Americans painted the scoreboard red at Lahinch during Sunday morning’s foursomes only to be capsized by a blue wave in the afternoon singles that saw Great Britain and Ireland rally to win the 51st Walker Cup, 13 1/2 to 12 1/2.
The home team got off to a blazing start in the final session on a gusty Irish day, winning each of the first four singles matches.
Stuart Grehan topped Preston Stout for the second straight day and Jack Whaley recorded a historic, 8-and-7 runaway victory over William Jennings.
Then came two more wins for Team GB&I — Luke Poulter beat Ethan Fang when the latter’s putt on No. 17 came up just short of the hole. Moments later, Tyler Weaver closed out his match over Jay Leng Jr. with a 4-and-3 win.
Those four results flipped the script at the 51st Walker Cup, putting GB&I up 10 1/2 to 9 1/2 with six more matches left.
And the final half dozen resulted in just 2 1/2 more points for the Americans, who coughed up a three-point advantage heading into the singles matches, allowing GB&I to secure its greatest comeback in Walker Cup history.
Josh Hill was the one who got to play hero, sealing the win for the home squad by getting up and down from a greenside bunker on the par-4 18th to give GB&I its first Walker Cup victory since 2015. He won the point over American Tyler Watts, snapping a run of five consecutive Walker Cup wins for the red, white and blue.
This is a developing story.