Young Americans flash their talent in grabbing the lead in Walker Cup Match

   The Walker Cup Match is no longer an event in which the United States Golf Association sends out the best college underclassmen in the country and the U.S. side cruises to an easy victory over an overmatched Great Britain & Ireland team.

   For one thing, a lot of the players from the British Isles have figured out that there are worse proving grounds for a career in professional golf than playing in an NCAA Division I program, so GB&I has its share of college stars.

   Having said that, this 2017 U.S. team, under captain Spider Miller, might be the most supremely talented team the USGA has sent out since Rickie Fowler, Peter Uihlein and the boys rolled to victory at Merion Golf Club’s East Course eight years ago this very same weekend.

   As opening statements go, you couldn’t make a much stronger one than Collin Morikawa, the California junior out of La Canada Flintridge, Calif., and Norman Xiong, the Oregon sophomore out of Canyon Lake, Calif., did in the first foursome match Saturday morning at Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course, a George C. Thomas Jr. gem set right in the middle of downtown L.A.

   The U.S. isn’t always so good at this alternate-shot stuff, but it was an inspired bit of pairing by Miller to put the two Pac-12 standouts together. All they did was birdie the first four holes – again this is alternate shot, not better ball – and win the fifth hole to take a 5-up lead on their way to a record-setting 8 and 7 victory over Harry Ellis and Alfie Plant.

   It wasn’t a couple of stiffs Morikawa and Xiong beat. Ellis, a redshirt senior at Florida State, won The Amateur Championship this summer and Plant, like Ellis an Englishman, was the low amateur in The Open Championship.

   Maverick McNealy of Portola Valley Calif., the lone holdover from an American team that got walloped by GB&I two years ago at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, and Doug Ghim, the Texas senior from Arlington Heights, Ill., who was the runnerup in last month’s U.S. Amateur at nearby Riviera Country Club, were nearly as good in a 5 and 4 win over David Boote, a former teammate of McNealy’s at Stanford and Jack Davidson.

   All McNealy, coming off an outstanding career with the Cardinal, and Ghim did was make birdies at three, five, six and seven in building a 5-up lead.

   That enabled the U.S. to get a 2-2 split in the morning foursome matches, but, maybe more importantly, offered a look at the kind of talent this American squad was bringing to the table in the 46^th edition of this biennial event.

   The Americans won six of the eight afternoon singles matches and will take an 8-4 lead into another two rounds of foursomes and singles matches Sunday that will determine which side will own the Walker Cup for the next two years.

   Morikawa and Xiong were at it again, Morikawa claiming a 3 and 2 victory over Paul McBride, a senior at Wake Forest from Irealnd, and Xiong rallying for a 2 and 1 victory over Connor Syme of Scotland, who fell to Ghim in the quarterfinals at Riviera last month, in the afternoon.

   Ghim, who was so masterful in coming up just short to Clemson sophomore Doc Redman in the U.S. Amateur final at Riviera, claimed a 2 and 1 victory over Boote.

   But the match of the afternoon pitted Braden Thornberry, the Mississippi junior out of Olive Branch, Miss. who captured the NCAA title last spring at Rich Harvest Farms, and Ellis, the British Amateur champion. A little Southeastern Conference-Atlantic Coast Conference shootout in the midst of this venerable amateur event.

   Miller sat Thornberry for the morning foursome matches and the hungry Old Miss standout took a 1-up lead to the 18^th tee before delivering what might end up being the shot of the weekend. He drilled his approach at the par-4 hole from 200 yards away to a foot away to finish off a 2-up victory.

   This weekend a year ago the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship was teeing off at Stonewall and the ultimate winner of that title, Stewart Hagestad, who grew up playing at L.A. Country Club, is the lone mid-am on the U.S. side.

   Hagestad, who became the first mid-am to make the cut at the Masters on his way to earning low-amateur honors at Augusta National, found himself 6-down to Englishman Jack Singh Brar after 10 holes and then nearly delivered the same kind of epic comeback he authored in rallying from 4-down with five holes to go in the 36-hole final at Stonewall to defeat Scott Harvey on the 37^th hole. Hagestad, a former Southern California standout, won four straight holes to cut his deficit to just 2-down before his comeback stalled and Brar claimed a point for GB&I with a 3 and 2 victory.

Finally, McNealy found himself 2-down through 10 holes against Scott Gregory, the Englishman who won the 2016 British Amateur crown.

   McNealy announced earlier this week that he will indeed test his game at the professional level after much speculation that the son of the founder of Sun Microsystems might remain an amateur while pursuing a career in finance or engineering since his talents in those areas are just as highly developed as his golf game is.

   McNealy rallied on the back nine, winning 12 and 13 with pars to even the match and then taking three straight holes beginning with an 18-foot birdie putt at the 15^th to put the exclamation point on a very good day for the American side with a 3 and 1 victory.

   I know Sunday is the opening day for the NFL season, but you want to sneak a peek at some Walker Cup golf on FS1 with foursome play from noon to 3 p.m. and singles matches from 6 to 9 p.m. to get a look at the future of American golf. It looks pretty bright.