Koivun heads list of 18 players invited to a practice session for candidates for U.S. Walker Cup team

 

   For seven Americans, the memory of the United States’ victory over Great Britain & Ireland in the Walker Cup Match in September at the iconic Cypress Point Club will still be fresh in their minds when they gather among a group of 18 players invited by the USGA Team Selection Committee to a practice session at three courses in Jupiter, Fla. next month for candidates for the 51^st Walker Cup Match.

   Normally a biennial affair, the Walker Cup Match is coming right back in 2026 as the USGA aligns both that Walker Cup and the Curtis Cup, the two tradition-soaked meetings for amateur men and women, respectively, between sides from the United States and GB&I, in even years to avoid a conflict with the World Amateur Team Championship.

   It always seemed, with the quick turnaround, that Nathan Smith, the 1994 PIAA champion as a sophomore at Brookville, would get a second term as the U.S. captain and that was made official even before the Red, White & Blue dominated GB&I in the Sunday singles matches with fog encroaching on the Monterey Peninsula to claim a 17-9 victory and retain the Walker Cup in September.

   The quick turnaround means Smith will see some familiar faces when those 18 candidates for the 2026 U.S. team gather for rounds at the iconic Seminole Golf Club, the Jupiter Hills Club and McArthur Golf Club Dec. 18 to 20.

   Chief among them will be Jackson Koivun, a junior at Auburn from Chapel Hill, N.C. who is No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).

   The 51^st Walker Cup Match will be played Sept. 5 and 6 at the Lahinch Golf Club in Ireland. It remains to be seen if Koivun will still be an amateur player by then.

   The guy had some top finishes on the PGA Tour this year, including a tie for fifth place in the Wyndham Championship, a tie for sixth in the ISCO Championship and a tie for 11^th in the John Deere Classic.

   If Koivun were to get invited to a PGA Tour event in 2026 and win the thing, as Nick Dunlap did a couple of years ago, it would be tough for him to turn down the instant access to the tour that would accompany that victory.

   For now, though, he remains the best amateur player in the world. In defense of the NCAA crown he helped Auburn win as a freshman in the spring of 2024, Koivun saw the Tigers come up short in the spring of 2025 as they fell to Virginia in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif.

   Koivun went 3-1 for the U.S. in its victory over GB&I at Cypress Point.

   A lot of people I loop for at Stonewall sport a Lahinch tag from a trip to play golf on the Emerald Isle. Haven’t heard a bad word about the golf course yet. So maybe the lure of a trip to Lahinch to play with some of the guys he shared a Walker Cup win with at Cypress Point might be enough for Koivun to remain an amateur through early September of 2026.

   Selfishly wouldn’t mind seeing Koivun in person with the U.S. Amateur coming to our neighborhood in Philadelphia at Merion Golf Club’s iconic East Course in August.

   Koivun’s Auburn teammate, Josiah Gilbert, a junior from Houston, Texas and No. 10 in the WAGR, also received an invitation to the Walker Cup practice session in Jupiter.

   Two members of the Oklahoma State team that did win the national championship last spring at La Costa and joined Koivun on the winning U.S. side at Cypress Point, Ethan Fang, a junior from Plano, Texas and No. 3 in the WAGR, and Preston Stout, a junior from Dallas, Texas and No. 5 in the WAGR, were also invited to the party next month in Jupiter.

   Fang aced his crash course in golf across the pond when he became the first American since 2007 to capture the title in the Royal & Ancient’s Amateur Championship at The Royal St. George’s Golf Club.

   Combine that with his Walker Cup experience and you’d think Fang would be a guy Smith would love to see on the U.S. side at Lahinch.

   Stout’s brilliant approach to two feet at the 17^th hole at Cypress Point gave him a victory over GB&I’s Luke Poulter and provided the point that clinched an outright win for the U.S. in September’s Walker Cup Match.

   The point that gave the U.S. a 13^th point that assured it would retain the Cup, came when Stewart Hagestad, the three-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion from Newport Beach, Calif., rolled in a 20-foot birdie putt to win his match. Hagestad will be in Jupiter auditioning for a sixth Walker Cup appearance.

   Heard a little grumbling last summer when the 34-year-old Hagestad was included on the U.S. team for his fifth straight Walker Cup go-around. He has dropped to No. 44 in the WAGR, but his win on that Sunday at Cypress Point ran his Walker Cup singles mark to 7-1.

