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| A determined Gavin Dear plods through deep rough in his singles match against Brian Harman Sunday. (John Mummert/USGA) |
By Dave Shedloski
Ardmore, Pa. – Gavin Dear desperately wanted his first victory of the week. Brian Harman was equally covetous of ending his Walker Cup career without a loss.
Something had to give Sunday afternoon at Merion Golf Club, and it was the USA’s Harman who was in a charitable mood while Dear was of a mind to not head home empty-handed. With an inspiring exhibition of scrambling coupled with Harman's struggles with the putter, Dear ended his amateur career with a 3-and-2 victory for Great Britain & Ireland in the day’s first singles match.
“Finally, I got a few breaks and I got a few putts to drop,” said Dear, 25, of Scotland, who finished the 42nd Walker Cup 1-2-1. “Brian is a class player who wasn’t going to be easy to beat, but I knew if I just played my game, I might just have a good round.”
The defeat was doubly disappointing for Harman, 22, of Savannah, Ga. The left-hander also was playing his last round as an amateur, and he had not lost in his previous six Walker Cup matches dating back to the ’05 event at Chicago Golf Club.
“Going 4-1-2 in the Walker Cup is pretty good, but I really wanted to end my Walker Cup career undefeated,” Harman said. “Right now, I’m very disappointed, but a little later I’ll look at it and realize it was a great experience, a great week. The most important thing is how we’ve done as a team.”
USA went into the 10 singles matches with an 11-5 lead and locked up its third straight victory with Peter Uihlein’s 3-and-1 triumph over Eamonn “Stiggy” Hodgson.
The Dear-Harman showdown was a high-stakes emotional affair for both men, not only because of the aforementioned urgency as pro career beckon, but also because the two had engaged in a bit of non-confrontational verbal jousting after Harman and Adam Mitchell rallied to beat Dear and Matt Haines, 3 and 2, in the morning foursomes (alternate shot).
Dear, the reigning Irish Amateur champion, huffed that the Americans were lucky. Upon hearing that, Harman countered with a few dismissive comments.
Said Dear: “That was just a big of frustration coming out. You see things go against you all week, and you just have to let it out.”
The men were cordial but business-like in their match, though Harman admitted later that Dear’s comments continued to reverberate in his head. “I may have been trying too hard,” he said.
It didn’t appear that way early.
Harman, the 2003 U.S. Junior Amateur champion, drew first blood without hitting a putt. His 9-iron approach to the opening hole nearly found its destination on the fly and stopped just 2 feet away. Told by a marshal that he almost holed it, the left-hander shrugged, smiled and said, “Sorry, I pulled it.”
Dear, meanwhile, who also found the fairway off the tee, airmailed his second shot over the green into the high fescue grass. He hacked it out, but the ball sailed into the front-left bunker, and he immediately conceded Harman’s short putt.
A 5-footer at the second brought Dear back to square. The match swung back and fourth for a series of holes until around the turn, when Harman’s short game inexplicably went cold.
The problems started at the par-3 ninth, when Dear’s tee shot veered left and burrowed into the sand after Harman had played his iron to about 24 feet. Dear had to play away from the flag, but got down in two from 50 feet. Harman, meanwhile, knocked his first putt 3 feet by, then whiffed on his next, leaving another 3-footer. It was a disappointing halve.
When Dear got up and down out of the deep hay for a kick-in birdie at the short par-4 10th (set up at just 242 yards) the pressure was on Harman, who had driven to the front of the green. His first putt ended up 3 feet short, but when he tried to jam the second one in, the ball spun out.
“I really struggled with my putting all week, and it caught up to me today,” said Harman dejectedly. “You can’t give holes away like that.”
Dear seemed energized by the turn of events. He one-putted from 12 and 8 feet, respectively, on the next two holes to salvage pars, and then nosed ahead at the par-3 13th with a 6-foot birdie.
At 14, after driving way right and getting a free drop from behind a television crane, Dear walloped a 22-degree rescue club from 236 yards to 30 feet. Harman, from the fairway, pulled his second shot over the green and under a small tree. He gouged out to 18 feet, but missed the par putt from the fringe while Dear two-putted to go 2 up.
Harman’s hopes disintegrated rapidly from there. He knocked his tee shot out of bounds at 15 and had to concede the hole when Dear found the green in regulation. The match ended at No. 16 when Dear registered a routine two-putt par from 25 feet while Harman’s par from 35 feet wasn’t enough to extend the proceedings.
Dear, who had been on the winning Scotland team at this year's European Amateur and the 2008 World Amateur Team Championship, appeared more relieved than happy after the last putt fell and he received a congratulatory hug from his caddie, Eric Stull.
“Colin (Dalgleish, the GB&I captain) asked me if I was ready to take on Brian again after the disappointing morning we had, and I told him that I was going to give it my all. I really wanted to set a good tone in that first match and maybe give our guys a boost. It was a good way to finish things up.”
But the two men aren’t done. It’s now on to the professional ranks.
Dave Shedloski is a freelance writer whose work has previously appeared on USGA championship sites.
