What to Watch For at the Walker Cup

With the PGA Tour on a brief post-FedEx Cup hiatus, the Walker Cup at the Old Course will take center stage this weekend. The amateur matches between the United States and Great Britain and Ireland kick off on Saturday morning at St. Andrews, and unlike past overseas Walker Cups, the 2023 edition will be televised in the U.S. Golf Channel plans to air the matches 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. EDT on Saturday and 8 a.m. EDT on Sunday.

Here are a couple of things to watch for at the Old Course:

David vs. Goliath

The 2023 Walker Cup projects to be a one-sided affair. Anything can happen in team match play, of course, but this United States team is the significantly better squad on paper. Even though Michael Thorbjornsen (No. 2 in World Amateur Golf Rankings) will miss the event due to injury, the U.S. team still has an average WAGR of 8.2 compared to the GB&I’s 87.4. All 10 American players are inside the WAGR top 20, compared to one member of Team GB&I.

Again, world ranking doesn’t determine results in this format—GB&I won on home turf with lower-ranked teams in 2011 and 2015, and we’re all familiar with the past four decades of Ryder Cups—but this Walker Cup looks particularly lopsided going in. No pressure, Team USA.

Two really, really good American players

Of the 20 players involved, Gordon Sargent and Stewart Hagestad might be the most familiar to golf fans. Sargent won the 2022 NCAA championship and became a ball-speed-related content king in the run-up to this year’s Masters, and Hagestad is a two-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion and, at age 32, an unusual sight in the undergraduate-dominated elite amateur golf scene.

But you’re probably familiar enough with Sargent and Hagestad. Here are a couple of other exciting players to track at St. Andrews:

Austin Greaser – One of three North Carolina Tar Heels on the U.S. team, Greaser had one hand on the U.S. Amateur trophy in 2021 before falling to James Piot. But here’s the thing: Greaser is a more promising talent than James Piot (unless you put a lot of stock in Piot’s two-year stint as a HyFlyer).

Greaser has improved throughout his collegiate career, winning the 2022 Western Amateur and capturing two titles as a junior. He debuted at No. 7 in the preseason PGA Tour University ranking, and with a good senior campaign he could earn some guaranteed starts as a pro next year.

Keep an eye out for Greaser’s swing: while not overly tall, he loads and transitions into his downswing in a way that allows for the width and power of a bigger player. A distinctive, effective move.

Nick Dunlap – As his school’s war cry suggests, Dunlap is rolling right now. The rising Alabama sophomore won the U.S. Amateur, Northeast Amateur, and North & South Amateur this summer. At Cherry Hills a couple of weeks ago, he showed a relentless tee-to-green game that doesn’t rely on a hot putter to win matches. His tempo reminds me of Collin Morikawa’s, and like Morikawa, Dunlap maintains an extremely stable clubface through the ball. Consistency is his forte.

What’s the scariest about Dunlap, at least as far as the Walker Cup is concerned, is his incredible match-play record. Since the summer of 2021, the guy is 30-2 in the format! Maybe he should have been one of Zach Johnson’s captain’s picks.

Future PGA Tour players are playing the Old Course this weekend. Don’t miss it.