MLuchy
Handicap Index: 16.7
Tuesday, September 05, 2017
All well and fine…. and does the SCGA get us a price break as members over the $75 a day fee to see these 10 super amateurs play?
USGA Announces 2017 United States Team for the 46th Walker Cup Match
August 20, 2017
USA Squad Will Face Great Britain and Ireland Team at The Los Angeles Country Club in September
The USGA today announced the 10 players who will make up the 2017 United States Walker Cup Team. The USA team will meet Great Britain and Ireland in the 46th Match at The Los Angeles CC’s North Course, Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 9-10.
The 10 players chosen by the USGA’s International Team Selection Committee and captained by John “Spider” Miller, of Indianapolis, Ind., include SCGA members Stewart Hagestad, 26, of Newport Beach, Calif.; Collin Morikawa, 20, of La Canada Flintridge, Calif.; and Norman Xiong, 18, of Canyon Lake, Calif.; as well as Cameron Champ, 21, of Sacramento, Calif.; Doug Ghim, 21, of Arlington Heights, Ill.;Maverick McNealy, 21, of Portola Valley, Calif.; Doc Redman, 19, of Raleigh, N.C.; Scottie Scheffler, 21, of Dallas, Texas; Braden Thornberry, 20, of Olive Branch, Miss.; and Will Zalatoris, 21, of Plano, Texas. McNealy is the lone returning player from the 2015 USA Team.
“George Herbert Walker’s vision was for leading amateur golfers to come together for a friendly competition to promote interest in the game on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean,” said Diana M. Murphy, the USGA president. “The United States Team is a talented group of players who will work together to be competitive against Great Britain and Ireland, but at the same time uphold the ideals of friendship and understanding that were foreseen nearly a century ago.”
The Walker Cup Match is a biennial amateur team competition between the USA and a team composed of players from Great Britain and Ireland, selected by The R&A. The Match is played over two days with 18 singles matches and eight foursomes (alternate-shot) matches. The USA leads the overall series, 35-9-1, but the teams have split the last 14 meetings since 1989.
The first USA Walker Cup Team, which posted an 8-4 victory in 1922 at the National Golf Links of America, in Southampton, N.Y., is considered among the best teams ever assembled and included Francis Ouimet, Bob Jones, Charles “Chick” Evans and Jess Sweetser. Many of the game’s greatest players have competed in the Walker Cup, including U.S. Open champions Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson for the USA and Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose for Great Britain and Ireland.
“It is a great honor to serve as the USA captain and to work with a group of young men who represent the best of amateur golf in this country,” said USA captain John “Spider” Miller, who played on the 1999 USA Walker Cup Team, won two U.S. Mid-Amateur Championships and also captained the 2015 USA Team, which lost, 16½ -9½. “The squad members have a long list of individual and team accomplishments but they are now committed both to representing the United States and to the spirit and tradition of the Walker Cup Match.”
The Walker Cup Match will be conducted for the third time on the West Coast and was previously hosted by Seattle (Wash.) Golf Club in 1961 and Cypress Point Club, in Pebble Beach, Calif., in 1981. This year’s match will be played on The Los Angeles County Club’s North Course, which was designed by George C. Thomas Jr. and restored by Gil Hanse. The course will be set up at 7,425 yards and play to a par of 35-36-71.
“Amateur golf is central to the USGA’s mission and we are meticulous in our selection of the USA Walker Team,” said Stuart Francis, USGA Championship Committee chairman. “The Los Angeles Country Club, which hosted USGA championships in 1930 and 1954, has the same dedication and will be a tremendous venue for this international competition.”
Sam Burns, 21, of Shreveport, La.; Dawson Armstrong, 21, of Brentwood, Tenn.; and Dylan Meyer, 22, of Evansville, Ind., are the first, second and third alternatives, respectively.
SCGA MEMBER WALKER CUP PROFILES:
Stewart Hagestad, 26, of Newport Beach, Calif. (born 4-10-91): He won the 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship by defeating Scott Harvey in 37 holes. Hagestad, who became the second-youngest champion, produced the largest comeback victory (4 down with 5 holes to play) since a 36-hole Mid-Amateur final was introduced in 2001. He was the low amateur in the 2017 Masters Tournament, tying for 36th, and competed in this year’s U.S. Open. Hagestad was a member of the University of Southern California (USC) golf team and graduated in 2013. Hagestad, who was chosen 2016 Metropolitan Golf Association Player of the Year, won last year’s Met Amateur, edging Ethan Ng in 38 holes. He has played in 12 USGA championships, including eight U.S. Amateurs.
Collin Morikawa, 20, of La Cañada Flintridge, Calif. (born 2-6-97): He advanced to the Round of 16 for the second consecutive year in the U.S. Amateur Championship. Morikawa defeated a pair of Australians in the first two rounds of match play. He earned first-team All-American and first-team Pac-12 Conference honors as a sophomore at the University of California. He was chosen 2016 Pac-12 Conference Freshman of the Year. Morikawa, who competed in his first USGA championship at the 2015 U.S. Amateur, won the 2017 Northeast Amateur by two strokes with a 72-hole score of 11-under 265. He was the Sunnehanna Amateur runner-up, losing to Braden Thornberry in a three-hole playoff, and tied for second in the Trans-Mississippi Amateur.
Norman Xiong, 18, of Canyon Lake, Calif. (born 11-9-98): He earned the 2017 Phil Mickelson Award as Division I’s top freshman while playing at the University of Oregon. The Ducks won the Pac-12 Conference Championship, finish third at the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional and reached the NCAA match-play final against Oklahoma. Xiong was the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and a first-team all-conference selection. He shot rounds of 64 and 70 in stroke play to earn the No. 2 seed in the 2017 U.S. Amateur match-play bracket. Xiong defeated Doc Redman in 22 holes to win the 2017 Western Amateur and was the championship’s stroke-play medalist by one stroke over Brad Dalke. Xiong won the 2015 CIF/SCGA Regional as a sophomore at Temescal Canyon High School.
Interested in attending the 2017 Walker Cup Match? Purchase tickets here!