2023 Walker Cup: Dates, Golf Course, Format
The Walker Cup is a biennial (every other year) competition for top amateur men golfers, one team representing Great Britain & Ireland, the other representing the United States. The 2023 Walker Cup will be the 49th time the event is played. Team USA leads the overall standings (the tournament dates to 1922) with 38 wins; Team GB&I has nine wins and there has been one tie.
2023 Walker Cup Dates
The 2023 Walker Cup is scheduled for September 2-3, 2023. That is a Saturday and Sunday. For ticket information, keep an eye on the R&A's Walker Cup section, or on the official event website, walkercup.org.Team USA is the defending champion, having won the 2021 Walker Cup by a score of 14-12.
Where the 2023 Walker Cup is Played
The golf course for the next edition of the Walker Cup is the "home of golf," The Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland. The Old Course has been the site of eight previous Walker Cups, but the most recent of those is the 1975 Walker Cup.
Team Composition and Format
Team GB&I and Team USA each have 10 golfers selected by committees from the R&A and USGA, respectively. The Walker Cup is played over two days, with 26 matches total, meaning 26 points are at stake. Eighteen of those matches are singles and eight are foursomes (fourball is not played in the Walker Cup).On Day 1, the teams play four foursomes (alternate shot) matches in the morning, followed by eight singles matches in the afternoon. On Day 2, they again start with four morning foursomes, but play 10 singles matches in afternoon (so that all 10 golfers per side play in the final session).
It takes 13.5 points to win the Walker Cup, but the defending champion needs only 13 points to retain it (a tie goes to the defending champ, in other words).
Team Captains
Stuart Wilson for Great Britain & Ireland and Mike McCoy for the United States will serve in the captain's roles. McCoy played on Team USA in the 2015 Walker Cup. McCoy won the 2013 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship, has played in 20 U.S. Amateurs, and has been low amateur at two U.S. Senior Opens. Wilson returns for a second consecutive stint as GB&I captain; his 2021 squad suffered a narrow defeat on American soil. Wilson won The Amateur Championship in 2004 and was low amateur in the 2004 Open Championship.More about the Walker Cup: