(Editor’s note: Golfweek’s Cameron Jourdan and Adam Schupak are following all of the action at Cypress Point. Check out their coverage from Sunday’s action here.)
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Mason Howell has swagger.
The U.S. Amateur champion is missing more of his senior year at high school this week but the 18-year-old is going to have plenty to share next week at lunch time when he’s asked what he did this weekend.
On Sunday, he holed out a pitching wedge from the fairway at the 17th hole at Cypress Point Club for a walk-off 2-and-1 victory in a foursomes match with American teammate Jacob Modleski over Great Britain & Ireland’s Eliot Baker and Stuart Grehan in Sunday Foursomes at the 50th Walker Cup.
“It was pitching wedge all the way,” a joyous Howell said after celebrating in the fairway with his caddie and teammate. After retrieving the ball from the hole, Howell rolled it on the ground to his father standing on the rope line as a souvenir he likely will long cherish.
Howell and Modleski never trailed, grabbing a 2-up lead after two holes before GB&I battled back to win the next two. But the tie didn’t last long: USA won the next three holes to take a commanding lead. They won the 10th with a par to go 4 up. GB&I didn’t go down without a fight. They trimmed the deficit to 2 down by winning Nos. 11 and 13 but Howell came up with a birdie at 15. The match was dormie but GB&I chipped in at the iconic par-3 16th to extend the match at least one more hole.
That’s when Howell slammed the door shut in dramatic fashion.
Howell and Modleski met for the first time this week and gelled quickly in practice rounds. When Golf Channel’s Kira Dixon asked them why U.S. Captain Nathan Smith paired them together, Modleski said, “He told us we’d win.”
That they did and earned a big point for Team USA, which after splitting the four morning foursomes matches holds an 8½-7½ lead.
And so the triumphant summer of Howell, who already won the U.S. Amateur last month at The Olympic Club, in Northern California continues. Smith loves everything about the Georgia commit’s game and his foursomes partner Modleski raved about his short stick.
“If I hit it on the green, he makes it,” he said.
On 17 at Cypress, Howell didn’t need that silky-smooth putting stroke thanks to one magical wedge shot.
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