Amateur Golf on Display at Walker Cup

This week the best Amateurs from the USA, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales come together at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, PA. The tournament is being held at the site of the 1950 US Open where Ben Hogan won in a 18 hole playoff.

The Walker Cup is a two team event, where the US team competes against the European team. The European team is represented by players selected from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The event consists of 26 matches over a two day period with each match being worth one point. The Walker Cup Match is played every two years, alternately in the USA and Great Britain or Ireland. The match play event began in 1922, at the National Golf Links of America in Southampton, N.Y.

The first day consists of 4 foursome matches where two players from each team compete in an alternate shot format and 8 singles matches.

The second day of the competition there are again four foursome matches, but there are ten singles matches played instead of eight. This is so all team members play in the final session of the competition. The additional two singles matches is a change in format from early Walker Cup tournaments. Read the rest of this entry