Results of the Walker Cup from 1922 to 2015 between Great Britain & Ireland against the USA
The Walker Cup Match began in the wake of World War I with a view toward stimulating golf interest on both sides of the Atlantic. The match grew in part out of two international matches between the United States and Canada, in 1919 and 1920.
At the same time, British and American amateurs considered each nation's national amateur championship a great plum. Meanwhile, the USGA Executive Committee had been invited to Great Britain for a series of meetings with the Royal and Ancient of St. Andrews Rules Committee. The meeting was to look at the advisability of modifying various rules of the game. Among the participants was George Herbert Walker, USGA President in 1920.
Upon the Executive Committee's return to the United States, international team matches were discussed. The idea so appealed to Walker that he soon presented a plan and offered to donate a trophy. Mr. Walker had been a low handicap player and was a keen advocate of the game. When the press dubbed the trophy the Walker Cup, the name stuck.
In 1921, the USGA invited all golfing nations to send teams to compete for the Cup, but no country was able to accept that year. The Americans stuck to their mission, however, and William C. Fownes, the 1910 U.S. Amateur champion, who had twice assembled the amateur teams that played against Canada, rounded up a third team in the spring of 1921 and took it to England. At Hoylake, the American team defeated a British team, 9 and 3, in an informal match the day before the British Amateur.
Early in 1922, the R & A announced that it would send a team to compete for the Walker Cup at the National Golf Links of America, Mr. Walker's home club, in Southampton, N.Y.
Originally, the competition was open to any country that might care to challenge. The USGA invited all countries to compete. Except for Great Britain, however, no other country was able to accept.
Fownes was the American captain for the inaugural match and his team consisted of Charles Evans Jr., Robert Gardner, U.S. Amateur Champion Jesse Guilford, Robert T. Jones Jr., Max Marston, Francis Ouimet, Jess Sweetser, and Rudolph Knepper, who did not play.
Robert Harris was captain of the British side, and his players were Cyril Tolley, Roger Wethered, Colin Aylmer, C.V.L. Hooman, W.B. Torrance, John Caven, and W. Willis Mackenzie. Ernest Holderness, the British Amateur Champion, was unable to make the trip.
Bernard Darwin, the golf writer of The Times of London, had accompanied the team and wound up playing in the Match. When Harris fell ill, Darwin was invited to compete in his place and serve as playing captain. He defeated Fownes, 3 and 1.
The American team, however, prevailed, winning the first Walker Cup Match, 8 to 4.
Until recent years, the United States clearly dominated the series, but the number of American victories never clouded the true purpose of the Walker Cup Match. A much higher value has been placed upon the series as a medium of international friendship and understanding between the R & A and the USGA.
Alternating between sites in the United States and Great Britain, the Match is usually scheduled so that visiting teams can also participate in the Amateur Championship of the host country.
The Match was played on an annual basis until 1924, when it was decided that the financial strain of annual encounters was too severe. It was also believed that interest might drop if the matches were played too frequently. A decision was made to meet in alternate years.
The series was interrupted by World War II after the 1938 Match at St. Andrews, Scotland. When the Match resumed, in 1947, St. Andrews was again selected as the site. Under norm peacetime conditions, the Match would have been played in the United States, but postwar economic conditions would have made the trip difficult for the British. The United States leads the series, 31-7-1.
Year | Venue | Date | G.B. & Ireland | U.S.A. |
2015 | Royal Lytham & St. Anne's | 12th and 13th September | 16½ | 9½ |
2013 | National Golf Links of America | 7th and 8th September | 19 | 7 |
2011 | Royal Aberdeen | 10th and 11th September | 14 | 12 |
2009 | Merion Golf Club | 12th and 13th September | 9½ | 16½ |
2007 | Royal Co. Down | 8th and 9th September | 11½ | 12½ |
2005 | Chicago | 13th and 14th August | 11½ | 12½ |
2003 | Ganton | 6th and 7th September | 12½ | 11½ |
2001 | Ocean Forest, Georgia | 11th and 12th August | 15 | 9 |
1999 | Nairn Scotland | 11th and 12th September | 15 | 9 |
1997 | Quaker River New York | 9th and 10th August | 6 | 18 |
1995 | Royal Porthcawl Wales | 9th and 10th September | 14 | 10 |
1993 | Interlachen Minnesota | 18th and 19th August | 5 | 19 |
1991 | Portmarnock | 5th and 6th August | 10 | 14 |
1989 | Peachtree Arlanta | 16th and 17th August | 12½ | 11½ |
1987 | Sunningdale | 27th and 28th May | 7½ | 16½ |
1985 | Pine Valley | 21st and 22nd August | 11 | 13 |
1983 | Hoylake | 25th and 26th May | 10½ | 13½ |
1981 | Cypress Point | 28th and 29th August | 9 | 15 |
1979 | Muirfield | 30th and 31st May | 8½ | 15½ |
1977 | Shinnecock Hills | 26th and 27th August | 8 | 16 |
1975 | St. Andrews | 28th and 29th May | 8½ | 15½ |
1973 | Brookline | 24th and 25th August | 10 | 14 |
1971 | St. Andrews | 26th and 27th May | 13 | 11 |
1969 | Milwaukee | 22nd and 23rd | 8 | 10 |
1967 | Sandwich | 15th to 20th May | 7 | 13 |
1965 | Baltimore | 3rd and 4th September | 11 | 11 |
1963 | Turnberry | 24th and 25th May | 8 | 12 |
1961 | Seattle | 1st and 2nd September | 1 | 11 |
1959 | Muirfield | 15th and 16th May | 3 | 9 |
1957 | Minikahda | 1st and 2nd September | 3½ | 8 ½ |
1955 | St. Andrews | 20th and 21st May | 2 | 10 |
1953 | Kittansett | 4th and 5th September | 3 | 9 |
1951 | Royal Birkdale | 11th and 12th May | 4½ | 7½ |
1949 | Winged Foot | 19th and 20th August | 2 | 10 |
1947 | St. Andrews | 16th and 17th May | 4 | 8 |
Year | Venue | Date | G.B. & I. | U.S.A. |
1939-45 No Matches | ||||
1938 | St. Andrews | 3rd and 4th June | 7½ | 4½ |
1936 | Brookline | 1st and 2nd September | 2½ | 9½ |
1934 | St. Andrews | 11th and 12th May | 2½ | 9½ |
1932 | Brookline | 1st and 2nd September | 2½ | 9½ |
1930 | Sandwich | 15th and 16th May | 2 | 10 |
1928 | Chicago | 30th and 31st August | 1 | 11 |
1926 | St. Andrews | 2nd and 3rd June | 5½ | 6½ |
1924 | Garden City | 12th and 13th September | 3 | 9 |
1923 | St. Andrews | 18th and 19th May | 5½ | 6½ |
1922 | Long Island | 29th August | 4 | 8 |