Teams set for ‘extra special’ Walker Cup at Home of Golf
A general view of the opening ceremony prior to the Walker Cup at St Andrews Old Course on September 1, 2023 in St Andrews, Scotland. (Photo by Paul Devlin/Getty Images)
Great Britain and Ireland captain Stuart Wilson has welcomed being given a selection headache for the 49th Walker Cup against the United States.
The visitors are odds-on favourites to secure a fourth consecutive victory in the biennial contest for the top male amateur golfers, with eight of Mike McCoy's 10-man side ranked in the world's top 10.
Only Stewart Hagestad (19th) is ranked lower than GB&I's top-ranked player John Gough (14th), while the home side includes 16-year-old Scot Connor Graham, the youngest player to contest the Walker Cup for either side.
The last win for the hosts came in 2015 at Royal Lytham, where five Irish players helped secure a seven-point win over an American side which included this year's captain McCoy and Bryson DeChambeau.
"The team has done a fantastic job this week of preparing," said Wilson, who also captained the side to a narrow 14-12 defeat at Seminole in 2021.
"It's been a long week. I don't think there's many weeks like this in the golfing calendar when there's so much preparation.
"But we had our two practice rounds early in the week and then we had a little break over to Kingsbarns, which was a bit more of a social kind of relaxed day, and then rounding them up Thursday and Friday here for the official practice days.
"Preparations have gone well and the guys are all playing well, which is great to see.
"Playing well and practising creates a nice situation but a difficult situation, as well, giving us a little bit of a headache as to pairings, and obviously we've got to leave two players out of each of the first three sessions, so the guys have made my job difficult by deciding who to leave out."
England's Barclay Brown and Ireland's Mark Power are the only players from the 2021 side to have returned this year, Power having won three of his four matches at Seminole.
"I'm trying to help some of the younger guys out and even some of the guys who haven't played here before," Power said.
"I suppose it's a different feeling than last time. Circumstances were a little bit different with covid and everything.
"I feel like this week has been a lot longer, and I feel like our preparations have been great. I feel like everyone is confident we've done the right things.
"It's just about getting into the matches now, and I suppose just locking into your own process, not trying to do anything too different. That's a big thing I would say.
"Last time around there was a restricted crowd, so it wasn't quite the full experience. It was still probably the best week of my golfing career so far. I'd imagine this week will top it.
"We'll definitely be leaning on the home crowd to give us a little extra support, but we're all really going to embrace it and it's going to be amazing. At the Home of Golf it's extra special, so really looking forward to it."
The teams will contest four foursomes matches and eight singles on Saturday, followed by four more foursomes and 10 singles on Sunday.
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