(Editor’s note: Golfweek’s Cameron Jourdan and Adam Schupak are following all of the action at Cypress Point. Check out their coverage from Saturday’s action here.)
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The fist pumps started early Saturday afternoon for those in the red, white and blue, but the last one told the story of what was a dominant performance from Team USA.
Whether it was teenager Mason Howell throwing a good jab on the famous par-3 16th green at Cypress Point after burying a 40 footer or Jase Summy when he made a 6 footer for par on the last hole of the day, there was plenty of cause for celebration for the United States in the 50th Walker Cup on Saturday afternoon.
The hosts rallied from a slow start Saturday in foursomes, falling behind Great Britain & Ireland quickly. But in the Walker Cup, the Americans excel at singles, and they did yet again on Saturday, winning the afternoon session 5-2-1 to take a 6½-5½ heading into Sunday looking for their fifth straight win in the biennial bash against their counterparts from GB&I.
“It has been a great week so far, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” Howell, the U.S. Amateur champion, said.
The hosts, which have led after Saturday in three of the past five Walker Cups, were in a great spot yet again after Saturday foursomes, leading 3-1. GB&I took the first three matches, with Summy and Michael La Sasso garnering the only U.S. point in the morning.
GB&I captain Dean Robertson praised patience from his team, knowing there were still three sessions left. Meanwhile, USA captain Nathan Scott, a three-time Walker Cup participant himself, wasn’t too worried about his team, saying GB&I rode early momentum and said his team would be better in the afternoon.
Boy, were they.
“I can’t really say there was much of a message (between sessions),” Smith said. “I think the guys knew what they had to do. There were a lot of points — long way to go. There’s still a long way to go, and there were a lot of points out there this afternoon. We just knew we had to have a good session, and they delivered.”
It started with world No. 1 Jackson Koivun, who won three straight holes to top GB&I’s highest-ranked player, Tyler Weaver. Then Stewart Hagestad, the 34-year-old Mid-Amateur playing in his fifth straight Walker Cup, thrashed Gavin Tiernan to the tune of a 7-and-5 victory, moving him to 6-1 in singles all-time in the competition.
Howell then topped Luke Poulter 3 and 2 after burying the birdie look on 16, and Preston Stout, the medalist at the U.S. Amateur, knocked off Charlie Forster 6 and 5, and the U.S. had won the first four points in singles to go up 5-3.
“You can kind of hear. Throughout the course, you can hear some roars, which is always nice to hear,” Stout said of the momentum change. “You can kind of see a lot of different fairways from each hole so you can — I’ll be using my range finder looking at the scoreboards on other holes.
“But we definitely can feel the momentum, at least for me when I turned on 11 and I saw a lot of red on the board, definitely helps with your particular match, too, and seeing that your guys are doing well.”
GB&I responded with its only two wins from Niall Shiels Donegan, topping Jacob Modleski in a U.S. Amateur quarterfinals rematch from 22 days ago, and Connor Graham, who knocked off world No. 2 Ben James, 3 and 2.
But Summy’s emphatic finish helped the U.S. gain an advantage heading to Sunday. With Eliot Baker in trouble off the tee and coming up short of the putting surface, Summy went long of the green.
As the duo approached a green, a deer scampered up toward the crowd, frightened of all the spectators. It dashed and tumbled out of the bunker and then sprinted back across the green and down the fairway, even hitting a couple spectators before it finally exited the coliseum of people surrounding the 18th.
As if that wasn’t enough to ease the pressure walking up 18, Summy still had work to do. Baker hit his ball to about 20 feet, and his par putt lipped out and hung on the edge but didn’t fall in. Meanwhile, Summy had 6 feet to win his match.
Just last week, Summy won the season-opening Carmel Cup at neighboring Spyglass Hill, tying for medalist honors with Ethan Fang, who tied his singles match Saturday with Stuart Grehan. With his entire team, and 2015 Walker Cup competitor and two-time U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau watching from the side of the green, Summy made the putt and gave a fist pump that slammed the door on any GB&I momentum heading into Sunday.
Graham, the only GB&I player who competed on the 2023 team, said his message will be simple on dealing with the ebbs and flows.
“It’s match play. The momentum is really big,” Graham said. “You can get on a little stretch around here. Anything can happen. You can make a few putts in a row, and even if you get down, anything can happen going into the last few holes. Just kind of try and go out there tomorrow and play as best you can, try and keep the momentum on your side and try and get a point.”
But even after a slow start, Saturday belonged to the USA. And come Sunday, the U.S. is going for the knockout punch.
“We’re going to put our best guys out there,” Smith said. “That’s not probably the No. 1 priority right now. We want to be rested. We’ll get a good night’s sleep. But we’ll have our best teams out there in the morning.”
Walker Cup Sunday foursomes pairings
- 8 a.m.: Connor Graham and Tyler Weaver (GB&I) vs. Jackson Koivun and Tommy Morrison (USA)
- 8:15 a.m.: Charlie Forster and Luke Poulter vs. Preston Stout and Ethan Fang
- 8:30 a.m.: Eliot Baker and Stuart Grehan vs. Mason Howell and Jacob Modleski
- 8:45 a.m.: Cameron Adam vs. Niall Shiels Donegan vs. Michael La Sasso and Jase Summy
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