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By John Companiotte
Ardmore, Pa. – It didn’t take long for the USA’s Rickie Fowler and Bud Cauley to assert themselves in their foursomes match Saturday morning against Luke Goddard and Dale Whitnell of Great Britain & Ireland. It didn’t take the Americans long to end the affair either.
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| Luke Goddard (GB&I) had the honor of driving off No. 11 during his morning foursomes match. (John Mummert/USGA) |
Cauley’s 18-foot birdie putt on the par-5 second hole at Merion Golf Club opened up the floodgates for the USA team and Cauley and Fowler rolled to a surprisingly easy 6-and-5 triumph in the third of the four foursomes matches to open the 42nd Walker Cup.
The GB&I team could tell it was in for a long day when it reached the green at No. 2 in regulation, but Goddard’s 30-foot birdie try barely slid by the hole. Putting on the same line, Cauley had a good look at the left-breaking putt, and he buried it for the I-up advantage that would soon grow through the next four holes to an insurmountable lead.
The third hole, a par 3 of 219 yards, has a formidable deep bunker protecting the right front of the green. Cauley, 19, participating in his first Walker Cup, played the hole aggressively, putting his tee shot 12 feet to the right of the pin. Goddard, the current British Amateur champion, left his tee shot 12 feet below the front edge of the green in the wet rough, which was stickier than usual from three inches of rain over the last two day. Whitnell’s chip stopped four feet short of the cup, and then Goddard missed the par attempt while the Americans two-putted for a 2-up lead.
A tee shot and a second shot that both found the rough on the par-5 fourth hole contributed to a bogey by GB&I that gave the hole to the USA team that made a routine par. Neither side found the green at the fifth, but Whitnell missed an 8-foot par attempt while Cauley’s putt from off the green crept at a snail’s pace to within two feet of the hole for a fourth straight win and a 4 up USA advantage.
By the eighth hole the U.S. had a 5-up lead and the match looked to be a rout, but GB&I finally won a hole at the ninth. Both teams hit good tee shots to the 206-yard, par-3 ninth but a speedy downhill putt by Fowler left Cauley, a fellow Oklahoma State University teammate, a difficult putt coming back. Goddard and Whitnell captured the hole with a par, and it appeared they might have a chance to turn things around.
But those hopes were quickly dashed when a poor drive into the deep rough on the short par-4 10th hole led to a loss of that restored USA’s 5-up edge.
Cauley put an exclamation point on the U.S. victory, striking his short iron tee shot on the par-3 13th to within about 3 feet of the hole. Goddard’s tee shot, meanwhile, found the bunker short and left of the green. Having to hole the bunker shot to extend the match, Whitnell nearly did just that, hitting the pin with his sand shot. The ball ended up just inches from the hole. That was too far, however, as Fowler then made the match-concluding putt for birdie and the win.
John Companiotte is an author and a member of the USGA Communications Committee.
