September 6-7, 2025
Cypress Point Club, California, USA
6,620 yards, Par 70
Captains: Nathan Smith (USA) and Dean Robertson (GB&I)
Match Report
Day 1 Weather – Sunny Intervals / Wind 10 mph W / Temps. 9-21°C.
Day 1 Foursomes (USA players first)
Jackson Koivun / Tommy Morrison lost to Connor Graham / Tyler Weaver 3&1
Stewart Hagestad / Ben James lost to Charlie Forster / Luke Poulter 3&2
Ethan Fang / Preston Stout lost to Eliot Baker / Stuart Grehan 1 Hole
Michael La Sasso / Jase Summy beat Cameron Adam / Dominic Clemons 4&2
Players Rested
GB&I – Niall Shiels Donegan, Gavin Tiernan / USA – Mason Howell, Jacob Modleski
Session Score: USA 1.0 – 3.0 GB&I
Day 1 Singles
Jackson Koivun beat Tyler Weaver 4&3
Jacob Modleski lost to Niall Shiels Donegan 1 Hole
Mason Howell beat Luke Poulter 3&2
Ben James lost to Connor Graham 3&2
Stewart Hagestad beat Gavin Tiernan 7&5
Ethan Fang halved with Stuart Grehan
Preston Stout beat Charlie Forster 6&5
Jase Summy beat Eliot Baker 1 Hole
Players Rested
GB&I – Cameron Adam, Dominic Clemons / USA – Michael La Sasso, Tommy Morrison
Session Score: USA 5.5 – 2.5 GB&I
Day 1 Score: USA 6.5 – 5.5 GB&I
Click here to view my – 2025 Walker Cup – Day 1 Match Report
Day 2 Weather – Sunny / Wind 10 mph NW / Temps. 8-20°C.
Day 2 Foursomes
Jackson Koivun / Tommy Morrison beat Connor Graham / Tyler Weaver 1 Hole
Ethan Fang / Preston Stout lost to Charlie Forster / Luke Poulter 1 hole
Mason Howell / Jacob Modleski beat Eliot Baker / Stuart Grehan 2&1
Michael La Sasso / Jase Summy lost to Cameron Adam / Niall Shiels Donegan 2&1
Players Rested
GB&I – Dominic Clemons, Gavin Tiernan / USA – Stewart Hagestad, Ben James
USA 2.0 – 2.0 GB&I
Day 2 Singles
Jackson Koivun beat Tyler Weaver 3&2
Tommy Morrison beat Niall Shiels Donegan 3&2
Mason Howell halved with Connor Graham
Preston Stout beat Luke Poulter 2&1
Ethan Fang beat Stuart Grehan 5&4
Stewart Hagestad beat Eliot Baker 4&3
Ben James beat Charlie Forster 1 Hole
Jase Summy beat Cameron Adam 3&1
Michael La Sasso lost to Gavin Tiernan 2&1
Jacob Modleski beat Dominic Clemons 1 Hole
Session Score USA 8.5 – 1.5 GB&I
Day 2 Score: USA 10.5 – 3.5 GB&I
Match Result: USA 17.0 – 9.0 GB&I
Click here to view my – 2025 Walker Cup – Day 2 Match Report
Series Results: USA 40 – GB&I 9 – Halved 1 (after Match 50)
The USA Team (Photo: Chris Keane / USGA)
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Individual Player Performances
Jase Summy and Jackson Koivun both recorded three wins for USA whilst Scottish pair Connor Graham and Niall Shiels Donegan secured two wins each for GB&I.
