LAHINCH, Ireland – Stuart Grehan hadn’t just rallied to knock off the top-ranked amateur in the world; he was now surrounded by hundreds of his fellow Irish, and with his 2-year-old son, Kai, in his arms.
“That was one loud roar,” said Grehan, who rolled in a 15-foot birdie on Lahinch’s par-5 18th hole to complete a remarkable 1-up victory over Preston Stout and arguably the most crucial singles point for Great Britain and Ireland, which ended Saturday with a 6.5-5.5 advantage midway through the 51st Walker Cup.
“Just unreal,” Grehan added. “Incredible. So special. Just want to thank everyone for being here, and then delivering as well, it’s amazing.”
Grehan’s win was also, as much as anything, improbable.
The 33-year-old from Tullamore had once figured his opportunity to play a Walker Cup had passed him by. Two years after capturing the South of Ireland Championship at Lahinch in 2015, Grehan was in line to make the 2017 GB&I squad that would compete in Los Angeles until he broke his arm playing soccer. He turned pro that next year and spent six years grinding on the developmental tours.
Having married his wife, Carla, and welcomed Kai in 2024, Grehan felt in his heart that he needed a change.
“I just fell out of love with trying to play for a living,” Grehan told the Irish Independent earlier this year. “It was more of a family thing. I didn’t like being away from home. I felt I was being quite selfish.”
Grehan regained his amateur status with Lahinch as his main target. Only success came earlier than expected, accelerating his timeline and earning Grehan his Walker Cup debut last year at Cypress Point. Then this summer, he locked up a return appearance – and a spot in The Open – by winning the British Amateur.
With an estimated 40 rounds played on Lahinch’s Old Course, Grehan figured to be leaned on heavily as one of a record six returners for GB&I captain Dean Robertson. His performance against Stout on Saturday afternoon proved he was up to the task.
Stout, who missed a short birdie on No. 18 that left he and Ethan Fang’s foursomes match against Grehan and Eliot Baker tied, jumped on Grehan by winning the first three holes. Spurred on by the largest gallery among the 8,000-plus spectators on property, Grehan never panicked. He carded six birdies from No. 4 to No. 12.
“I knew I was playing pretty well, and I just stayed really patient, I don’t know,” Grehan said. “There was just a calmness over me I guess.”
Even after Stout went back to 2 up thanks to his 7-under play through 15 holes. Stout’s tee shot at the par-3 16th came up well short in the dunes, and the reigning NCAA individual champion bogeyed that hole and No. 17 to send the match to the last all square. Though Stout pulled off a great third shot from a gnarly lie to 20 feet past the hole at No. 18, he missed the birdie try to set the stage for Grehan’s golden moment.
THREE STRAIGHT TO WIN IT 😤
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) September 5, 2026
Stuart Grehan WINS the match after taking the final three holes in front of his home crowd 🇮🇪👏 pic.twitter.com/5w76TsjYV7
Stout’s loss dropped him to 0-1-1 on the weekend, disappointing considering the last two American world Nos. 1, Jackson Koivun and Gordon Sargent, went a combined 7-1 in their Walker Cup appearances.
Luckily for the U.S., Fang and William Jennings, who like Stout battled believed food poisoning just a couple days ago, earned hard-fought points after trailing against U.S. Amateur champion jack Whaley and three-time Walker Cupp Connor Graham, respectively. After a scorching morning with the putter, Graham birdied the first four holes against Jennings before the 6-foot-6 Alabama standout rallied behind a bogey-free final 10 holes as winds finally picked up for the first time all day.
“I chipped it really well and just kind of stuck to the shot in front of me and didn’t get ahead of myself at all,” Jennings said. “I was pretty proud. I’m still barely eating a little bit. I’m not demolishing food at this point.”
Fang called Thursday, when he and Jennings missed the entire day of practice, “probably the worst day of my life,” but admitted an extra day of rest was a silver lining.
“It was definitely a battle,” Fang said. “I just knew we needed a point.”
Stewart Hagestad improved his career singles record to 8-1 while Jay Leng took down GB&I’s highest-ranked player, Tyler Weaver. But GB&I countered by taking the final three matchups.
Niall Sheils Donegan beat Tyler Watts, 3 and 2, to finish as the only 2-0 player on either side on Saturday. Eliot Baker handled Josiah Gilbert, who marked the only change for Sunday morning foursomes – he was swapped out for Jennings, who will team with Ryder Cowan in the anchor match against Donegan and Josh Hill.
Luke Poulter, who hadn’t quite been himself this summer, spent last week back at the University of Florida’s facility, fine-tuning his swing; he didn’t play a single round of golf, per his head coach J.C. Deacon. The hard work paid off as Poulter never trailed against 17-year-old wonderkid Miles Russell, who linked with Watts to post the only full American foursomes point of the morning.
“I needed that finish,” Poulter said. “I was playing really good all day.”
He certainly wasn’t alone. After combining for 15 under in foursomes, GB&I was a collective 20 under in the singles.
“I think that’s probably the finest golf tournament, day of golf I’ve ever been involved in,” Robertson said. “I think the Walker Cup has just been an amazing showcase of what the game is all about in its purest form. To be ahead, we’re thrilled at that. …. But we’re under no illusions.”
GB&I will enter Sunday with its seventh lead on home soil since 1963, when the first day of the Walker Cup was changed to four foursomes and eight singles matches. In the previous six instances, however, GB&I has only converted half of their Day 1 advantages into wins while the U.S. has lifted the trophy each of the past two times, in 2019 and 2023.
This is the smallest lead, too, at only a single point.
“They’re up a point but we feel good,” said U.S. captain Nathan Smith. “We kind of knew what we were in for, and I feel like everybody, it’s right there.”
Robertson was admittedly nervous when the wind laid down for much of Saturday.
“From a five-club wind [on Friday], we went to California again,” he said.
Well, Sunday’s forecast won’t be anything like the Golden State. Nearly 40 mph gusts are expected by lunchtime along with “persistent outbreaks of rain.” Theoretically, those conditions should favor the home team; Oklahoma’s Cowan was quoted in a social-media video earlier this week saying he’d never played in a rain jacket before.
But in reality, the brutal weather will, if anything, make Sunday unpredictable.
“Playing in that kind of weather requires grit and you need to be able to adapt and just keep the ball moving in front of you,” Robertson said. “A lot of the time it can become a bit damage limitation. Irrespective, it’s going to be exciting, because there will be a lot of people here, and it’s match play, so it’s man against man and it’s the low score each hole. So, we have a plan and we’ll be prepared.”
Robertson’s concern was that the bad weather would keep many of their supporters – perhaps many of the fans swarming Grehan on Saturday– indoors for the final two sessions. Last year, GB&I trailed by only one before tallying just 1.5 singles points out of a possible 10 in a heavy fog that blanketed Cypress Point’s iconic oceanside holes down the stretch.
Regardless of how Sunday plays out, Grehan said of Saturday’s singles win, “It’s something I’ll always remember for rest of my life.”
He just wouldn’t mind topping it.
