GB&I turn to Ryder Cup playbook for Walker Cup bid at Lahinch
Members of Britain and Ireland's Walker Cup team at Ballybunion Golf Club on Monday. Pic: Francis Bennett
Dean Robertson’s first time around as Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup captain 12 months ago provided a steep learning curve for the former European Tour stalwart and the Scot is determined to act on his Cypress Point experience at Lahinch this weekend.
Robertson’s GB&I were beaten 17-9 by the United States in northern California, victims of a singles massacre on the second and final day having trailed by a single point at 8.5 to 7.5 following the first three sessions. GB&I had won the two foursomes sessions by a combined 5-3 but the Americans’ prowess in head to head singles play paid dividends on the Saturday and Sunday at Cypress Point. USA were superior across the Saturday’s eight singles matches winning the session 5.5-2.5, but with a point per match victory available in every session, the 10 singles matches on the final afternoon were a landslide, the hosts winning 8.5-1.5 to romp home.
Regaining the Walker Cup for the first time since 2015 will remain a tall order for GB&I but a combination of a sell-out home crowd in Co. Clare, and an intense focus on improving their singles play, having taken a leaf from Europe’s Ryder Cup successes under Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn and Luke Donald give GB&I hope that this can be a memorable weekend on Lahinch’s revered links.
“My lessons from Cypress Point, number one, Cypress Point was a fabulous venue. It was a very challenging venue to prepare for, and the way that the weather changed the golf course during the course of the week was something that I really hadn't experienced before, nor had the players,” Robertson said.
“But our big focus last year was in creating momentum in foursomes play and getting a platform from which to then kick on from in singles. We did that well, I felt, but given the strength of the US Team, we were outplayed in the singles. So a big focus and emphasis has been on the singles play for this year.
“So that's not to say that we're going to be neglecting the foursomes preparations. But most certainly taking a leaf out of the Ryder Cup, Luke Donald's book and McGinley's book and the things that have been successful for them and getting momentum and fast starts.
“We've been applying a lot of that. We've had a few training sessions over the course of the year, and that's something that I've integrated into that in terms of small matches, whether it be three-hole matches or six-hole matches, but really an emphasis on the head-to-head match play.”
Robertson’s respect for the McGinley playbook deployed during his 2014 captaincy at Gleneagles and which has since formed the template for three subsequent European victories over the USA in the last five editions, has seen the Scot involve the Irishman in his preparations and the Dubliner will be by his side this week.
“Paul is going to play a part during the week. Basically, Paul keeps things nice and simple, but he's a big person on representing, and he talks about being a real passionate Dub, and when he came down to Tralee for the Palmer Cup, he spoke beautifully at the opening ceremony about Kerry and it being the gold standard for the Gaelic football, until Mayo beat them a few weeks ago.
“But he's really going to just come in and support the things that I'm doing. There's nothing that I'm doing that I haven't spoken to him or others about and taken counsel and great advice.
“But the preparation and the process that we've had in the lead-up as opposed to going to Cypress, links golf is something we are far more comfortable with. We are far more able to understand the skill set that's required, and that's really been the key all along is getting ready.
“We had a very small panel, preparation for the Amateur Championship, and that included Eliot Baker and it included Stuart Grehan. Both of them drew one another in the first round of 64 in the match play, and one went on to win it.
“Equally, for me, confidence is preparation, and we will be prepared, not to win the Walker Cup, but we'll be prepared to play winning golf and focusing on the things that we can control as a team.
“We have a mission, and that's one team with one purpose, and that's what we're going to do.”
Robertson was also able to stage a two-day training camp at Lahinch ahead of this summer’s South of Ireland Championship and he was delighted with the good work put in, with a number of his 10-man team involved even if they were not playing the South that week in late July.
“The preparation for Lahinch uniquely, I don't think there's ever been a big championship like the South at a Walker Cup venue five weeks prior to a Walker Cup, so it was always going to be huge, and I firmly believe that baseline of knowledge is going to be massive.
“Tyler Weaver (world number two amateur) made the effort to be there. Obviously he'd been out of action, but he understood the significance, as did (world no.13) Eliot Baker. Eliot Baker was in a quandary to play. He was in to play, but he chose not to play because in not playing, he was guaranteeing himself the GAP. (the R&A’s Global Amateur Pathway programme to the DP World Tour and PGA Tour) for next year for the whole year, and I had no problem with that.
“But he said, ‘I'll be there and I'll be there for the rest of the week if I need to be, and I'll caddie for somebody’. That's the sort of person that Eliot Baker is.
“Tyler, I'll be honest with you, Tyler was better than any of the rest of them at the week in practice. He might not have hit drivers but he hit all the approach shots. He got an understanding for the golf course. Lahinch is unique in it's such a beautifully framed golf course in the dunes, and it's a course that requires strategy.
“It's not going to be overpowered, but you've got to really understand the golf course, and you don't learn courses like this in a matter of a day or two. And if the wind quarters around, it just changes the whole examination completely.”
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