The U.S. Walker Cup team is 40% complete.
Not only did the USGA selection committee name the top three Americans in the World Amateur Golf Ranking – No. 1 Preston Stout, No. 3 Tyler Watts and No. 4 Ethan Fang – to U.S. captain Nathan Smith’s 10-man squad, but No. 5 Miles Russell was selected for his debut via committee pick.
Russell, 17, finished less than a tenth of a ranking point behind Fang for one of three automatic berths, but after ending last year’s Walker Cup selection period as the first alternate, Russell won’t have to sweat this one out. He is a two-time AJGA Rolex Junior Player of the Year and has topped every junior-golf ranking for much of the past three years. He and Watts, an incoming Tennessee freshman and recent Northeast Amateur champion who is also a first-time Walker Cupper, will give the U.S. two junior players for the first time since Jordan Spieth and Patrick Rodgers competed as incoming college freshmen in 2011.
Stout and Fang, teammates at Oklahoma State and both rising seniors, represented the U.S. last year at Cypress Point, where they went a combined 3-2-1, though they were 0-2 as a foursomes pair.
The remaining six U.S. spots will be announced following next month’s U.S. Amateur at Merion. One of those spots will go to the winner of that championship, if American, while another will be reserved for a mid-amateur.
Alabama junior William Jennings, recently the NCAA individual runner-up to Stout, is the next highest-ranked American in WAGR, at No. 6, followed by Auburn senior Josiah Gilbert (No. 8), Oklahoma senior and recent U.S. Open co-low amateur Ryder Cowan (No. 9), BYU sophomore Kihei Akina (No. 11) and Notre Dame senior Jacob Modleski (No. 13), who was on last year’s U.S. team, which lost five players to the pros (Jackson Koivun, Ben James, Tommy Morrison, Jase Summy and Michael La Sasso).
Stewart Hagestad, a three-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion, has led the U.S. to five straight Walker Cup victories and remains the highest-ranked mid-amateur in the world, at No. 46. Bobby Massa is the next closest, at No. 73, followed by No. 81 Evan Beck. Reigning U.S. Mid-Amateur winner Brandon Holtz is No. 310 and would be a surprise pick.
Other players on the radar thanks to strong play this summer include Oklahoma State’s Eric Lee (No. 14), who joined Russell and Cowan in making the U.S. Open cut; Florida’s Jack Turner, who was T-14 or better at conference, regionals and nationals before missing match play at the British Amateur by a shot; and Pepperdine’s Willy Walsh (No. 32), who followed back-to-back top-10s in the NCAA postseason with a third at Northeast.
As for the Great Britain and Ireland team, British Amateur champion Stuart Grehan, a 33-year-old reinstated amateur, has already clinched a berth on his second straight Walker Cup squad. The top five players in WAGR on Aug. 5, the Wednesday before U.S. Amateur week, will also be selected with the team being finalize on Aug. 18, two days after the final match at Merion.
Currently, England’s Tyler Weaver (No. 2 in WAGR), England’s Luke Poulter (No. 7), Scotland’s Niall Sheils Donegan (No. 18), England’s Eliot Baker (No. 21) and Scotland’s Connor Graham (No. 22) are the five highest-ranked GB&I players not including No.19 Grehan.
It would seem those five players, all of whom played last year for captain Dean Robertson, will return as the next closest GB&I player in WAGR is No. 71 Freddie Turnell of England.
England’s Sam Easterbrook, at No. 82, has a good shot to make the squad as well, considering he was T-16 at the NCAA Championship, made the quarterfinals of the British Amateur and nearly qualified for The Open; he’ll play in the Last Chance Qualifier on Monday. England’s Jack Whaley (No. 93) and Zach Little (No. 94) are also in the top 100.
This year’s Walker Cup will be contested Sept. 5-6 at Lahinch in Ireland.