Kilkenny’s Mark Power and Kinsale’s John Murphy played a key role as Great Britain and Ireland went toe-to-toe with a powerful USA squad and were unlucky to trail 5-7 after the opening day of the 48th Walker Cup at Seminole Golf Club in Florida.

With 14 players and both captains levelled by a stomach bug at some stage of the week and the R&A and USGA agreeing to allow the alternates to step in to play should one of the original 10 on either side fall ill, the oldest team matchplay event in golf did not disappoint.

The USA are red-hot favourites but they were held 2-2 in the morning foursomes where Murphy (22) and Power (20) twice came back from three down to beat Quade Cummins and Austin Eckroat 1 up as Angus Flanagan and alternate Jake Bolton edged out veteran Stewart Hagestad and William Mouw with a birdie at the last.

As a result, Power and Murphy will lead off for GB&I in Sunday’s foursomes with Power also set to lead the visitors in the singles.

All four foursomes went to the 18th but Great Britain and Ireland were disappointed just two singles went the distance in the afternoon as the home side regrouped to win the session 5-3, claiming three crucial points thanks to wins at the treacherous par-three 17th and take a priceless two-point lead heading into the final day.

The sides play will play four morning foursomes followed by 10 singles in the race to reach the magic number of 13.5 points required for outright victory.

While there are 14 points up for grabs, Stuart Wilson’s Great Britain and Ireland side need to emerge from the foursomes with no more than a two-point deficit if they were to have a realistic chance of shocking the red-hot favourites and winning for only the third time on US soil.

“It’s been a hard-fought day,” Wilson said. “The result is probably tighter than it would suggest. The guys are doing a great job and if we can tidy up a couple of things, it will be all to play for tomorrow.”

He added: “No 17 was playing really tough today and I didn’t see anybody hit the green, so we will talk about wee things like that to keep the momentum going, hit the greens and hole the putts. It always comes down to the putting.”

Former Ryder Cup-winning captain Paul McGinley gave the team some pointers on Wednesday and after watching the action yesterday, he’s not ruling out a shock win for the visitors if they can emerge from the morning session with something positive.

“The foursomes tomorrow is important, they can’t fall any further behind,” McGinley told Sky Sports. “Two points behind going into the singles is going to be difficult but three points is going to be incredibly difficult. So if they can get 2-2 in the morning or even win half a point extra and eat into the US lead, you can reverse the pressure on the Americans.

“They are going to be going in as favourites tomorrow but if you start winning the first few matches, as we saw [in the Ryder Cup] at Medinah [in 2012] then the guys down the bottom are thinking, ‘Oh, I didn’t think my match was going to count and this would be all over by now.’ Now the American team is under pressure.

“This is far from over. I am a big believer and make no apologies for using the word momentum. It is so critical to this. So the big key is how the team is put out and it’s important the guys at the front of the order get off to good starts.”

Alex Fitzpatrick and Power are the two strong men in the GB&I side and the Kilkenny talent never trailed at number two in the singles as he beat Davis Thompson (21) 3&2,

While Murphy lost 3 and 1 to Cole Hammer, he forced the hugely experienced Texan to work hard for his win, coming back from five down at the turn to take the match to the 17th.

The Cork man, who plans to turn professional this summer, knocked in a six-footer for a winning par at the 10th to get back to four down, then took the 12th in par before stiffing his tee shot at the par-three 13th to reduce the gap to just two holes.

He then hit a wonderful cut up wedge to halve the 15th in par but after missing a lightning-fast eight-footer to win the 16th and reduce the gap to just one hole, he found sand at the 17th and couldn’t keep his recovery on the green.

Great Britain and Ireland looked set to win the top match but Fitzpatrick double-bogeyed the par-three 17th and lost tight top match 2 up to Pierceson Coody.

With Ben Schmidt falling 5&3 to Ricky Castillo and Ben Jones beaten 4&3 by William Mouw, things looked grim as the Americans took three of the top four matches.

But Great Britain and Ireland managed to take two of the last four points with Matty Lamb beating Cummins 2&1 and Barclay Brown beating John Pak 2&1.

The highlight of the morning foursomes session was Power and Murphy’s dramatic come back to beat Quade Cummins and Austin Eckroat 1 up.

The Irish duo lost the first two holes and the par-three fifth to find themselves three down and while they won the seventh and eighth with pars to reduce the deficit to just one hole, they were soon three down again.

The Americans claimed the ninth in birdie and were gifted the 10th in par when Power was one of three GB&I players to pull his tee shot into a lake.

They were still three down through 12 holes but stuck with their strategy of hitting fairways and greens.
After winning the 13th in par, they took the par-five 14th and 15th holes in birdie-par figures to square the match.

All four foursomes were all square at that stage but Power and Murphy nipped in front when the Americans found sand right at the par-three 17th and failed to escape at the first attempt.

