Great Britain and Ireland sieze momentum to take 3-1 Walker Cup lead

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Part of Ian Poulter’s message to the Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team on Wednesday night was this:

Capitalize on the waves of momentum.

The biggest wave came late Saturday morning on Cypress Point’s back nine as Tyler Weaver and Connor Graham, the visiting side’s most formidable pair, rattled off three straight birdies, starting at No. 13, to take control of their leadoff foursomes bout with world No. 1 Jackson Koivun and Tommy Morrison.

Weaver and Graham, whose average world amateur rank of 26 paled in comparison to the American duo’s 6.5, combined to tally nine birdies, including the clincher at the par-4 17th, to fuel what would be a 3-1 session win for GB&I captain Dean Robertson’s boys.

“We talked about it the other night with Luke’s dad, with Ian, and he talked about Medinah was almost gone,” Robertson said. “But for the guys it’s all about keeping their feet where they are, being in the moment and not getting ahead of yourself. This is two days; this is session one, and there’s 18 singles matches to go, and the U.S. team are absolutely stacked right through all the players, so we need to play well this afternoon and build on that momentum.”

While the U.S. led at points in three of the four matches, including the anchor match won by Michael La Sasso and Jase Summy over Cameron Adam and Dom Clemons in 16 holes, GB&I seized on the momentum to close out the middle two points – Charlie Forster and Luke Poulter defeated Stew Hagestad and Ben James, 3 and 2, before Eliot Baker chipped close at the par-4 18th to seal he and Stuart Grehan’s 1-up win over Oklahoma State teammates Ethan Fang and Preston Stout.

This is the third time in the 26-point era, which dates to 2009, that GB&I has led 3-1 after one session. The first two occasions, in 2011 at Royal Aberdeen and 2015 at Royal Lytham, GB&I won, though two years ago, the home team led 3-1 at St. Andrews before the Americans rallied to a three-shot triumph.

While the U.S. has won eight of the last Walker Cups, it has only won one opening foursomes session (2009).

“They really came out extremely hot, and I think before you knew it, a lot of our matches, the first couple matches were 2 down through three holes, a lot of birdies,” U.S. captain Nathan Smith said. “They just played well. We felt good about our matchups, our teams. We’ll have to look at that for tomorrow morning, see if we switch anything up.”

There are eight singles matches on Saturday afternoon, including another leadoff match between Weaver and Koivun. On Sunday, there are four more foursomes before a 10-match singles session to close.

GB&I has led after Day 1 in two of the last three Walker Cups, though both times it has lost the cup.

“It’s been a good morning,” Robertson said. “We’re under absolutely no illusions in the task at hand. The goal is 13.5, and we’ve now made three points, so we’ve got 10.5 to go now.”