When Nathan Smith, who will captain the U.S. Walker Cup team next summer, welcomes 16 candidates for his team for a practice session next weekend in Jupiter, Fla., he will have something in common with one of those players, something he will share with none of the others.
When Auburn senior Carson Bacha captured the 2019 PIAA Class AAA individual crown as a senior at Central York, he joined a list of state champions in Pennsylvania that includes Smith, who claimed the PIAA crown 25 years earlier in 1994 as a sophomore at Brookville in western Pennsylvania.
At No. 34 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), Bacha might seem to be a bit of a long shot to be one of the eight players wearing Red, White & Blue when the United States tees off against Great Britain & Ireland Sept. 6 at the iconic Cypress Point Club on Northern California’s Monterey Peninsula, but when Auburn recruited Bacha five years ago, who would have thought that Bacha and the Tigers would be hoisting an NCAA Championship trophy in the spring of 2024?
Maybe Smith will see a little of himself in Bacha. It was a little bit of a different time when it came to junior golf in the 1990s, but Smith ended up playing his college golf at Allegheny, a small school, but a perennial Division III power under the great Norm Sundstrom.
Smith would find his place in the game as an amateur, a mid-amateur to be specific. He won the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship four times in 2003, ’09, ’10 and ’12.
I covered the Walker Cup Match at Merion Golf Club’s historic East Course in 2009 and I was a little surprised that Smith was chosen to be part of captain Buddy Marucci’s U.S. team. But Smith was part of the winning U.S. side in 2009 and earned spots on U.S. Walker Cup teams in 2011 and 2013.
GB&I took the Walker Cup in 2011, but Smith accounted for the clinching point in a 17-9 U.S. win with his singles victory over Nathan Kimsey in 2013 at the National Golf Links of America on Long Island.
The guy is simply a match-play impresario. Smith’s won the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s R. Jay Sigel Match Play Championship six times.
When Smith’s frequent Western Pennsylvania rival Sean Knapp captured the title in the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship as a senior “rookie” in 2017, he credited the lessons he learned during the many times he had squared off against Smith in match play, often coming out on the losing end, for his ability to survive the match-play gauntlet and capture a USGA championship.
So yeah, in the grand tradition of Pennsylvania amateur stalwarts Jay Sigel and Marucci, Smith is absolutely a worthy U.S. Walker Cup captain.
There is no guarantee that the final U.S. Walker Cup team will come from among the 16 players the USGA’s International Team Selection Working Group invited to next week’s practice session, but Smith is going to see an immensely talented group.
“The amateur golf talent in this country is impressive and I’m thrilled to gather with the group for a practice session next month,” Smith told the USGA website when the group of 16 invitees to the Walker Cup practice session was announced in early November. “We have a strong list of young men attending; a mixture of seasoned veterans as well as up-and-comers of the game. I’m excited to spend more time with this group.”
The practice session will include stops at notable Jupiter area courses McArthur Golf Club, Seminole Golf Club and The Bear’s Club.
I’ve mentioned some of the group of the 16 players who accepted invitations for the U.S. Walker Cup practice session in recent posts.
Most notably in that book-length recap of the Global Golf Post All-Amateur teams I just completed, I noted that the top two players in the WAGR, No. 1 Luke Clanton, a 20-year-old junior at Florida State from Hialeah, Fla. and No. 2 Jackson Koivun, a 19-year-old sophomore teammate of Bacha’s at reigning national champion Auburn from Chapel Hill, N.C., had accepted invitations to join the gang in Jupiter.
It’s no secret that these two guys are practically PGA Tour-ready right now. Clanton has two runnerup finishes on the PGA Tour in 2024, the second one at the RMS Classic at Sea Island Golf Club on St. Simons Island, Ga. coming in the weeks after the Walker Cup practice session was announced.
By accepting the invitations to next week’s U.S. Walker Cup audition, Clanton and Koivun are basically committing to remain amateurs until the middle of September. And, I would submit, they should be commended for that.
They may be headed for fame and fortune on the PGA Tour, but a weekend in the late summer of 2024 at the Alister MacKenzie-Robert Hunter masterpiece on the Monterey Peninsula representing their country will likely figure prominently in the golfing memories of players like Clanton and Koivun decades from now.
Clanton and Koivun were both in the five-way logjam tied for second place in the individual standings in last spring’s NCAA Championship at the La Costa Resort & Spa’s North Course in Carlsbad, Calif.
They helped their teams reach the Final Match at La Costa with Koivun and Bacha and Auburn capturing the title with a 3-2 victory.
I’ve mentioned more than a few times in this blog that the addition of the match-play layer in determining the national champion in college golf has elevated the match-play prowess of America’s top players all the way up the line to the Walker Cup and the Ryder Cup.
Two other players who will be auditioning for the U.S. Walker Cup team in Jupiter next week, Virginia junior Ben James, a 21-year-old from Milford, Conn. and No. 3 in the WAGR, and Illinois sophomore Max Herendeen, a 19-year-old from Bellevue, Wash. and No. 25 in the WAGR, also finished in that group tied for second place in the individual chase at La Costa last spring and helped their teams earn a spot in the match-play bracket.
