Team Great Britain and Ireland and Team USA pose for a photograph during a putting contest at the Himalayas - (Photo by Ross Parker/R&A/R&A via Getty Images) As anticipation builds and with just four days until the opening tee shot at the 49th Walker Cup, taking place 100 years since the first staging, it’s worth taking a brief moment to reflect on the last transatlantic battle that took place at Seminole in May 2021. The build-up to Seminole lingers in the memory for a rather peculiar reason; Florida played host to the Walker Cup during the remnants of the COVID golf era, marked by woggles in holes and foot raking in bunkers. So, when the GB&I team crossed the pond, they were still completing daily screenings for the virus. When a number of players from both sides took ill just a couple of days before play, confusion abounded [...]

Words by Darragh Garrahy. Barclay Brown will tee it up for GB&I in the Walker Cup at St. Andrews in early September, aged twenty two. In the 2021 iteration at Seminole, his trademark bucket hat had an R&A logo on it in Juno Beach – he wore a camo bucket en-route to a 68 at The Open on Thursday at St. Andrews last year). The atypical headwear is where the non-traditional motif stops for Brown – he is a classic ballstriker, good enough to qualify for this year’s US Open at George Thomas’ LACC (Thomas also designed the course at Stanford where Brown studies Economics). Barclay Brown in camouflage at The Open at St. Andrews, 2022 The last time another Barclay entered the Walker Cup fray was in 1997 – Barclay Howard. Unlike Barclay Brown, he did not attend Stanford; his education growing up outside Glasgow was more [...]

Following the conclusion of the U.S. Amateur Championship and the Boys’ and Girls’ Amateur Championships at Fulford and Ganton, the R&A have confirmed the eight remaining players to make up the GB&I squad for St Andrews. The R&A's announcement can be seen here. James Ashfield (22) – Wales, WAGR: 71st Wales’ highest-ranked player, winner of the 2022 Welsh Amateur Championship. 2nd place finishes in this year’s Lytham Trophy and European Amateur Championship. Strong performance in the recent Home Internationals at Machynys Peninsula. Loves matchplay. Jack Bigham (19) – England, WAGR: 88th Another player to perform well with a 4th place finish at the European Amateur Championship in Estonia at the end of June. Plays his college golf for Florida State and has a very consistent record. A 12th place finish at this year’s Links Trophy shows he knows how to plot his way around St Andrews, too. Connor Graham (17) [...]

After the 36-hole Strokeplay stage of the 2023 U.S. Amateur Championship, 16-year-old middle-schooler Blades Brown has earned himself the Medallist/Co-Medallist title. With rounds of 72 and 64 at Cherry Hills Country Club and Colorado Golf Club respectively, he is the youngest stroke-play leader of the event since Bobby Jones in 1920. Jones was 18 at the time. Whilst not quite the youngest player in the field, this Nashville teenager has caught the attention of golf fans around the world. With a name that will make the GolfWRX forums go wild, it would be great to see him kick on this week. The quality of youth has been on full show over the first two days, with Bowen Mauss and Preston Stout as two other 16-year-olds to also make it to the knockout stages from a staggeringly large field of 312. Both players carded 7-under rounds of 65 at Colorado. The [...]