Oklahoma's Summy caps rally with a match win that gives U.S. the lead following Day 1 of Walker Cup

 

   With the sun starting to set on the spectacular Cypress Point Club in Pebble Beach, Calif. Saturday, Englishmen Eliot Baker’s 10-foot putt for par hung impossibly on the lip of the cup at the 18^th hole.

   Moments later, Jase Summy, a senior at Oklahoma from Keller, Texas and No. 4 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), buried his four-footer for par and the United States emerged from a long Day 1 of the 50^th Walker Cup Match with a 6.5-5.5 advantage over a typically feisty Great Britain & Ireland team.

   Baker doesn’t have some of the credentials of a star-studded U.S. team or even some of his GB&I teammates, but in a Saturday afternoon Walker Cup Match, that didn’t matter a little bit.

   Summy, who helped the Sooners reach the match-play bracket of the NCAA Championship at the La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. in the spring, had to summon every bit of grit he could to pull out a huge full point to cap an afternoon singles session when the U.S. bounced back from the 3-1 deficit it faced at the end of Saturday morning’s alternate-shot foursome matches.

   It is never been a strong suit for the Americans, the alternate-shot format. But, as U.S. captain Nathan Smith, the 1994 PIAA champion as a sophomore at Brookville, pointed out following Summy’s dramatic victory, the GB&I guys came out of the gate running hot.

   It was Summy, teaming with Mississippi’s Michael La Sasso, the NCAA individual champion at La Costa in the spring and No. 9 in the WAGR, who salvaged a point out of the morning session with a 4 and 2 victory over Scotland’s Cameron Adam, the senior leader at Northwestern in the spring and No. 17 in the WAGR, and Englishman Dominic Clemons, who played at Alabama in the wraparound 2024-2025 college season and is No. 35 in the WAGR.

   The U.S. holds a 39-9-1 lead in this series, which maybe takes a little of the luster off the rivalry.

   But to take in the Walker Cup experience, as I got a chance to do while covering the 2009 edition at Merion Golf Club’s iconic East Course in a previous life with the Delaware County Daily Times, is to come away with a tremendous appreciation for a gathering that can only happen in golf.

   Smith was a first-time participant for the U.S. at Merion, the first of his three appearances in Red, White & Blue. A four-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, the Pittsburgh guy was a natural choice to lead the U.S. team 16 years after his debut at Merion.

   And speaking of iconic, there can’t be a more spectacular backdrop for a Walker Cup Match than the Alister MacKenzie design – yes, the guy who teamed with Bobby Jones to design the equally iconic Augusta National Golf Club – on northern California’s Monterey Peninsula.

   There's a lot going on in the sporting world this weekend, the second full week of college football, the first weekend of the NFL season, U.S. Open tennis finals for the men and women, but do yourself a favor and at least check in on the Walker Cup Sunday. The Golf Channel will carry the Sunday singles in prime time as they play out live on the West Coast.

   Cypress Point is absolutely breathtaking and the golf is pretty good, too.

   The Americans began their comeback in the Saturday singles with a routinely tremendous performance from Auburn junior Jackson Koivun, the No. 1 player in the WAGR who hails from Chapel Hill, N.C.

   Koivun rolled to a 4 and 3 decision over Englishman Tyler Weaver, a junior at Florida State and, at No. 10, the highest-ranked GB&I player in the WAGR.

   Earlier in the day, Weaver had teamed with Scotland’s Connor Graham, a sophomore at Texas Tech and No. 42 in the WAGR, to hand Koivun and Tommy Morrison, a senior at Texas from Dallas and No. 6 in the WAGR, a 2 and 1 setback to kick off a dominant showing for GB&I in the foursome session.

   Another American who bounced back from a morning defeat in a big way in the afternoon was the “old man” on the U.S. team, Stewart Hagestad, the 34-year-old who won the first of his three U.S. Mid-Am crowns nine years ago at Stonewall.

   There were some critics of the USGA’s decision to add Hagestad, the native of Newport Beach, Calif. and No. 44 in the WAGR, to the U.S. roster for his fifth Walker Cup appearance. But Hagestad’s Walker Cup experience is still a huge plus on a team filled with college guys and, in the case of U.S. Amateur champion Mason Howell, even younger.

   Smith paired the two returnees from the victorious U.S. team at the Old Course at St. Andrews two years ago, Hagestad and Ben James, a senior at Virginia from Milford, Conn. and No. 2 in the WAGR, in the morning, but the duo of Charlie Forster, who wrapped up a standout college career at Long Beach State in the spring, and Luke Poulter, a junior at Florida and the son of Ian Poulter, stunned the American pair, 3 and 2.

   The two Englishmen, Poulter and Forster, are No. 27 and No. 52, respectively, in the WAGR.

   Hagestad didn’t get mad, he got even, putting a point on the board for the Americans with a 7 and 5 victory over Gavin Tiernan, an Irishman who is a sophomore on the East Tennessee State roster.

   Team USA got another big singles win from Preston Stout, the immensely talented Oklahoma State junior from Richardson, Texas who is No. 5 in the WAGR, as he rolled to a 6 and 5 victory over Forster.

   Smith had paired Stout with his teammate on the NCAA champion Oklahoma State team, Ethan Fang, a junior from Plano, Texas and No. 3 in the WAGR, in the morning foursome session.

   But the duo of Baker and Irishman Stuart Grehan, a 32-year-old reinstated amateur, pulled out a 1-up victory over Stout and Fang.

   Fang had become the first American to capture the title in The Amateur Championship since Drew Weaver, a U.S. Walker Cup teammate of Smth’s at Merion in 2009, did it in 2007 when Fang edged Tiernan, 1-up, at The Royal St. George’s Golf Club in June.

   Fang salvaged a half-point for the U.S. in the afternoon with a hard-fought draw with Grehan.

   Howell, the high school senior from Thomasville, Ga. who was the stunning winner of the U.S. Amateur last month at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, made his Walker Cup debut a winning one in the afternoon as he claimed a 3 and 2 verdict over Poulter.

   Speaking of the U.S. Amateur, GB&I’s Niall Shiels Donegan, the Scot who has called northern California home since he was a youngster and who made a run to the semifinals at The Olympic Club, earned a full point for the visitors when he pulled out a 1-up victory over Jacob Modleski, a junior at Notre Dame from Noblesville, Ind. and No. 13 in the WAGR.

   Shiels Donegan, who is No. 43 in the WAGR, played at Northwestern the last two seasons, but is transferring to North Carolina for the 2025-’26 campaign.

   It was a tough day for James, who led Virginia to the NCAA Championship’s Final Match at La Costa in the spring, as he suffered a 3 and 2 setback at the hands of the talented Graham in the afternoon singles to account for GB&I’s other full point in the afternoon.