PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The Americans seized control in the sunshine and kept right on rolling through the fog at Cypress Point on Sunday, eliminating any drama in beating Great Britain & Ireland for their fifth consecutive victory in the Walker Cup.
Staked to a one-point lead, the Americans delivered a record performance in singles by winning eight of the 10 matches and halving another for a 17-9 victory.
U.S. Amateur champion Mason Howell capped off his amazing summer by scratching out a halve with Connor Graham in a tight match of 18-year-olds, going 2-0-1 for the week.
Stewart Hagestad, the veteran of this U.S. team playing in his fifth Walker Cup, holed a 20-foot birdie putt on the par-3 15th for a 4-and-3 victory that assured the Americans keeping the cup, and Preston Stout secured an outright win when he held off Luke Poulter, 2 and 1.
The fog was so thick there was a slight delay when players couldn’t see the green over the ocean on the par-3 16th hole. By then, it was over except for the final score.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a Walker Cup team bring it like they did this afternoon in singles,” U.S. captain Nathan Smith said.
Bryson DeChambeau did his part, dropping in on the U.S. team on Saturday night for a little extra motivation.
“He gave them a pump-up speech last night, which they loved, and got them going,” Smith said. “They were ready to play today.”
This is the longest winning streak for the Americans since they won eight in row from 1973 through 1987. Unlike the Walker Cup two years ago at St. Andrews, the powerful U.S. team didn’t need any Sunday heroics.
They won big, anyway. The 8-1-1 Sunday singles was the best record by a Walker Cup team since it went to 10 matches in 2009.
Howell delivered more big moments in the Sunday morning foursomes, holing a 35-foot birdie putt on the 15th and holing out from the fairway on the par-4 17th. Jackson Koivun and Tommy Morrison turned what looked like a sure loss into a 1-up win.
The morning session ended in a draw, and the Americans took a one-point lead into singles matches of all 10 players.
Under a brilliant blue sky on America’s most picturesque golf course, the scoreboard quickly filled with red scores. The matches were all relatively close, but it was a daunting site for a GB&I team looking to win on U.S. soil for the first time since 2001.
That will have to wait four more years.
“I’m really proud of my players. They’ll grow from this,” GB&I captain Dean Robertson said. “As much as losing sucks, if it didn’t, the winning wouldn’t matter.”
The Americans now have a 40-9-1 in the series that dates to 1922, five years before the professional Ryder Cup began.
It turned into a rout quickly, with Smith front-loading his singles lineup with four of the top five players in the world amateur ranking. The other was Howell, who high school senior from Georgia who made it onto the team by winning the U.S. Amateur up the coast at The Olympic Club in San Francisco.
“I didn’t know the winner of the U.S. Am got on the Walker Cup until about my quarterfinals match,” Howell said. “It’s been such a fun week. I’m just super blessed to be here.”
GB&I has only won twice in America, both times in Georgia — Peachtree Golf Club in Atlanta in 1989, and Ocean Forest in St. Simons Island on the coast.
“We came here with a focus to raise a standard, to emulate what’s happened twice in 100 years,” GB&I captain Dean Robertson said. “But Nathan’s team, they played fantastic. … We had a belief. We had a goal. Even at lunch time, we had to get momentum. The red went on the board early.”
Koivun, the No. 1 amateur in the world who already has secured a PGA Tour card when he turns pro, lost his opening foursomes match Friday morning and then won the next three. He was first off in singles, and trailed only the opening hole before a 3-and-2 victory over Tyler Weaver, at No. 10 the only GB&I player from the top 10 in the amateur ranking.
Tommy Morrison never trailed in his 3-and-2 win over Niall Shiels Donegan, the Scot who was raised in San Francisco.
Howell earned an unlikely halve. He went into a bunker on the 18th, entirely blocked by cypress trees. He pitched out sideways and halved the hole with a bogey when Graham failed to get up-and-down from just short of the green.
Stout is No. 5 in the amateur ranking. He never trailed in his match against Poulter, the Florida junior and son of Ryder Cup stalwart Ian Poulter.
“I saw how they were playing, and I just kind of found a shady tree,” Smith said. “Just get out of the way and let the horses run.”
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