USA Win Walker Cup At St Andrews With Fine Comeback As Gordon Sargent Stars

Gordon Sargent lived up to his status as the No. 1 amateur in the world by winning all four of his matches at St. Andrews as the United States rallied to win the Walker Cup on Sunday for the fourth straight time.

Great Britain & Ireland had a three-point lead going into the final two sessions on the Old Course but the Americans won three of the four morning foursomes, and triumphed in six of the 10 singles matches to win 14½-11½ overall.

Sargent, who won the NCAA title as a freshman, went 4-0 for the week as the US won four of the last five singles ties with Preston Summerhays, Stewart Hagestad and Caleb Surratt also all successful to complete an impressive comeback in which they outscored GB&I 10-4 over two Sunday sessions.

“They played hard to the bitter end,” U.S. captain Mike McCoy said. “This one is going to be a great ride home. It's pretty special, it's certainly the pinnacle of my golfing life. After the morning session I felt a lot better, like we were really back in the tournament and had a chance to win this thing.

"Last night I was pretty concerned as the mornings are historically not our strong suit, but the guys played great and I think the morning was what made the day."

U.S. Amateur champion Nick Dunlap picked up a vital half-point despite being three down with four to play against Barclay Brown before he won the next two holes and then halved the match with a birdie on the 18th in the singles.

Sargent and John Gough of England were all square going to the 17th when Gough sent his drive too far right and out-of-bounds. That gave Sargent a one-up lead before he then drove the 18th green with a three-wood and Gough conceded the match as Sargent’s eagle putt trickled to a stop by the hole.

The final blow was Dylan Menante's halve with Matthew McClean to give USA 12 ½ points with two other matches dormie on the course, assuring them enough to win the cup that dates back 100 years to 1922.

GB&I captain Stuart Wilson reflected: "We're obviously disappointed. We had a nice lead this morning that we kind of let slide quite a bit in the foursomes, but I think where the guys will be hurting the most is they'll know they haven't turned up this afternoon and acquitted themselves in the way we know they can.

"We always thought it was going to be a tight match and everything went our way yesterday [Saturday]. Six matches went up the last and we got four and a half points out of them but all the momentum seemed to be with the US side today. To be fair to the players, they are a great side and they handled the conditions a lot better than our guys."

GB&I were looking to win for the first time since 2015 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes and had the momentum with a 7 ½-4 ½ lead after the two Saturday sessions. 

But USA now lead the overall series 39-9-1 after a total of 14,320 fans attended the weekend’s match at the home of golf.