McElhinney only Irish player to make Walker Cup

BRIAN McELHINNEY is the only Irish player on the Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team to defend the trophy in Chicago.

McElhinney only Irish player to make Walker Cup

A former European champion, he added the Irish title last season and as the present British champion he will be playing in the British Open at St Andrews next week and the Masters at Augusta next April.

Sixteen-year-old Oliver Fisher will become the youngest player in Walker Cup history.

The English teenager will make his debut in the competition over the weekend of August 13-14, and his reaction was "wicked, unbelievable."

Fisher made his senior international debut only last week and helped England win the European team title.

A semi-finalist in the British Amateur Championship a month ago and runner-up in the English Stroke Play Championship in May, he will be one month and 10 days younger than Justin Rose was when he played in 1997.

Not 17 until September, he will be part of a team going for an unprecedented fourth successive victory in the match.

Three in a row had never been done until the Americans were defeated yet again at Ganton two years ago.

Captain Garth McGimpsey said: "Oliver is very mature for his age and as good a young player as I have ever seen. He hits the ball like a pro and putts well he just has class stamped all over him.

"He carries himself so well, has travelled all over the world already, has been having a great season and I'm delighted he'll be with us.

"It was an easy team to pick, which is a good sign. There were no late changes at all."

There are two survivors of the 2003 victory 44-year-old Gary Wolstenholme, conqueror of Tiger Woods back in 1995, will earn a sixth cap and Welshman Nigel Edwards, 36, earns a third. None of the eight rookies are older than 22.

The other Welsh player is American college star Rhys Davies. Scotland are represented by Lloyd Saltman and Richie Ramsay, and England by Wolstenholme, Fisher, Gary Lockerbie, Matthew Richardson and Robert Dinwiddie, who was not even part of the six-man England side last week.

Team: Rhys Davies (20, Royal Porthcawl), Robert Dinwiddie (22, Barnard Castle), Nigel Edwards (36, Whitchurch), Oliver Fisher (16, West Essex), Gary Lockerbie (22, Penrith), Brian McElhinney (22, North West), Richie Ramsay (22, Royal Aberdeen), Matthew Richardson (20, Buckinghamshire), Lloyd Saltman (19, Craigielaw), Gary Wolstenholme (44, Kilworth Springs).

Reserves: Andrew McArthur (26, Windyhill), Jamie Moul (20, Stoke-by-Nayland). Non-playing captain: Garth McGimpsey.

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