for the event’s 49th edition. The United States has won each of the last three Cups — most recently at Seminole in 2021 — and owns an all-time record of 38-9-1 over GB&I at the event.