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GB&I captain Dean Robertson and team celebrate comeback win at Lahinch. (Oisin Keniry/R&A via Getty Images)
You would be hard-pressed to find a better golf event this year than the one staged over the weekend in the tiny Irish town of Lahinch, where the Great Britain & Ireland team staged a dramatic rally to upend the Americans in the Walker Cup.
The golf from both teams over two days at the Irish links was exceptional. After winning each of the four foursomes matches on Sunday morning, the Americans appeared poised to continue their recent dominance in the amateur competition, which had not seen the GB&I side win since 2015.
But the home team was not to be denied.
Trailing by three points going into the 10 singles matches, GB&I won the first four to take the lead. The entire competition ultimately came down to the final hole and the final match, with unheralded Englishman Josh Hill hitting perhaps the shot of the tournament from a greenside bunker, knocking it close and converting the putt for a victory over American Tyler Watts, the No. 2 amateur in the world.
Hill, the last player selected by captain Dean Robertson, beat Watts 1-up to cap a wild and improbable comeback that saw GB&I prevail 13 ½ to 12 ½.
“We are so elated,” said Robertson. “We’re hardly able to put it into words. There’s a lot of emotion, a lot of happy tears. But pride, pride is the word I would use to describe this.”
Also in today’s DD …
This week in golf: Thriston Lawrence denies Paul Casey in Euro Masters playoff .
Folds of Honor Collegiate and its founder Dan Rooney are on a ‘Godly’ mission
It was an unexpected turnaround after a seeeming disatrous morning for GB&I. World No. 1 amateur Preston Stout and No. 9 Ethan Fang got the better of home favorite Stuart Grehan of Ireland and Eliot Baker 3 and 2.
That started a red tsunami. Kihei Akina and Jay Leng Jr gave the U.S. the lead with a resounding 4-and-3 defeat of Luke Poulter and Sam Easterbrook while William Jennings and Ryder Cowan dominated Scotland’s Niall Sheils Donegan and Hill to win by the same margin.
When Miles Russell and Watts beat Tyler Weaver and Connor Graham 3 and 2, the three-point lead entering singles looked overwhelming.
“There was most definitely a belief in the players and even though we were swept 4-0 this morning, there wasn’t a despondency,” said Robertson. “The American team were outstanding this morning. The quality of the golf was sensational. It really was and you’ve really just got to tip your cap and say well played.”
Recent U.S. Amateur champ Jack Whaley got GB&I’s comeback started with a blowout 8-and-7 win over world No. 4 William Jennings. It equaled the second largest margin of victory in a singles match in the Walker Cup.
Grehan, the lone Irishman in Robertson’s side, thrilled the home crowds by rallying from two holes down against Stout to win 2 and 1 while Poulter drew the sides level at 9½-9½ by defeating Fang 3 and 1.
Weaver put GB&I back in front in the match with a 4-and-3 win against Leng while Donegan secured a vital half against Akina after the American missed a putt to win the match from close range.
“When we came in at lunch time I had to change the order and we had to bring some energy so that we could feed off of that,” Robertson said. “Stuart Grehan, he brought the energy, as did Luke Poulter, Jack Whaley, and Tyler Weaver. They kind of started to kind of grow from there.”
Cowan seemed to put the U.S. back in the driver’s seat a 3-and-2 win over Ben Bolton to put the Americans one point away from retaining the Walker Cup with two matches left on the course.
Graham came back from three down after 11 to secure a half point against Russell.
That’s when Hill stepped up as the hero with his clutch par save from the bunker.
“And then Josh Hill produced a Matt Fitzpatrick bunker shot at the last and holed it and we’ve got the Walker Cup,” Robertson said.
“The match was incredible,” said U.S. captain Nathan Smith. “It was definitely a tale of two days with what happened this morning and going forward now and how they played this afternoon.
“We knew how great their team was. They’re a great team. They’re a deep team. We knew they were capable of anything. Really at no time did we take the foot off the accelerator. But they played great. All you can do is really tip your cap to them. They played great.”
Josh Hill celebrates holing the winning putt during the Sunday singles. (Ross Parker/R&A via Getty Images)
This week in golf …
Omega European Masters: Paul Casey needed a par on the final hole to win the DP World Tour event but couldn’t convert, leading to a sudden-death playoff that went four holes before Thriston Lawrence prevailed. It was the South African’s fifth win on the circuit and third at Crans-sur-Sierre GC in Switzerland. He shot a final-round 62 to grab the clubhouse lead. Casey, who has played for LIV Golf the last four years, was bidding for his first victory since the 2021 Dubai Desert Classic. He pledged his prize money to charities associated with a deadly fire that occurred in the area in January. Casey, 49, now makes his home in Switzerland.
A word from Folds of Honor
This week’s Daily Drive newsletter is being sponsored by the Folds of Honor Collegiate, a 54-hole event that begins today at the Jack Nicklaus-designed American Dunes Golf Club in Grand Haven, Michigan.
The event features 27 teams (15 men, 12 women) comprised of 21 Division I programs, a non-Division I qualifier (Findlay), three service academies Air Force, Army and Navy (which has both a men’s and women’s team) as well as two historically black colleges (Grand Valley State men and North Carolina A&T women).
The tournament is co-hosted by Michigan State and Florida State and will feature 20 teams that were represented at the 2025 NCAA Regionals, 11 that advanced to the NCAA Championships, and 12 that ended the spring ranked among the top 35 in the country.
The Golf Channel will have live coverage each of the next two days from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m ET. On Wednesday, the tournament is available from 11:30 a.m to 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.to 7:30 p.m. ET.
The Folds of Honor Collegiate raises awareness and funds for Folds of Honor and its mission to provide educational scholarships to the children and spouses of fallen or disabled military and first responders.
Click here for more information and live scoring.
About Folds of Honor and founder Dan Rooney
Lt. Col. Dan Rooney’s career is impressive on a couple of levels. Not only is he is a decorated F-16 fighter pilot who served three tours of duty in Iraq, but he is a PGA golf professional. Recently, Rooney, 53, competed in a PGA Tour Champions event on a sponsor exemption.
His list of honors includes having received the White House’s Presidential Volunteer Service Award, the Air National Guard’s Distinguished Service Medal, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the PGA of America’s inaugural Patriot Award.
It was with assistance of the PGA of America that Rooney, in 2007, founded Patriot Golf Day, a nationwide initiative the provides funding and support of veterans military families and is now recognized nationally in the month of May.
Rooney also founded the Folds of Honor, a non-profit organization that provides educational scholarships to the spouses and children of military service members and first responders who have fallen or been disabled in the line of duty.
Since its inception, the foundation has provided nearly 73,000 scholarships which resulted in more than $340 million across all 50 states. According to FOH, 43 percent of the students served are minorities and 57 percent are women.
The scholarships support private school tuition or tutoring in grades K-12, tuition for college, technical or trade school and post-graduate work, including a master’s degree, doctorate or professional program.
“I cry every day,” Rooney said in an interview with the First Call. “It’s just unbelievable, it’s so real. And again, from the ashes … these families come out of the dark ashes to this bright light, and to someone believing in them, which is fundamental to all humanity. To have someone say, ‘I believe in you. I want to empower your future,’ and recognize the sacrifices they have made for our freedoms.
“There’s nothing more Godly than fighting through struggle and helping someone do that. I don’t know what you call it — it’s sort of emotional currency. But the true irony that when you reach out to help someone, you’re the one being helped. Everyone wants to feel fulfilled, and you can do that though helping others.”
Just thrilling