It had to be a disappointing spring for Gordon Sargent when he and his immensely talented Vanderbilt team failed to earn a spot in the match-play bracket in the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Taking home the silver medal that goes to the low amateur at the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club probably eased the pain a little for Sargent. But there was more disappointment in the U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills Country Club in Colorado, where he fell to the eventual champion Nick Dunlap, an Alabama sophomore, in the opening round of match play.
Still, Sargent was the No. 1 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) when Team USA headed for the home of golf, the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland, for the 49th Walker Cup Match against a talented bunch from Great Britain & Ireland.
And Sargent led in the best possible way, going 4-0 in his matches as the United State came roaring from behind Sunday to retain the Walker Cup with a 14.5-11.5 victory.
I guess you could argue that the United States’ 39-9-1 lead in the series is so lopsided as to make the Walker Cup Match some kind of relic of an earlier time. But to attend a Walker Cup Match, as I did covering the event in 2009 at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course in a previous life with the Delaware County Daily Times, is to fall in love with its pomp and circumstance and the golf, foursome alternate-shot matches and all.
I’m sure my fellow golf geeks were as disappointed as I was that the foursome matches weren’t on live when we awakened for early tee times – or loops, in my case – this weekend.
I guarantee you they were on live TV in the United Kingdom and the Walker Cup people estimated that 14,320 golf-mad Englishmen, Scots and Irish were out in force to roar for their heroes.
The WAGR is dotted with American flags these days and the U.S. Walker Cup team counted eight of the top 10 players on the list among its members.
The team assembled for U.S. captain Mike McCoy oozed talent, but just being a great player in no way prepares you for as intimidating a golf atmosphere as some of them may ever experience. Several members of the U.S. team may represent their country in a Ryder Cup someday, but the fans who came out to support their GB&I guys take this stuff seriously.
Throw in some links golf, which, I’m fairly certain, several of the U.S. guys weren’t overly familiar with, and the aforementioned alternate-shot foursome format of play that they have played infrequently, if at all, and there were plenty of hurdles for Captain McCoy’s team to overcome.
The U.S. immediately fell behind, 3-1, following Saturday morning’s foursome matches.
Sargent teamed with Dylan Menante, a senior at North Carolina and No. 6 in the WAGR, to earn the lone U.S. point of the session as they claimed a 3 and 2 decision over Barclay Brown, a graduate student at Stanford and No. 26 in the WAGR, and Mark Power, an Irishman who wrapped up a standout college career at Wake Forest in the spring.
In retrospect, the hard-earned point proved to be a valuable one as GB&I dominated the Day 1 proceedings, ultimately emerging with a 7.5-4.5 lead.
Sargent picked up another valuable point in the afternoon singles matches with a 1-up victory over 19-year-old Englishman Jack Bigham, who helped Florida State reach the semifinals of the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk in the spring.
A couple of Scots, Calum Scott, a junior at Texas Tech and No. 21 in the WAGR, and 16-year-old phenom Connor Graham, delivered an emotional 3 and 2 victory over Caleb Surratt, a sophomore at Tennessee and No. 8 in the WAGR, and Ben James, a sophomore at Virginia and No. 7 in the WAGR.
John Gough, a 24-year-old Englishman, was GB&I’s highest-ranked player at No. 14 in the WAGR and he was a leading man for the home team on Day 1.
He teamed with Matthew McClean, a 30-year-old Irishman, to pull out a 1-up decision over the American pair of Preston Summerhays, a junior at Arizona State and No. 13 in the WAGR, and David Ford, a junior at North Carolina and No. 4 in the WAGR.
In the afternoon, Gough came back with a 6 and 5 dusting of the talented Dunlap, the U.S. Amateur champion who is No. 5 in the WAGR.
Scott backed up his morning foursomes win by handing Nick Gabrelcik, a senior at North Florida and No. 9 in the WAGR, a 2 and 1 setback.
Team USA’s veteran, Stewart Hagestad, a two-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion – the first of which came, quite memorably for golf fans in the Philadelphia area, at Stonewall in 2016 – and No. 19 in the WAGR, stopped the bleeding a little with a 4 and 3 victory over Alex Maguire, a 27-year-old Irishman who is a graduate student at Florida Atlantic.
Team USA began its climb out of the hole it had dug for itself in the Sunday morning foursomes.
Sargent and his Southeastern Conference rival Dunlap pulled out a hard-won 1-up victory over Scott and Graham, the Scottish darlings.
Surratt and James earned a 2 and 1 victory over Gough and McClean and Summerhays and Gabrelcik and Summerhays claimed a 2 and 1 decision over Maguire and James Ashfield, a 22-year-old from Wales.
But a 4 and 3 victory from the GB&I pair of Power and Liam Nolan, a 23-year-old Irishman, over North Carolina teammates Menante and Austin Greaser, No. 10 in the WAGR, enabled the home team to take an 8.5-7.5 lead into the Sunday singles.
That’s when the talent just took over for the U.S.
Surratt opened the Sunday singles with a 3 and 2 victory over Scott. Dunlap had to rally to pull out a half point by deadlocking with Brown, a half that had to feel like a win. Hagestad then handed The Kid, Graham, a 3 and 2 setback and the U.S. had finally pulled ahead.
Hagestad has been a stalwart on the U.S. team on each of its last four victories in the series. It seems like a long time since the last Walker Cup Match in the spring of 2021 at the iconic Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla.
It’s easy to forget that the world was still very much in the midst of trying to make some sense out of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in the spring of 2021. Both teams were then forced to deal with a nasty stomach virus that made its way through both team rooms.
But somehow Hagestad just keeps on keeping on, helping his younger teammates deal with all that the Walker Cup throws at them while always coming up with a critical point somewhere along the line. He will make a great U.S. captain someday.
A lot appears to be being made over Gough going “good-good” with Sargent on a couple of four-footers on the 16th green. But that had little to do with Gough blowing his tee shot on the Road Hole, the difficult par-4 17th, out of bounds.
That gave Sargent a 1-up lead going to the short par-4 finishing hole. Sargent had to gear it down from driver to 3-wood at the last and still easily drove the green. Gough needed eagle to get a half, but he could only manage to match Sargent’s birdie, dropping the 1-up decision.
The talented Summerhays claimed a 4 and 3 victory over Ashfield and Menante earned another valuable half-point by battling McClean to a draw.
GB&I staved off the inevitable as Bigham and Power each picked up a full point, Bigham earning a 3 and 2 victory over Gabrelcik and Power edging James, 1-up.
Looks like Ford, who had suffered a couple of tough losses on Day 1, got the clinching point when he finished off a 3 and 2 decision over Maguire in the anchor match.
Greaser accounted for the final U.S. point with a 3 and 1 victory over Nolan.
Sargent undoubtedly has a long career in golf ahead of him, but I’m pretty sure that his weekend at the Old Course when he went 4-0 in the Walker Cup and helped pull his talented teammates through will always have a special spot in his golf memory bank.
“Obviously the difference between one half point and one full point is a big deal,” Sargent told the Royal & Ancient website after a weekend of tight, taut matches in front of a raucous crowd that wasn’t in his corner. “To go 4-0 is really special and it definitely means a lot.”
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