2026 Walker Cup Dates, Golf Course
The 2026 Walker Cup will be the 51st time this competition is played. Dating to 1922, the Walker Cup is a team, Ryder Cup-style match play tournament between squads representing Great Britain & Ireland (GB&I) on one side and the United States (USA) on the other. The participants are the top amateur men golfers from each team's countries. In the tournament's history, Team USA has 39 wins, Team GB&I nine wins, and there has been one tie.
2026 Walker Cup dates: September 5-6, 2026
Golf course: Lahinch Golf Club in Lahinch, County Clare, Republic of Ireland
Captains: TBA
Tickets: Ticket info will be posted on the R&A website (randa.org) when it becomes available.
The Walker Cup is typically played every other year. But the 2026 Walker Cup follows on the heels of the 2025 Walker Cup. Why is it being played again just one year after the previous match? The event's governing bodies, the USGA and R&A, wanted, for scheduling purposes, to return the Walker Cup to being playing in even-numbered years. This is the year that switch is being made.
2026 Walker Cup Golf Course: Lahinch
Lahinch Golf Club is a links course on the Irish coastline against Liscannor Bay, an inlet of the North Atlantic Ocean. Lahinch has been home since 1895 to the South of Ireland Championship, another men's amateur event. Lahinch has never before hosted one of the premiere R&A championships. It was the site of the 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup, though, a similar-style tournament for teams of collegiate golfers. And the 2019 Irish Open was played at Lahinch. The club bills itself as "the St. Andrews of Ireland."
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).
More tournament information: