The Walker Cup is a

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams:

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, and

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The official name is the Walker Cup Match (not "Matches" as in Ryder Cup Matches). It is organised by

The R&A The R&A is the collective name of a group of companies that together play a significant role within the game of golf. Historically, "the R&A" was a colloquial name for the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews; in 2004, the club spun off ...

and the

United States Golf Association The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the United States national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the rules ...

(USGA). In 1921 the

Royal Liverpool Golf Club The Royal Liverpool Golf Club is a golf club in Wirral in Merseyside, England. It was founded in 1869 on what was then the racecourse of the Liverpool Hunt Club. It received the "Royal" designation in 1871 due to the patronage of the Duke of ...

hosted an unofficial contest which was followed by official annual contests from 1922 through 1924. From 1925 they became biennial, held on even-number years. After World War II they switched to odd-numbered years. They are held alternately in the U.S., and Ireland or Britain. The cup is named after George Herbert Walker who was president of the USGA in 1920 when the match was initiated. Walker is the grandfather and namesake of George H. W. Bush and great-grandfather of

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

, the 41st and 43rd Presidents of the United States, respectively. Unlike the Ryder Cup, which similarly began as a competition between the U.S. and the United Kingdom, the Walker Cup has never been expanded to include all

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an amateur golfers. As of 2021, the U.S. lead the Walker Cup series 38 to 9, with one match tied, but the two teams have been more evenly matched since 1989 when the Great Britain and Ireland team ended the U.S. team's eight-match winning run. The 1989 match and the three matches from 2003 to 2007 were all decided by a single point.

Founding of the Cup

Royal Liverpool (Hoylake) 1921

A team of American amateur golfers travelled in Britain in 1921, their objective being to win

The Amateur Championship The Amateur Championship (sometimes referred to as the British Amateur or British Amateur Championship outside the UK) is a golf tournament which has been held annually in the United Kingdom since 1885 except during the two World Wars, and in 19 ...

at Royal Liverpool (Hoylake). A match between American and British male amateur golfers was played on May 21, immediately before The Amateur Championship. This match was announced in ''The Times'' on May 10. ''The Times'' reports that the match was arranged by Gershom Stewart M.P., Chairman of

. The British team was:

Tommy Armour Thomas Dickson Armour (24 September 1896 – 11 September 1968) was a Scottish-American professional golfer. He was nicknamed The Silver Scot. He was the winner of three of golf's major championships: 1927 U.S. Open, 1930 PGA, and 1931 Open C ...

Colin Aylmer Collinson Charleton Aylmer (6 February 1884 – 12 July 1964) was an English amateur golfer. He was runner-up in the 1910 Amateur Championship and was in the British team in the 1921 international match against America and in the first Walker Cup ...

Ernest Holderness Sir Ernest William Elsmie Holderness, 2nd Baronet CBE (13 March 1890 – 23 August 1968) was an English amateur golfer and one of the Holderness baronets. He won The Amateur Championship in 1922 and 1924 and the Golf Illustrated Gold Vase in 1925. ...

, James Jenkins,

Reymond de Montmorency Reymond Hervey de Montmorency (6 October 1871 – 19 December 1938) was an English golfer, cricketer and rackets player. Personal life Born in Gonda, in India, de Montmorency was the son of Major Reymond Hervey de Montmorency and Marion Ell ...

, Gordon Simpson,

Cyril Tolley Major Cyril James Hastings Tolley MC (14 September 1895 – 18 May 1978) was a British amateur golf champion and briefly a Liberal Party politician. He died in Eastbourne. Background Tolley was the son of James T. Tolley and Christiana Mary Pas ...

and

Roger Wethered Roger Henry Wethered (3 January 1899 – 12 March 1983) was an English amateur golfer, and the brother of female golfer Joyce Wethered. Early life Born in Surrey, Wethered was the only son of Herbert Newton Wethered and his wife Marion Emmeli ...

. The American team was

Chick Evans Charles E. "Chick" Evans Jr. (July 18, 1890 – November 6, 1979) was an American amateur golfer of the 1910s and 1920s. Evans, who won the 1910 Western Open, became the first amateur to win both the U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur in one year, a ...

, William C. Fownes Jr. (Captain), Jesse Guilford,

Paul Hunter Paul Alan Hunter (14 October 1978 – 9 October 2006) was an English professional snooker player. He was a three-time Masters champion, winning the event in 2001, 2002, and 2004, recovering from a deficit in the final to win 10–9 on a ...

, Bobby Jones,

Francis Ouimet Francis DeSales Ouimet () (May 8, 1893 – September 2, 1967) was an American amateur golfer who is frequently referred to as the "father of amateur golf" in the United States. He won the U.S. Open in 1913 and was the first non-Briton elected ...

J. Wood Platt ''J. The Jewish News of Northern California'', formerly known as ''Jweekly'', is a weekly print newspaper in Northern California, with its online edition updated daily. It is owned and operated by San Francisco Jewish Community Publications In ...

, Fred Wright. The Americans won the match 9–3.

Format

The Walker Cup employs a combination of

foursomes Foursomes, also known as alternate shot, is a pairs playing format in the sport of golf. Golfers compete in teams of two, using only one ball per team, and taking alternate shots until the hole is completed. Team members take turns in teeing off o ...

(alternate-shot) and singles competition and was originally the format used for the professional equivalent Ryder Cup. Up to 1961, 36 holes matches were played: four foursomes on the first day and eight singles matches on the second day. From 1963, 18 hole matches were played, with four foursomes and eight singles matches on each day. In 2009, the number of singles matches on the second day was increased to 10, so that all members of the team play on this final afternoon.

Results

Half points for halved matches were first awarded in 1971. Note that in the following table, half points for halved matches are included in the total scores prior to 1971 for consistency with later years. The following scores include halved matches: 1923: 1, 1926: 1, 1932: 3, 1934: 1, 1936: 3, 1938: 1, 1951: 3, 1957: 1, 1963: 4, 1965: 2, 1967: 4, 1969: 6 Source: Of the 48 matches, USA has won 38 matches, Great Britain and Ireland have won 9 with 1 match tied.

Future sites

* 2023 –

Old Course at St Andrews The Old Course at St Andrews, also known as the Old Lady or the Grand Old Lady, is considered the oldest golf course. It is a public course over common land in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland and is held in trust by the St Andrews Links Trust under ...

( St Andrews, Fife, Scotland), September 2–3 * 2025 –

Cypress Point Club Cypress Point Club is a private golf club located in Pebble Beach, California, at the northern end of the Central Coast. Its single 18-hole course has been named as one of the finest in golf, best known for a series of dramatic holes along th ...

(

Pebble Beach, California Pebble Beach is an unincorporated community on the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey County, California. The small coastal residential community of mostly single-family homes is also notable as a resort destination, and the home of the golf cou ...

), September 6–7 * 2028 –

Bandon Dunes Golf Resort Bandon Dunes Golf Resort is a complex of five links and a par-3 golf course on the West Coast of the United States, located alongside the Pacific Ocean in southwest Oregon, just north of the city of Bandon. Courses The first course at the ...

(

Bandon, Oregon Bandon () is a city in Coos County, Oregon, United States, on the south side of the mouth of the Coquille River. It was named by George Bennet, an Irish peer, who settled nearby in 1873 and named the town after Bandon in Ireland, his hometown ...

) * 2032 – Oakmont Country Club (

Oakmont, Pennsylvania Oakmont is a borough in Allegheny County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is a Pittsburgh suburb and part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The population was 6,303 as of the 2010 Census. Incorporated as a town in 1889, this Allegheny River ...

) * 2036 –

Chicago Golf Club Chicago Golf Club is a private golf club in the central United States, located in Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago. The oldest 18-hole course in North America, it was one of the five founding clubs of the United States Golf Association ...

(

Wheaton, Illinois Wheaton is a suburban city in Milton and Winfield Townships and is the county seat of DuPage County, Illinois. It is located approximately west of Chicago. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 52,894, which was estimated ...

) From 2026, matches will be held in even-numbered years. Venues for the 2026 and 2030 events have not been announced.

References

External links

Official site
{{The R&A Amateur Championships Team golf tournaments Amateur golf tournaments R&A championships United States Golf Association championships Biennial sporting events