2028 Walker Cup

The 2028 Walker Cup will be the 52nd time this competition is played. The Walker Cup Match, as it officially known, is a match-play tournament between teams of amateur male golfers representing Great Britain & Ireland (GB&I) and the United States (USA). It dates to 1922. In the tournament's history, Team USA has 40 wins, Team GB&I nine wins, and there has been one tie.

2028 Walker Cup dates: Specific dates are TBA, but the Walker Cup is typically played in September.
Golf course: Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon, Oregon
Captains: TBA (see list of previous Walker Cup captains)
Tickets: Ticket information, when it becomes available, will be posted on the USGA website. Go to USGA.org and select the "Tickets" option at the top of the page.

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).

  • Day 1: Teams play four foursomes (alternate shot) matches in the morning, followed by eight singles matches in the afternoon.
  • Day 2: Teams 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).

2028 Walker Cup Golf Course: Bandon Dunes Resort

Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, on the Pacific coast of southwestern Oregon, opened in 1999 with one golf course. Today the resort includes five, 18-hole courses, several of them all or mostly links-style, plus two par-3 courses and a putting course. The 18-hole courses go by the names Bandon Dunes (the original), Pacific Dunes, Bandon Trails, Old Macdonald and Sheep Ranch.

Which of those five courses will host the 2028 Walker Cup? That hasn't yet been announced. But all but the Sheep Ranch (the newest course) have already been the site of USGA championships.

In fact, nine USGA championships have already been played at Bandon Dunes Resort, the biggest of which are the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Women's Amateur, along with the Curtis Cup. These are the years, courses and winners for those three events:

  • 2006 Curtis Cup (Pacific Dunes): Team USA, 11.5 to 6.5
  • 2020 U.S. Amateur (Bandon Dunes/Bandon Trails): Tyler Strafaci
  • 2025 U.S. Women's Amateur (Bandon Dunes): Megha Ganne
Other USGA championship played at Bandon Dunes Resort, and the specific courses they were played on: 2007 U.S. Mid-Amateur Golf Championship (Bandon Dunes/Bandon Trails), 2011 U.S. Amateur Public Links and U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links (both at Old Macdonald/Bandon Trails), 2015 U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball (Pacific Dunes), 2019 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball (Old Macdonald/Pacific Dunes), 2022 U.S. Junior Amateur (Bandon Dunes/Bandon Trails).

More about the Walker Cup:

Sources:
Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. https://bandondunesgolf.com/.
Beall, Joel. "Bandon Dunes to host 13 USGA championships," GolfDigest.com, July 20, 2021, https://www.golfdigest.com/story/bandon-usga-13-championships.
United States Golf Association. Walker Cup, Future Sites, https://championships.usga.org/walkercup/future-sites-walker-cup.html.

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