Power lagged their birdie putt close to put them ahead in the match for the first time and they closed it out at the 18th when Murphy found the front of the green with his approach and eventually brushed in a three-footer for a winning par.

“I think I said to Mark both times, I just said, we're playing great, we just have to stick to what we're doing,” Murphy said of those three hole deficits. “We got a couple of bad breaks early on, but let's not try and force anything. We're playing great; this is a golf course of mistakes so let's let them make the mistakes, and I think we stuck to our game plan really well and stayed patient, and proud of Mark here.”

The Irish duo first played together in the Munster Under 15's in Macroom and went on to play together for Ireland.

“Yeah, it's amazing,” Power told Golf Channel after their foursomes win. “We played together when we were 15 and 16, five, six years ago now, and just on the first tee, we were like, we're just going to enjoy today because look how far we've come, and why shy away from the challenge and just embrace it, and God, we stuck to it today.”

Gesturing to Murphy, Power added: “The old head in the group, he calmed me down and just said, look, just hit the fairways, hit greens and we'll wear these guys down, and that's what we did.”

THE USGA REPORTED:
Due to the unusual circumstances, the captains of each team were permitted unprecedented flexibility with their lineups for the day’s four foursomes and eight singles matches. Alternates were summoned into action and late changes were made to the pairings. The players rallied to the cause, with each of the two alternates, and the two players who subbed in for teammates who weren’t up to playing, all earning points. 

This is the eighth consecutive time the USA Team has led after Day 1 when playing at home, seven of which resulted in overall victories. Having won the Walker Cup two years ago at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, the USA needs to earn 6 out of an available 16 points on Sunday to retain the cup, while Great Britain & Ireland needs to take 8½ points to claim their first Walker Cup win since 2015. 

“A lot of ups and downs,” said USA captain Nathaniel Crosby when asked to describe the day. “It's just amazing that we're actually playing this match with everything that happened to us this past week. If it wasn't for COVID, we wouldn't be here with two alternates, and we were able to play one this morning due to three guys getting sick yesterday.

“They're a great bunch of guys, and the best part about this whole experience for me has been getting to know them. It's sad when they lose, but it's great when they win, and hopefully we'll carry the day tomorrow.”

The first singles match of the day was Alex Fitzpatrick against Pierceson Coody, who sat out the morning foursomes. Fitzpatrick started strong and held a 1-up lead through 11 holes, but Coody was not to be deterred. 

Playing in his first Walker Cup, the grandson of 1971 Masters champion Charles Coody and the No. 2 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking® won three of the last seven holes to earn a 2-up victory over the only player on the GB&I Team with previous Walker Cup experience.

“After being sick for about 24, 36 hours, I thought it would be tough,” said Coody, 21, of Plano, Texas. “The club felt a little light this afternoon, but it was really easy to get going. It went as smoothly as it could, as sick as we all were a couple days ago.”

The next three matches were a bit more decisive, as Mark Power of GB&I earned his second point of the day with a 3-and-2 win over world No. 3 Davis Thompson; the USA’s Ricky Castillo never trailed en route to defeating Ben Schmidt, 5 and 3; and William Mouw – who was pressed into action less than 30 minutes before his tee time when reigning U.S. Amateur champion Tyler Strafaci wasn’t physically able to compete – was victorious over Ben Jones, 4 and 3.

Like Mouw, Matty Lamb of GB&I was a substitute, replacing the reigning Amateur champion Joe Long roughly 90 minutes before his tee time. Lamb never trailed against Quade Cummins and completed the 2-and-1 victory with a par on the very difficult par-3 17th hole. He credited GB&I captain Stuart Wilson for helping him get mentally ready for the match.

“Captain told me that Joe was still not feeling the best, so he just told me to get ready the same as I would normally,” said Lamb. “I just treated it like I would be playing anyway.”

How things would stand at the end of the day was very much in doubt up to the end. One match that didn’t break GB&I’s way late was Angus Flanagan vs. Austin Eckroat. Flanagan held a 1-up lead over Eckroat with three holes to play, but went bogey-double bogey on Holes 16 and 17 to fall behind. The players then halved 18, which gave Eckroat the match, 1 up.

After Eckroat’s win, the remaining two matches on the course pitted Barclay Brown of GB&I against John Pak, who played a pivotal role in the USA’s victory two years ago, and USA standout Cole Hammer against John Murphy. After Pak won three holes in a row to tie Brown through 13, Brown went on a run of his own, birdieing 14 and 15, the back-to-back par 5s, to regain a 2-up margin that led to his earning a critical point for GB&I.

Meanwhile, Hammer, who looked to be cruising while building a 5-up lead through nine holes, saw his lead tighten considerably as Murphy got three of the holes back. Hammer made par on 17 – a score that many other players would have gladly taken – to earn a 3-and-1 decision. 

