When the Walker Cup tees off Saturday at Cypress Point, it will be the 50th edition of a match that began in 1922. The best 10 amateurs from the United States will take on the best 10 from Great Britain and Ireland. Legacies will be written. Future stars of the game will emerge.
And thanks to the endowment efforts of the Keepers of the Cups and the USGA, the Walker Cup, and its women’s counterpart, the Curtis Cup, can continue for eternity.
“It truly was a one-time effort to raise these funds,” said Charlie Pagnam, USGA chief philanthropy officer and executive director of the USGA Foundation. “People wanted to be a part of it in large part because they value what these matches are for golf, particularly for amateur golf.”
Started in 2022, the Keepers of the Cups is a USGA initiative that fully endows the Walker and Curtis cups. Twenty-five Keepers each pledged to donate $500,000, some over time, and the USGA matches every dollar donated, bringing the total amount pledged to $25 million. The donations are deposited into an endowment account when received, along with the matching funds, and the USGA spends 4 percent of the previous year-end endowment balance annually to cover most of costs to stage each match it hosts in the United States, as well as expenses the U.S. team incurs when the R&A hosts the match overseas. In theory, no economic downturn should stop two of the greatest events in amateur golf from happening.
“The benefit of what we did for the Walker and Curtis Cup isn’t really the money that we raised, but it’s the longevity of the money that we raised,” said Mike Whan, CEO of the USGA.
Pagnam has spent his career raising money. So when he came to the USGA in 2019, he was underwhelmed by the organization’s philanthropic efforts. The USGA didn’t even have an endowment. Pagnam decided this had to change.
“The Keepers was a little bit of the test, the proof of concept that people would contribute to the USGA,” he said.
While Pagnam had the original idea, Whan helped make it a reality.
In 2021, the Walker Cup was at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Florida. Whan, still LPGA commissioner at the time, had already accepted the role of USGA CEO. Since he lived in Orlando, he decided to make the two-and-half hour drive to see his first Walker Cup in person.
The experience blew him away. He was so close to the players. He could hear them converse with their caddies about strategy. Whan had seen Ryder Cups and Solheim Cups, but this event was special.
“We have to make sure that the greatest amateur team event in the game is protected from economic downturn, sponsor changes and TV deals.” — Mike Whan, USGA CEO
“I think I might be at the coolest team event in the game,” Whan said he told his wife.
When Whan officially took over as USGA CEO in July 2021, the world was in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Only four USGA championships were held in 2020, and Whan says projections for the future were not optimistic.
“There was a belief coming out of COVID that we were going to probably slide into a pretty serious recession in America,” Whan said. “I remember looking at the budget in May of ’21 and thinking, ‘What if I have to free up $30 million? What are my defensive moves?’ ”
An example of a defensive move: save money by holding Walker and Curtis cups every four years instead of two.
“I have to figure out a way to make sure that never happens,” Whan said. “We have to make sure that the greatest amateur team event in the game is protected from economic downturn, sponsor changes and TV deals.”
In his own words: “How much money can I put aside to make sure that no future CEO, including me, can screw this up?”
So Whan met with Pagnam to discuss options. From the beginning, Pagnam was confident that he could find 20 people to each put in $500,000 for a total of $10 million.
“I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that’s grandiose,” Whan said.
Regardless of the amount of money they could raise from donors, Pagnam believed the USGA Executive Committee needed to have skin in the game for the Keepers to work. So Whan convinced the USGA’s executive committee to match every dollar raised.
“It’s important for an organization to show the prospective donors that something’s important,” Pagnam said. “And so putting up the match money that the USGA did to make this happen was that signal to donors that we’re really serious about securing the funds that will endow the Walker and Curtis cups.”
Neither Pagnam nor Whan had a good idea of how long it might take to find the 20 donors.
“I thought it would take three to five years because the USGA had never been out trying to raise significant gifts from a philanthropic standpoint,” Pagnam said.
As it turns out, it only took about two years to find 20. Whan and Pagnam decided they could do better, and went out to find five more. The 25th Keeper joined the program about a year ago.
“It’s been eye opening to me how many people in America will tell you how much golf has changed their life,” Whan said.
One of these people is George Wyper, a 69-year-old retired investment manager. An old friend of Pagnam’s, Wyper hosted a dinner for Whan after Whan took over as CEO in 2021. At the dinner, Whan talked about a few USGA initiatives, including trying to raise endowment funds for the Walker and Curtis cups. A lifelong golfer, Wyper jumped at the opportunity.
“I’d always followed the great, premier amateur competitions in the world which are highlighted by the Walker Cup and Curtis Cup,” Wyper said. “[The Keepers of the Cups] provided an opportunity to follow them up close.”
After becoming one of the early Keepers, Wyper went to his first Walker Cup in 2023 at St. Andrews and his first Curtis Cup in 2024 at Sunningdale Golf Club. He distinctly remembers sitting behind the short par-4 ninth hole at Sunningdale with his wife and watching Asterisk Talley miss an ace by inches, as well as Talley beating Lottie Woad in singles.
“There is nothing more exciting than watching those top amateurs up close and seeing their intensity on the golf course,” Wyper said.
To Wyper, amateur golf is special. It’s the purest form of the game. Lifelong amateurs like Bobby Jones, Francis Ouimet and more recently Nathan Smith, this year’s U.S. Walker Cup captain, played the game because they loved it, and Wyper believes everybody can learn from that.
“I think the amateur game helps [the players] keep a pretty healthy perspective on the game of life,” Wyper said. “It’s not for the pursuit of the almighty dollar, it’s for the pursuit of excellence in the sport they love.”
With the philanthropic success of the Keepers of the Cups, it might be time for the USGA to think bigger. What about endowing all 12 USGA amateur championships?
“For the USGA to continue to do what they’re doing for the game and with the goal of doing more for the game, philanthropy is going to be a real player in securing the resources to make that happen.” — Charlie Pagnam
“Because of our success we’ve definitely talked about doing this for our other championships,” Whan said. “And really, if you want to dream big we talked about could we do all of our amateur championships?”
Both Whan and Pagnam agree that fully endowing every USGA championship is a good long-term goal, and it would require raising a few hundred million dollars. While they don’t know how long that process might take, they do know that the only way to make it happen is through continued philanthropic efforts.
“For the USGA to continue to do what they’re doing for the game and with the goal of doing more for the game, philanthropy is going to be a real player in securing the resources to make that happen,” Pagnam said.
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