The Walker Cup’s Predicament

Sneak Peek: This article will appear in the Aug. 5 issue of Global Golf Post. 

BENTON HARBOR, MICHIGAN | As expected, almost all of the candidates for the 2019 U.S. Walker Cup team showed up at this week’s Western Amateur, knowing that the USGA International Team Selection Committee would be paying close attention and that captain Nathaniel Crosby would be on site at Point O’ Woods Golf & Country Club.

Some of those players had not competed much this summer on the elite amateur circuit. In a surprising departure from past Walker Cup cycles, some of the candidates scaled back their amateur schedules. The challenge this presents to the USGA is how to evaluate players who don’t play frequently, and how to evaluate other candidates against them.

This situation is compounded by the fact that heading into the Western Amateur, the Walker Cup team makeup was as cloudy as it has been in recent memory at this late summer date.

Historically, America’s elite amateurs, almost all of whom are college players, would play in what is c...