Great Britain and Ireland rallied late in the singles session on the opening day of the 51st Walker Cup match at Lahinch Golf Club in Ireland to take a narrow 6½-5½ lead against the United States of America.
Dean Robertson’s side are bidding to win the Walker Cup for the first time since 2015 and were cheered on by 8,000 fans at the iconic links on the coast of County Clare.
Niall Sheils Donegan was the stand-out performer for the hosts earning two points from his two matches while Ethan Fang delivered 1½ points for the USA.
Foursomes
GB&I made a good start to the match by taking a 2½-1½ lead after a closely contested opening foursomes session.
Three of the four matches went the distance with Donegan and Josh Hill delivering the most convincing performance of the morning for the hosts, defeating Josiah Gilbert and Ryder Cowan 4&3 in the bottom match of the draw.
Stuart Grehan and Eliot Baker gained a half point for GB&I against world number one Preston Stout and Ethan Fang after the 2025 Amateur Champion pushed his par putt wide on the 18th. Connor Graham and Tyler Weaver then secured a full point with a one-hole victory over Jay Leng Jr and Kihei Akina thanks largely to a strong putting display by the Scot.
Luke Poulter and Sam Easterbrook produced a determined fightback against Miles Russell and Tyler Watts, recovering from three down after the 10th to draw level by winning the 12th, 13th and 17th holes, but Russell responded at the last, holing a clutch birdie putt to secure the point for the USA.
Singles
The loudest cheer in Lahinch rung around the 18th hole green, which was completely surrounded by fans as home favourite Grehan fought back from three holes down after five holes in the first singles match to defeat world number one Stout on the last with a birdie four.
The visitors bounced back quickly, however, by securing three points in succession thanks to Fang winning by one hole over Jack Whaley, Leng Jr defeating Weaver 2&1 and William Jennings also edging out Graham by one hole to take the lead in the match for the first time at 4½-3½.
Stewart Hagestad extended his remarkable singles record in the Walker Cup to notch up his eighth win out of nine singles matches by overcoming Ben Bolton 2&1. The American took control of the match with a birdie at the par-3 11th before extending his lead at the 13th with a birdie three and closing out the dual on the 17th to make it 5½-3½.
Despite the two-point deficit, GB&I rallied to secure the final three points of the session and lead the match overall at 6½-5½. Sheils Donegan impressed against Watts to win 3&2 with Baker following up with a victory by the same margin against Josiah Gilbert before Poulter rounded proceedings off by beating Russell 2&1.
“Finest day of golf”
GB&I team captain Dean Robertson was delighted with how his team performed on the opening day.
“I think that’s probably the finest day of golf I’ve ever been involved in,” he said. “The Walker Cup has just been an amazing showcase of what the game is all about in its purest form. I was following different matches, but the noise out there was like an Open Championship. It really was. It was fantastic.”
While Robertson is pleased to see his side lead, he knows his players will have to be at the top of their game if they are to win GB&I a first Walker Cup since 2015.
“Last year we had the great foursomes session in the morning at Cypress and got turned over,” he added. “So we’re under no illusions. It’s going to be extremely challenging. But I think the weather is going to play a factor as well tomorrow, so everybody will have to be on their mettle and it’s going to be a tough day.”
Sunday will see the teams face off in four four-ball matches in the morning and ten singles matches in the afternoon.
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