“You know what, at the end of the day golf is pretty hard, and you can't play perfect golf all day long,” said Hammer. “I got off to a hot start, got to 5-up and kind of felt like I was coasting at that point. The next thing you know I make bogey on 10 and he's kind of right back in it. Luckily I was able to make a nice 10-footer on 15 for birdie that really kind of set up my last couple holes and had a good up-and-down [on 17].”

During Saturday morning’s foursomes play, each team earned two points in matches that came down to the wire. At one point, the U.S. held early leads across the board; less than two hours later, all the matches were tied. It was the first time since 1983 at Royal Liverpool that every match in a foursomes session reached the 18th hole. 

In the back-and-forth first match of the day, the Hammer and Thompson hung on to defeat Fitzpatrick and Brown, 1 up. Heading to the 18th hole tied, two-time Walker Cup competitor Hammer delivered early fireworks to Seminole as he sank a 35-foot birdie putt to win the match and get the Americans on the board first.

SCORING

JUNO BEACH, Fla. – Results from Saturday’s foursomes and singles matches at the 48th Walker Cup Match at the 7,256-yard, par-72 Seminole Golf Club:

United States leads Great Britain and Ireland, 7-5 (after first day)

Morning Foursomes

Cole Hammer and Davis Thompson, USA def. Alex Fitzpatrick and Barclay Brown, GB&I, 1 up
Mark Power and John Murphy, GB&I def. Quade Cummins and Austin Eckroat, USA, 1 up
Mac Meissner and Ricky Castillo, USA def. Jack Dyer and Matty Lamb, GB&I, 2 up
Angus Flanagan and Jake Bolton, GB&I def. Stewart Hagestad and William Mouw, USA, 1 up

Afternoon Singles
Pierceson Coody, USA def. Alex Fitzpatrick, GB&I, 2 up
Mark Power, GB&I def. Davis Thompson, USA, 3 and 2
Ricky Castillo, USA def. Ben Schmidt, GB&I, 5 and 3
William Mouw, USA def. Ben Jones, GB&I, 4 and 3
Matty Lamb, GB&I, def. Quade Cummins, USA, 2 and 1
Austin Eckroat, USA def. Angus Flanagan, GB&I, 1 up
Barclay Brown, GB&I def. John Pak, USA, 2 and 1
Cole Hammer, USA def. John Murphy, GB&I, 3 and 1

JUNO BEACH, Fla. – Pairings and tee times for Sunday’s foursomes and singles matches at the 48th Walker Cup Match at the 7,256-yard, par-72 Seminole Golf Club:

All Times EDT

Great Britain and Ireland vs. United States

Morning Foursomes
8:20 a.m. – Mark Power and John Murphy, GB&I vs. Pierceson Coody and John Pak, USA
8:35 a.m. – Alex Fitzpatrick and Barclay Brown, GB&I vs. Ricky Castillo and William Mouw, USA
8:50 a.m. – Angus Flanagan and Ben Schmidt, GB&I vs. Davis Thompson and Cole Hammer, USA
9:05 a.m. – Matty Lamb and Jack Dyer, GB&I vs. Stewart Hagestad and Tyler Strafaci, USA

Afternoon Singles
2:15 p.m. – Mark Power, GB&I vs. Austin Eckroat, USA
2:26 p.m. – Alex Fitzpatrick, GB&I vs. Pierceson Coody, USA
2:37 p.m. – Joe Long, GB&I vs. John Pak, USA
2:48 p.m. – Matty Lamb, GB&I vs. Davis Thompson, USA
2:59 p.m. – Barclay Brown, GB&I vs. Quade Cummins, USA
3:10 p.m. – Angus Flanagan, GB&I vs. William Mouw, USA
3:21 p.m. – John Murphy, GB&I vs. Ricky Castillo, USA
3:32 p.m. – Jack Dyer, GB&I vs. Tyler Strafaci, USA
3:43 p.m. – Ben Schmidt, GB&I vs. Cole Hammer, USA
3:54 p.m. – Ben Jones, GB&I vs. Stewart Hagestad, USA

Tournament Set-up

Par: 36-36—72

Yardage: 7,265

Stimpmeter: 12

Course Statistics

• Average Green Size: 6,800-8,300 sq. ft.

• Acres of Fairway: 55

• Acres of Rough: 10

• Number of Sand Bunkers: 161

• Number of Water Hazards: 7

• Number of Holes Water is in Play: 6

• Soil Conditions: Sand

• Water Sources: Reverse osmosis 

• Drainage Conditions: Siphon drainage

Turfgrass

Greens: Champion bermudagrass .075”

Tees: TifGrand bermudagrass .350”

Fairways: 419 bermudagrass .350”

Rough: 419 bermudagrass 2”

Additional Notes

• Seminole’s routing forces players to encounter a new wind direction on each hole.