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Walker Cup Match History

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The Walker Cup Match began in the wake of World War I with a view toward stimulating golf interest on both sides of the Atlantic. The Match grew in part out of two international matches between the USA and Canada, in 1919 and 1920.

At the same time, British and American amateurs considered each nation’s national amateur championship a great plum. Meanwhile, the USGA Executive Committee had been invited to Great Britain for a series of meetings with the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews Rules Committee. The meeting was to look at the advisability of modifying various rules of the game. Among the participants was George Herbert Walker, USGA president in 1920.

Upon the Executive Committee’s return to the United States of America, international team matches were discussed. The idea so appealed to Walker that he soon presented a plan and offered to donate a trophy. When the press dubbed the trophy the Walker Cup, the name stuck.

In 1921, the USGA invited all golfing nations to send teams to compete in the Match, but no country was able to accept that year. The Americans stuck to their mission, however, and William C. Fownes, the 1910 U.S. Amateur champion, who had twice assembled the amateur teams that played against Canada, rounded up a third team in the spring of 1921 and took it to England. At Hoylake, the American team defeated a British team, 9-3, in an informal match the day before the British Amateur.

Early in 1922, The R&A announced that it would send a team to compete for the Walker Cup at the National Golf Links of America, Walker’s home club, in Southampton, N.Y.

Originally, the competition was open to any country that might care to challenge. The USGA invited all countries to compete. Except for Great Britain, however, no other country was able to accept. The Walker Cup was contested in 1922, 1923 and 1924 and then biennially ever since, with a nine-year hiatus between 1938 and 1947 for World War II.

Until recent years, the USA clearly dominated the series, but the number of American victories never clouded the true purpose of the Walker Cup Match. A much higher value has been placed upon the series as a medium of international friendship and understanding between The R&A and the USGA.

Many Walker Cup alumni for both teams have gone to have tremendous professional success, including Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose, Colin Montgomerie, Davis Love III, Rickie Fowler, Webb Simpson, Jordan Spieth and Padraig Harrington.

The USA leads the series, 38-9-1.

Walker Cup Results (1922-Present)

1922: USA 8, Great Britain and Ireland 4; National Golf Links of America, Southampton, N.Y.

1923: USA 6, Great Britain and Ireland 5; Old Course at St. Andrews (Scotland)

1924; USA 9, Great Britain and Ireland 3; Garden City (N.Y.) Golf Club

1926: USA 6, Great Britain and Ireland 5; Old Course at St. Andrews (Scotland)

1928: USA 11, Great Britain and Ireland 1; Chicago Golf Club, Wheaton, Ill.

1930: USA 10, Great Britain and Ireland 2; Royal St. George’s Golf Club, Sandwich, England

1932: USA 8, Great Britain and Ireland 1; The Country Club, Brookline, Mass.

1934: USA 9, Great Britain and Ireland 2; Old Course at St. Andrews (Scotland)

1936: USA 9, Great Britain and Ireland 0; Pine Valley Golf Club, Clementon, N.J.

1938: Great Britain and Ireland 7, USA 4; Old Course at St. Andrews (Scotland)

1947: USA 8, Great Britain and Ireland 4; Old Course at St. Andrews (Scotland)

1949: USA 10, Great Britain and Ireland 2; Winged Foot G.C. (West Course), Mamaroneck, N.Y.

1951: USA 6, Great Britain and Ireland 3; Birkdale Golf Club, Southport, England

1953: USA 9, Great Britain and Ireland 3; Kittansett Club, Marion, Mass.

1955: USA 10, Great Britain and Ireland 2; Old Course at St. Andrews (Scotland)

1957: USA 8, Great Britain and Ireland 3; Minikahda Club, Minneapolis, Minn.

1959: USA 9, Great Britain and Ireland 3; Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, Muirfield, Scotland

1961: USA 11, Great Britain and Ireland 1; Seattle (Wash.) Golf Club

1963: USA 12, Great Britain and Ireland 8; Turnberry (Ailsa Course), Turnberry, Scotland

1965: USA 11, Great Britain and Ireland 11; Baltimore (Md.) Country Club (Five Farms Course)

1967: USA 13, Great Britain and Ireland 7; Royal St. George’s, Sandwich, England

1969: USA 10, Great Britain and Ireland 8; Milwaukee (Wis.) Country Club

1971: Great Britain and Ireland 13, USA 11; Old Course at St. Andrews (Scotland)

1973: USA 14, Great Britain and Ireland 10; The Country Club, Brookline, Mass.

1975: USA 15½, Great Britain and Ireland 8½; Old Course at St. Andrews (Scotland)

1977: USA 16, Great Britain and Ireland 8; Shinnecock Hills G.C., Southampton, N.Y.

1979: USA 15½, Great Britain and Ireland 8½; Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, Muirfield, Scotland

1981: USA 15, Great Britain and Ireland 9; Cypress Point Club, Pebble Beach, Calif.

1983: USA 13½, Great Britain and Ireland 10½, Royal Liverpool G.C. (Hoylake), Merseyside, England

1985: USA 13, Great Britain and Ireland 11; Pine Valley (N.J.) Golf Club

1987: USA 16½, Great Britain and Ireland 7½; Sunningdale Golf Club, Berkshire, England

1989: Great Britain and Ireland 12½, USA 11½; Peachtree Golf Club, Atlanta, Ga.

1991: USA 14, Great Britain and Ireland 10, Portmarnock Golf Club, Dublin, Ireland

1993: USA 19, Great Britain and Ireland 5, Interlachen Country Club, Edina, Minn.

1995: Great Britain and Ireland 14, USA 10, Royal Porthcawl G.C., Porthcawl, Wales

1997: USA 18, Great Britain and Ireland 6, Quaker Ridge G.C., Scarsdale, N.Y.

1999: Great Britain and Ireland 15, USA 9, Nairn (Scotland) Golf Club

2001: Great Britain and Ireland 15, USA 9, Ocean Forest G.C., Sea Island, Ga.

2003Great Britain and Ireland 12½, USA 11½, Ganton (England) Golf Club

2005USA 12½, Great Britain and Ireland 11½, Chicago Golf Club, Wheaton, Ill.

2007USA 12, Great Britain and Ireland 11, Royal County Down, Newcastle, County Down, Northern Ireland

2009USA 16½, Great Britain and Ireland 9½, Merion Golf Club, Ardmore, Pa.

2011: Great Britain and Ireland 14, USA 12, Royal Aberdeen Golf Club, Aberdeen, Scotland

2013: USA 17, Great Britain and Ireland 9, National Golf Links of America, Southampton, N.Y.

2015: Great Britain and Ireland 16½, USA 9½, Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club, Lancashire, England

2017: USA 19, Great Britain and Ireland 7, The Los Angeles (Calif.) Country Club

2019: USA 15½, Great Britain and Ireland 10½, Royal Liverpool (Hoylake), Hoylake, England

2021: USA 14, Great Britain and Ireland 12; Seminole Golf Club, Juno Beach, Fla.

2023: USA 14½, Great Britain and Ireland 11½; Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland

(USA leads series 39-9-1)