By Fred Altvater
The Walker Cup is an international team event featuring the best amateur golfers from the United States versus Great Britain & Ireland (GB&I). An unofficial event featuring two amateur teams was held in 1921 at Royal Liverpool. The first official Walker Cup Match was held in 1922 at The National Golf Links, on Long Island and has been held biennially, since 1925.
The match is contested over two days, Saturday and Sunday. Each team is comprised of 10 players. The Foursome format is used in both morning sessions with four two-man teams competing. On Saturday afternoon eight singles matches are played with two players from each team sitting out. On Sunday afternoon all 10 players compete in singles.
The United States holds a decided advantage over the GB&I Team, but in recent years with more players from Europe attending American colleges, the Walker Cup has become much more competitive. Since 2011, GB&I has won two of the six matches contested, three have been close affairs and only the 2017 Walker Cup held at Los Angeles Country Club was a rout for the American Team, 19-7.
This year Austin Greaser, from Dayton, who just completed his studies at the University of North Carolina, was a member of the U.S. team. He won the Ohio Amateur, Advanced to the round of 32 in the 2023 U.S. Amateur, finished runner-up in the 2021 U.S. Amateur and won the 2022 Western Amateur.
In his collegiate career at UNC, he was a three-time All-America, three-time All-PING East Region and three-time All-ACC selection. He was third in the 2023 Golf Coaches of America and Golfweek All-America rankings. Greaser was also an honorable mention selection in 2021 and 2022. He accumulated two wins with 10 top five’s and 16 top 10’s in his 39 collegiate starts.
After falling behind 3-1 after the first foursome session on Saturday morning the American team only managed three wins and one half in the eight Saturday Singles matches, giving the GB&I Team a 7 ½-4 ½ advantage.
On Sunday Team USA managed to capture three of the four points available in the foursomes, cutting the GB&I lead to two points heading into Sunday Singles.
The overall strength of the American team was a factor in the final session as they won six of the 10 matches outright and halved two more. The GB&I Team was only able to win two of the 10 matches. The final score, 14 ½-11 ½ gave the American Team its 40th win in Walker Cup competition.
For the week, Greaser was 1-2, but Captain McCoy sent Greaser out in the ninth match in the final session. He responded with a decisive 3 & 1 singles win that helped give the Americans the outright win and retain the Walker Cup.
The 50th Walker Cup Match will be held September 6-7, 2025, at Cypress Point Club, which hosted the 1981 Walker Cup.