Despite his lofty spot in the WAGR, James seems to be a little underrated. But he brings a bit of an advantage to the practice session in Jupiter. James was a member of the U.S. team when it claimed its fourth straight Walker Cup victory in the summer of 2023 at the Home of Golf, the Old Course at St. Andrews.
Facing a hostile crowd of Scots – maybe hostile is a little strong, but they certainly weren’t cheering on the Americans – James helped the U.S. rally for a 14.5-11.5 victory.
It increased the U.S. edge in the rivalry, which dates back to 1922, to 39-9-1, but as the USGA website points out, the U.S. advantage is only 11-7 since 1989. GB&I won’t be intimidated at Cypress Point.
The other player who will be teeing it up in Jupiter next weekend with Walker Cup experience is Stewart Hagestad. The USGA still lists him as being from Newport Beach, Calif., but Global Golf Post has him residing in West Palm Beach, Fla. on its Male Mid-Amateur first team.
Regardless, the 33-year-old Hagestad has been a member of the U.S. Walker Cup team in each of the last four playings of the event. When the boys play at the iconic Donald Ross layout at Seminole, Hagestad can regale them with tales of the rare spring edition of the Walker Cup Match in May of 2021.
With the world just re-emerging from the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. overcame an untimely stomach virus that ravaged both teams to claim a hard-fought 14-12 decision.
Hagestad is still No. 24 in the WAGR as a mid-am who always plays an ambitious schedule. I’m sure he has a fan in Smith.
Hagestad needed a victory in this year’s U.S. Mid-Am Championship at Kinloch Golf Club in Manakin-Sabot, Va. to match Smith’s record four U.S. Mid-Am crowns, but was bounced in the second round. But the guy can still play and his experience in the Walker Cup Match is, well, unmatched among the 16 players who will gather in Jupiter next weekend.
The player who did break through and capture his first U.S. Mid-Am crown at Kinloch, Evan Beck, a 34-year-old portfolio manager from Virginia Beach, Va., was also invited to audition for the U.S. Walker Cup team. A former Wake Forest standout more than a decade ago, Beck has risen to No. 18 in the WAGR.
Vanderbilt senior Jackson Van Paris, a 21-year-old from Pinehurst, N.C., is No. 9 in the WAGR and certainly rates some serious consideration for the U.S. team. He helped the Commodores earn a spot in the match-play bracket in the NCAA Championship at La Costa last spring.
Another highly-rated player who accepted an invitation to the U.S. Walker Cup practice session was Texas junior Tommy Morrison, a 20-year-old from Dallas, Texas and No. 11 in the WAGR. He’s a big guy at 6-9 with a big game.
Last summer Morrison embarked on an excellent European adventure, reaching the round of 16 in the Royal & Ancient’s Amateur Championship at Ballyliffin Golf Club in Ireland and winning the European Amateur Championship in Denmark, a victory that punched his ticket to The Open Championship at Royal Troon, where he made the cut and played the weekend.
James’ teammate at Virginia, Bryan Lee, a 20-year-old from Fairfax, Va. and No. 16 in the WAGR, was also invited to next weekend’s practice session at Jupiter. James and Lee were key figures in the Cavaliers’ surprising run to the NCAA quarterfinals last spring.
The lowest-ranked player invited to tee it up in Jupiter was Iowa sophomore Noah Kent, a 20-year-old from Naples, Fla. who is No. 204 in the WAGR.
The kid battled his way to the final of last summer’s U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn. before falling to Spaniard Josele Ballester.
But U.S. Amateur performance means a lot to the USGA when it comes to selecting international teams like the Walker Cup. Pretty sure there will be a spot reserved on the U.S. Walker Cup team for the U.S. Amateur champion next summer at The Olympic Club if he is an American.
Two players who joined Kent in the quarterfinals of last summer’s U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine National, Oklahoma State sophomore Ethan Fang, a 19-year-old from Plano, Texas and No. 27 in the WAGR, and Notre Dame sophomore Jacob Modleski, a 20-year-old from Noblesville, Ind. and No. 43 in the WAGR, also accepted an invitation to the U.S. Walker Cup practice session in Jupiter.
Rounding out the roster of 16 players who will get an audition for the U.S. Walker Cup team are Florida junior Parker Bell, a 20-year-old from Tallahassee, Fla. and No. 47 in the WAGR, Mississippi junior Michael La Sasso, a 20-year-old from Raleigh, N.C. and No. 17 in the WAGR, and Oklahoma junior Jase Summy, a 20-year-old from Keller, Texas and No. 28 in the WAGR.
If the International Team Selection Working Group is sticking with past practice, there will be a point in the summer when the top three Americans in the WAGR will be automatic qualifiers for the U.S. Walker Cup team.
As I mentioned earlier, a spot on the team is reserved for the U.S. Amateur champion if he is an American. Right after the U.S. Amateur is completed, the rest of the selections for the U.S. team will be announced.
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