'Highlight of my career': Home favourite Grehan leads famous GB&I rally to Walker Cup glory

Ireland’s sole representative helped regain the hosts' momentum at Lahinch.

Great Britain & Ireland’s team manager Euan Morton hugs Stuart Grehan after winning putt. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady

Stuart Grehan etched his name in Walker Cup history as Lahinch found a new legend to honour following Great Britain & Ireland’s remarkable come-from-behind victory over the United States on Sunday.

Ireland’s sole representative helped regain GB&I’s momentum at the midway point on the final day of the long-standing team matchplay event as the home team recovered from a morning foursomes wipeout to rally from three points down in the final session of 10 singles matches to win 13.5 to 12.5 and deny the USA a sixth victory in succession.

A tense day’s play marked by several swings of momentum saw the 51st matches go down to the wire with England’s Josh Hill, the lowest ranked player on either side at No.93, delivering a superb long bunker escape at the 18th before putting for a victory over world number two Tyler Watts in the last match left on the course. The point secured GB&I’s first since Walker Cup win 2015 and came a year after they were demolished 17-9 by the Americans at California’s Cypress Point, losing the corresponding singles session 8.5 to 1.5.

Grehan, 33 and the reigning British Amateur champion, admitted to being demoralised to the point falling asleep in the GB&I team room but captain Dean Robertson stuck with the Co. Louth clubman from Tullamore to bring the energy back as the lead-off man in the afternoon singles.

For the fourth session in a row, he was pitted against world number one Preston Stout. Grehan and Eliot Baker had taken a foursomes half-point off the American and his partner Ethan Fang on the opening morning on Saturday before the Irishman defeated Stout that afternoon in their one-on-one duel to help GB&I to a 6.5 to 5.5 overnight lead.

A 4-0 foursomes hammering the following morning wiped that out and in Robertson’s words put GB&I “behind the 8-ball” but the captain chose Grehan to begin the uphill battle to victory.

It was a shaky start, Grehan with a horrible bogey at the first to lose the opening hole and Stout going 2 Up after four holes before the table started to turn in the Irishman’s favour, the captain by his side throughout on route to a 2&1 victory. Importantly, the trio of Englishmen behind him in the running order - Luke Poulter, US Amateur champion Jack Whaley and Tyler Weaver – fed off the energy from an energised home crowd to win their singles, those four points laying the foundations for a famous victory.

“To lose 4-0 really put us behind the 8-ball and it was imperative that it was on Stuart,” Robertson said. “Stuart was game number one. It's very difficult as a captain of the Walker Cup to really have influence or get a rhythm of any of the matches if you're here, there and everywhere because you just become a supporter.

“My job today was to be with Stuart, to be by his side and to support him and to have his back. And he went out there and yesterday he was three down early (in his singles match against Stout), this afternoon he was two down early.

“But he showed grit, he showed character, he showed tenacity and he brought what was required which was the 11th man, the Irish crowd and that energy was fed back. But Luke Poulter and Jack Whaley played a part in that as well because I was telling Stuart, Stuart's two down and I'm saying ‘these guys are doing it behind you, you need to bring the energy Stuart, come on’.” Grehan admitted he was “very flat” ahead of the 3&2 foursomes defeat alongside Baker on Sunday morning. 

"I don't know about the team from yesterday, (emotions) kind of boiling over but I just couldn't get up for it.

“But this afternoon, Dean got me going and after the start, you know, gave me a few words, I won't say what they were. But after the fifth and sixth hole, I played some really good golf so I'm very proud of myself.” 

That Grehan overcame a terrible first hole against Stout with a duffed pitch followed by a shank made his victory all the sweeter.

“It's definitely the highlight of my golf career to be honest. Individual titles are great but to win as a team and on the biggest stage you can do it really, it's amazing. I'm just so happy for everyone involved, the background staff, the players. I'm just so happy for Dean for all the time and effort he's put in and everything he's been through this year. I'm just absolutely proud of him.” 

After the first four out brought home points for GB&I, the remaining three points required to reach the magic number of 13.5 came with much more difficulty as the Americans rallied across the lower order matches. Baker, in the sixth slot, beat US veteran Stewart Hagestad 1 Up, inflicting only the American’s second singles loss in 10 matches in his six Walker Cup appearances while the half points secured by Scottish duo Niall Sheils Donegan and Connor Graham against higher-ranked players Jay Leng Jr and Miles Russell respectively proved just as vital.

It was Hill’s victory over Watts, though, that sealed what had seemed an unlikely GB&I victory, secured via that bunker short of the 18th green and a knee-shaking putt.

“I didn't know if I needed a half a point or a full point and so I got up there and Dean came up to me by the bunker and I asked him and he said a full point so I was like alright let's step up and hit a golf shot. I hit a golf shot and I was kind of walking through the crowd hoping that it was good… but it was nice to hole the putt and have that winning moment.”