   And Hagestad, who I was lucky enough to watch win the first of those three U.S. Mid-Am titles at Stonewall nine years ago, seems to embrace the role of being the elder statesman for the next group of collegians or high school kids going through the Walker Cup experience. Oh yeah, the United States has yet to lose when Hagestad is wearing Red, White & Blue in a Walker Cup Match.

   Two other mid-ams received invitations to next month’s practice session, Evan Beck of Virginia Beach, Va. and No. 35 in the WAGR and Bobby Massa of Dallas, Texas and No. 39 in in the WAGR.

   Beck captured the U.S. Mid-Amateur crown in 2024 at Kinloch Golf Club in Manakin-Sabot, Va., defeating Massa in the final. Beck reached the semifinals of the U.S. Mid-Am this year at Troon Country Club’s North Course in Scottsdale, Ariz. and Massa was a quarterfinalist.

   At 18, Mason Howell, a high school senior from Thomasville, Ga. and No. 110 in the WAGR, was the kid on the U.S. Walker Cup team at Cypress Point weeks after his stunning run to a U.S. Amateur crown at The Olympic Club in San Francisco.

   He will join the group at Jupiter in hopes of again representing his country in a Walker Cup Match.

   And he will not be the only junior standout trying to impress captain Smith and the USGA Team Selection Committee.

   At 16, Miles Russell of Jacksonville Beach, Fla. is No. 14 in the WAGR and talented beyond his years.

   Russell fell to Luke Colton, an 18-year-old from Frisco, Texas and No. 33 in the WAGR, in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Junior Amateur played in withering heat at Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas last summer. Colton, who lost in the semifinals at Trinity Forest, will join Rusell in auditioning for a spot on the U.S. Walker Cup team.

   Tyler Watts of Huntsville, Ala. and No. 29 in the WAGR will make it a foursome of junior standouts in Jupiter next month. Watts was the runnerup in the U.S. Junior Amateur two summers ago at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. and beat the best amateur players in the country in last summer’s Sunnehanna Amateur at Sunnehanna Country Club, the A.J. Tillinghast gem in Johnstown.

   Two other collegians who were on the winning U.S. side at Cypress Point, Michael LaSasso, a senior at Mississippi from Raleigh, N.C. and No. 11 in the WAGR, and Jacob Modleski, a junior at Notre Dame from Noblesville, Ind. and No. 16 in the WAGR, were also invited to join the practice session in Jupiter.

   LaSasso captured the NCAA individual crown last spring at La Costa and helped Ole Miss reach the semifinals, where it lost to eventual national champion Oklahoma State.

   Cameron Tankerlsey, a senior from Dickson, Tenn. and No. 18 in the WAGR, will be joining his Ole Miss teammate LaSasso among the 18 players auditioning for a spot on the U.S. Walker Cup team at Lahinch.

   Rounding out that group of 18 players invited to tee it up in Jupiter next month are a quartet of collegians that includes Illinois’ Max Herendeen, a junior from Bellevue, Wash. and No. 19 in the WAGR, Virginia’s Bryan Lee, a senior from Fairfax, Va. and No. 30 in the WAGR, Tennessee’s Lance Simpson, a senior from Knoxville, Tenn. and No. 24 in the WAGR, and Florida’s Jack Turner, a junior from Orlando, Fla. and No. 15 in the WAGR.

   Lee helped the Cavaliers capture the Atlantic Coast Conference title and reach the Final Match in the NCAA Championship, where they fell to Oklahoma State.

   Turner helped the Gators claim the Southeastern Conference crown and reach the semifinals at La Costa, where they fell to Lee and Virginia.

   The WAGR figures prominently in the final makeup of the U.S. Walker Cup team. At some point in the summer, the top three Americans in the WAGR at that point will be automatic selections to captain Smith’s team for Lahinch.

   A spot on the team will be reserved for the winner of the U.S. Amateur at Merion should he be an American. That’s how Howell crashed the party at Cypress Point as his senior year in high school was getting under way.

   As I mentioned in my post on the final day of the Walker Cup at Cypress Point, you’ll be able to find Smith roaming the fairways at Merion’s East Course in the Ardmore section of Haverford Township in August, sizing up the prospects for the final spots on the team he will take to Ireland.