Hagestad once again right in the middle of a Walker Cup victory for the U.S. at Cypress Point

 

   When Stewart Hagestad buried a 20-foot birdie putt with the marine layer cloaking the 15^th hole at The Cypress Point Club in fog Sunday, he clinched the 13^th point for the United States in the 50^th Walker Cup Match and assured that the home-standing Americans would retain the Cup.

   It’s been nine years since the 34-year-old Hagestad captured the first of his three U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship crowns in a stirring comeback at Stonewall with a few lucky golf fans, myself included, watching.

   While it was a little foggy on northern California’s Monterey Peninsula, it was never clearer that Hagestad, No. 44 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), would be playing on his fifth straight victorious U.S. Walker Cup team.

   Moments after Hagestad clinched the 13^th point with his long birdie putt giving him a 4 and 3 victory over Englishman Eliot Baker, Preston Stout, the talented Oklahoma State junior from Richardson, Texas drilled his approach to the 17^th green to two feet for a conceded birdie as he claimed a 2 and 1 victory over Englishman Luke Poulter, a junior at Florida and the son of Ian Poulter, that gave the Americans a 14^th point and clinched an outright victory.

  The final count was 17-9 in favor of the United States, the 3-1 deficit it faced following Saturday morning’s first session of alternate-shot foursomes a distant memory.

   The wins in the Sunday singles by Hagestad and Stout were part of an historic 8-1-1 sweep of the afternoon session by a powerful U.S. side, slightly better than the singles routs by the Americans in 2017 at Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course and in 2019 at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England.

   Hagestad improved his singles record in the five U.S. Walker Cup wins he has been a part of to 7-1. He will be a U.S. Walker Cup captain some day, one that knows what it takes to win one of these things.

   Of course, talent is the most important part of the winning formula and this 2025 U.S. team may one day be viewed as rivaling that of the 2017 team that many consider the most talented American team to tee it up in a Walker Cup Match.

   The U.S. maintained the one-point lead it held overnight by splitting Sunday’s foursomes session, 2-2.

   Mason Howell, the precocious high school senior from Thomasville, Ga. who won the U.S. Amateur last month at The Olympic Club in San Francisco just to make this U.S. team, put an exclamation point on the morning session by holing out his pitching wedge approach from 147 yards away at the 17^th hole to give him and Jacob Modleski, a junior at Notre Dame from Noblesville, Ind., a walkoff 3 and 1 victory over Baker and Irishman Stuart Grehan, a 32-year-old reinstated amateur.

   From there, U.S. captain Nathan Smith, the 1994 PIAA champion as a sophomore at Brookville, just rolled out his powerful singles lineup.

   “I’m just blown away,” Smith, a four-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion and a veteran of three U.S. Walker Cup teams, told the USGA website. “They showed up all weekend in both singles matches in the afternoon and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a Walker Cup team bring it like they did this afternoon in singles.”

   For the second straight afternoon, Smith sent out Auburn junior Jackson Koivun, the No. 1 player in the WAGR from Chapel Hill, N.C., out first to take on Florida State junior Tyler Weaver, an Englishman who, at No. 10 is the highest-ranked GB&I player in the WAGR, and, once again, Koivun set the tone with a 3 and 2 victory.

   It capped a 3-1 weekend for Koivun, who will be a fixture on PGA Tour leaderboards in the near future.

   Earlier in the day, Koivun teamed with the tall Texan, Tommy Morrison, a senior for the Longhorns from Dallas and No. 6 in the WAGR, to give the U.S. another full point in a foursomes match as they pulled out a 1-up victory over GB&I’s two best players, Weaver and Texas Tech sophomore Connor Graham, an 18-year-old Scot who is No. 42 in the WAGR.

   Morrison was second out in the afternoon and claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Niall Shiels Donegan, the native of Ireland who has spent most of life living in northern California and who was coming off an inspired run to the U.S. Amateur semifinals at the Olympic Club last month.

   The two 18-year-olds, Howell, who plans to join the program at Southeastern Conference power Georgia at the end of next summer, and Graham battled to a draw in what might be the first chapter in a long rivalry. Howell finished the weekend with a sparkling 2-0-1 record.

   Ethan Fang, a teammate of Stout’s on Oklahoma State’s national championship team and winner of The Amateur Championship in June at The Royal St. George’s Golf Club, dominated Grehan, the reinstated amateur from Ireland, 5 and 4, to put another early point on the board for the Americans.

   Fang, a junior for the Cowboys from Plano, Texas, has risen to No. 3 in the WAGR on the strength of his strong showing in the NCAA postseason and his victory at Royal St. George’s, where he became the first American to win The Amateur Championship since Drew Weaver did it in 2007.

   After Stout’s magnificent approach at the 17^th hole cemented the outcome, the rest of the matches were somewhat anticlimactic.

   But it had to be a relief for Ben James, a senior at Virginia from Milford, Conn. and No. 2 in the WAGR, to finally get a match win as he edged Scotsman Charlie Forster, who wrapped up his college career at Long Beach State in the spring and is No. 52 in the WAGR, 1-up.

   James is a tremendous player who was one of the two holdovers, along with Hagestad, from the U.S. team that rallied for victory in the Walker Cup Match two years ago at the home of golf, the Old Course at St. Andrews.

   James also led Virginia to the Final Match in the NCAA Championship at La Costa in the spring before the Cavaliers finally fell to Oklahoma State.

   Oklahoma senior Jase Summy of Keller, Texas and No. 4 in the WAGR, pulled out a 3 and 1 victory over Scotland’s Cameron Adam, the senior leader at Northwestern in the spring who is No. 17 in the WAGR.

   Summy had been one of the heroes for the Americans on Day 1 as he was the only U.S. player to go 2-0.

   The last full point for the Americans in the Sunday singles was recorded by Notre Dame’s  Modleski, who is No. 13 in the WAGR. Modleski earned a 1-up victory over Englishman Dominic Clemons, who played at Alabama during the wraparound 2024-2025 season and is No. 35 in the WAGR.

   The lone full point for GB&I came from Irishman Gavin Tiernan, a sophomore on the East Tennessee State roster who was the runnerup to Fang in The Amateur Championship at Royal St. George’s.

   Tiernan pulled out a 2 and 1 win over Mississippi senior Michael La Sasso, the NCAA individual champion in the spring at La Costa. La Sasso, a native of Raleigh, N.C., is No. 9 in the WAGR.

   The Walker Cup Match, normally a biennial affair, will come right back next year at Lahinch Golf Club, a popular destination in Ireland.

   The Walker Cup and the Curtis Cup will be contested in even-numbered years to avoid a conflict with the World Amateur Team Championship.

   Smith, the Pittsburgh guy, will get another chance to captain the U.S. team. Even with only a year passing between the two Walker Cup teams, the U.S. team will turn over considerably, maybe even completely, although Smith might be in there lobbying for a sixth Walker Cup appearance for Hagestad.

   In the Philadelphia area, we get the U.S. Amateur next summer at Merion. The winner, should he be an American, will be an automatic qualifier for the U.S. team as Howell was this year.

   You can bet Smith will be hovering around his guys in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township, trying to tinker with some foursome pairings in his head as he prepares for another Walker Cup Match.