Andy DevaneyThe Walker Cup 2026 produced the sort of finish Lahinch hardly needed help making memorable.
Great Britain and Ireland began the final singles session three points behind, ended it 13½–12½ winners over the United States, and did so only after Josh Hill holed the last putt of the match on the 18th green.
A five-match American winning streak was over. So, too, was GB&I’s wait for a first Walker Cup victory since 2015.
A morning that appeared to settle the argument
The arithmetic at lunch was unhelpful, to put it mildly.
The United States had swept the morning foursomes 4–0, the first American clean sweep in that session since Royal County Down in 2007, and moved 9½–6½ ahead overall.
Preston Stout, the world number one, and Ethan Fang beat Stuart Grehan and Eliot Baker 3&2, their round decorated by an eagle two at the par-four 13th.
Kihei Akina and Jay Leng Jr then defeated Luke Poulter and Sam Easterbrook 4&3, before William Jennings and Ryder Cowan beat Niall Sheils Donegan and Hill by the same margin.
Miles Russell and Tyler Watts completed the whitewash with a 3&2 victory over Tyler Weaver and Connor Graham.
The scoreboard was heavily American. The match, however, had not yet received the memo.
Jack Whaley starts the charge
Jack Whaley supplied the first jolt after lunch, dismantling Jennings 8&7. The margin equalled the second-largest singles victory in Walker Cup history and immediately reduced the deficit to two.
Then came the home favourite. Grehan, the only Irishman in Dean Robertson’s team, recovered from two down against Stout to win 2&1, giving the Lahinch galleries rather more reason to use their lungs.
Poulter followed by beating Fang 3&1. Suddenly it was 9½–9½.
Weaver pushed GB&I in front with a 4&3 win over Leng Jr, while Donegan salvaged a crucial half against Akina at the last after the American missed from close range for the match.
What had looked almost administrative a few hours earlier had become gloriously awkward.
The Americans push back
The United States did not disappear. Josiah Gilbert beat Easterbrook 4&3, and Cowan defeated Ben Bolton 3&2 as the contest tightened towards its finish.
Baker supplied another home point in between, birdieing the 18th to defeat Walker Cup veteran Stewart Hagestad by one hole.
That left two matches on the course. The equation was stark: the USA needed one point to retain the trophy; GB&I needed a point and a half to win it outright.
Connor Graham, three down after the 11th against Russell, somehow found the half-point required to keep the door open. His birdie at the last squared the match.
One match remained. Hill had to win it.
Josh Hill gets three feet for the Walker Cup
Hill’s approach to the 18th found the greenside bunker, which is not the conventional route to serenity with a Walker Cup hanging on the outcome.
His recovery was superb. The ball finished three feet from the hole.
Watts still had the opportunity to change everything, but his long birdie attempt failed to drop. Hill was left with a short putt for the match, the trophy and an ending that had been quietly gathering absurdity all afternoon.
He holed it.
Thousands packed around the 18th erupted as GB&I completed a 13½–12½ victory, their tenth Walker Cup win and their first since Royal Lytham and St Annes in 2015.
Robertson had rearranged his singles order at lunch in search of energy. He found rather more than that.
“We are so elated. We’re hardly able to put it into words. There’s a lot of emotion, a lot of happy tears. But pride, pride is the word I would use to describe this.”
Lahinch ends an American run
For the USA, the defeat ended five consecutive Walker Cup victories. Captain Nathan Smith was left to acknowledge the force of the afternoon swing.
“The match was incredible. It was definitely a tale of two days with what happened this morning and going forward now and how they played this afternoon.”
There was no obvious mystery to the comeback. GB&I simply began winning matches quickly enough to change the mood, then kept scraping out the points that mattered when the contest became narrow and uncomfortable.
Whaley provided the demolition. Grehan gave the galleries belief. Poulter and Weaver shifted the scoreboard. Donegan and Graham produced halves that looked increasingly valuable with every hole played. Baker delivered at 18. Hill finished the job.
That final sequence also gives the victory its place in Walker Cup memory. The margin was one point; the decisive putt belonged to the last player on the course; the winning side had begun the session three behind.
Golf has devised more elegant ways to settle a century-old rivalry. Few are better than three feet of putt, a bunker still fresh in the mind, and everyone watching.
