Good news, folks. The Walker Cup in 2052 already has a venue.
It’s going to be played at Seminole in Florida, so you can scribble that one down in your diary amid all those other things you’ve already got arranged for that weekend in 26 years’ time.
Golf does love a bit of forward planning, doesn’t it? In the wake of at Lahinch, a thing came through in the post-event paraphernalia reminding me of the future dates and host courses for the transatlantic duel.
More: . The Walker Cup remains one for the purists.
Sunday’s showdown was a terrific advert for amateur golf and the spirit of its competition. GB&I’s edge-of-the-seat conquest was a timely tonic too after five US wins in a row.
There have often been murmurings that the Walker Cup should expand to incorporate a wider European team, like the Ryder Cup did in 1979 after a series of ritual thrashings for GB&I.
That, of course, didn’t go down well with a’body. “So, the Ryder Cup is dead,” wrote the esteemed golf writer, Peter Dobereiner, at the time.
“It was quietly put down to prevent further suffering, and the body was interred in an unmarked grave.”I assume many stout traditionalists would feel the same about such a change to the Walker Cup. Sunday’s win, though, showed that there’s plenty of life in GB&I yet.
We know that Uncle Sam’s lads have always dominated this affair – they have 40 wins to GB&I’s 10 since the event’s inception back in 1922 – but a first defeat for the USA since 2015 gives this treasured tussle fresh vigor. A turn up for the books is always nice, isn’t it?
Well, unless you’re an American. The USGA, custodians of the amateur game on this side of the pond, have made a concerted effort in recent years to accelerate the conveyor belt of domestic talent. Given the sheer numbers in this land of plenty, it’s a huge belt.
The National Development Program, launched in 2023, is the country’s first unified initiative designed to create a clear pathway from junior golf right through to the elite end.
“They will get it right too,” said David Inglis, the Scottish exile who is a leading coach at Chicago’s Northwestern University, in a conversation with this correspondent recently.
“Over the next five to 10 years, they will churn out a lot of good players.”
GB&I have been warned. For the time being, though, they can savor this very sweet success.
Nobody will be prouder than Dean Robertson, the canny Scot who has relished his two stints as GB&I skipper and has approached the task with the kind of attention to detail you’d get with a CT scan.
His first outing as captain may have ended in a heavy defeat at Cypress Point, but his second term brought a shimmering silver lining after an historic comeback.
I imagine a bronze bust of Dean will be getting plonked on the Bow Butts in St Andrews. And they could chisel out another one for the clubhouse at Cochrane Castle.
Robertson broke the mould as GB&I’s first professional captain. It was always going to happen.
For years, there were concerns that the R&A were simply running out of skippers in an age when the career amateur is almost as old-fashioned as the thatched roof.
Opening up the post to former Walker Cup players, who subsequently turned professional, provides a healthy list of potential candidates going forward. Rory McIlroy as captain in 2052?
Robertson, a Walker Cupper himself back in 1993, revelled in the role. And you never know. Like Luke Donald with the European Ryder Cup team, Robertson might get a third crack at the Walker Cup in 2028? If it ain’t broke and all that.
The team golf comes thick and fast with the leading women of Europe and the USA taking centre stage in this weekend’s