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Schedule
Fri 5 Sept. – Opening Ceremony (5.00pm PDT)
Sat 6 Sept. – 4 Foursomes (8.00am PDT) and 8 Singles (1.45pm PDT)
Sun 7 Sept. – 4 Foursomes (8.00am PDT) and 10 Singles (1.30pm PDT)
Sun 7 Sept. – Closing Ceremony (7.00pm PDT)
The USA and GB&I Teams (Photo: Chris Keane / USGA)
USA Team
ETHAN FANG (21)
Hometown: Plano, Texas
University: Rising Junior at Oklahoma State
Selection: Performance / WAGR 25th July 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #3
STEWART HAGESTAD (34)
Hometown: Newport Beach, California
University: Graduate of Southern California
Selection: ITS Selection 17th August 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #44
MASON HOWELL (18)
Hometown: Thomasville, Georgia
University: Rising High School Senior (committed to Georgia)
Selection: U.S. Amateur Champion 17th August 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #143
BEN JAMES (22)
Hometown: Milford, Connecticut
University: Rising Senior at Virginia
Selection: WAGR 18th June 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #2
JACKSON KOIVUN (20)
Hometown: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
University: Rising Junior at Auburn
Selection: WAGR 18th June 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #1
MICHAEL LA SASSO (21)
Hometown: Raleigh, North Carolina
University: Rising Senior at Ole Miss
Selection: WAGR 18th June 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #9
JACOB MODLESKI (21)
Hometown: Noblesville, Indiana
University: Rising Junior at Notre Dame
Selection: ITS Selection 17th August 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #13
TOMMY MORRISON (21)
Hometown: Dallas, Texas
University: Rising Senior at Texas
Selection: ITS Selection 17th August 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #6
PRESTON STOUT (21)
Hometown: Richardson, Texas
University: Rising Junior at Oklahoma State
Selection: Performance / WAGR 25th July 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR:
JASE SUMMY (21)
Hometown: Keller, Texas
University: Rising senior at Oklahoma
Selection: ITS Selection 17th August 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #4
Alternates
MILES RUSSELL (16)
Hometown: Jacksonville Beach, Florida
University: Rising High School Junior (committed to Florida State)
Selection: ITS Selection 17th August 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #15
Max HERENDEEN (20)
Hometown: Bellevue, Washington
University: Rising Junior at Illinois
Selection: ITS Selection 17th August 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #18
Non-Playing Captain – Nathan SMITH (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA)
USA Walker Cup Team (Graphic: USGA)
GB&I Team (Age / WAGR on 3rd September 2025)
Cameron ADAM (22)
Hometown: Edinburgh Scotland
University: Graduate of Northwestern
Selection: WAGR 6th August 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #17
Eliot BAKER (22)
Hometown: Tiverton, England
University: Graduate of Hartpury
Selection: Captain’s Pick 18th August 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #104
Dominic CLEMONS (23)
Hometown: Cambridge, England
University: Graduate of Stetson (with spells at Hutchinson and Alabama)
Selection: WAGR 6th August 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #35
Charlie FORSTER (22)
Hometown: Basingstoke, England
University: Graduate of Long Beach State
Selection: Captain’s Pick 18th August 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #52
Connor GRAHAM (18)
Hometown: Blairgowrie, Scotland
University: Rising sophomore at Texas Tech
Selection: WAGR 6th August 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #42
Stuart GREHAN (32)
Hometown: Tullamore, Ireland
University: Graduate of Maynooth, IRL (Eastern Michigan 2012-13)
Selection: Captain’s Pick 18th August 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #149
Luke POULTER (21)
Hometown: Orlando, Florida (England)
University: Rising Junior at Florida
Selection: Captain’s Pick 18th August 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #27
Niall SHIELS DONEGAN (20)
Hometown: Mill Valley, California (Scotland)
University: Rising Junior at North Carolina (Northwestern 2023-25)
Selection: Captain’s Pick 18th August 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #63
Gavin TIERNAN (19)
Hometown: Dublin, Ireland
University: Rising sophomore at East Tennessee State
Selection: Captain’s Pick 18th August 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #465
Tyler WEAVER (20 / #10)
Hometown: Newmarket, England
University: Rising junior at Florida State
Selection: WAGR 6th August 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #10
Reserve
Caolan RAFFERTY (32)
Hometown: Dundalk, Ireland
University: Graduate of Maynooth, IRL
Selection: Captain’s Pick 18th August 2025
WAGR on 3rd September 2025 WAGR: #169
Non-Playing Captain – Dean ROBERTSON (Scotland)
GB&I Walker Cup Team (Graphic: The R&A)
The average WAGR ranking difference between the two sides is significant: 23.0 for the USA and 96.4 for GB&I.
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Cypress Point Club, Pebble Beach, California, USA
Cypress Point was designed by Alister MacKenzie in partnership with Robert Hunter and opened for play in 1928. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have been consulting architects since 2014.
2025 will be the second occasion that the match has been played here with the first occurring in 1981, USA winning 15.0-9.0.
Located alongside the Pacific Ocean it is one of the most picturesque and photographed golf courses in the world. A relatively short course by modern standards, with numerous risk and reward holes, it will provide a unique test to both sets of players.
Talking to The R&A ahead of the match Dean Robertson said “We are going to need our players to compete with what I call ‘strategic intelligence’. Approach play is going to be different. Most shots will be between 40-100 yards. So those shots will need to be controlled. You have to plot your way round, keeping the ball below the hole. Do that and you will be hard to beat.”
Hole 1: 420 yards (4)
Hole 2: 579 yards (5)
Hole 3: 155 yards (3)
Hole 4: 415 yards (4)
Hole 5: 486 yards (4)
Hole 6: 529 yards (5)
Hole 7: 170 yards (3)
Hole 8: 366 yards (4)
Hole 9: 289 yards (4)
FRONT NINE: 3,409 yards, Par 36
Hole 10: 475 yards (4)
Hole 11: 453 yards (4)
Hole 12: 403 yards (4)
Hole 13: 393 yards (4)
Hole 14: 391 yards (4)
Hole 15: 137 yards (3)
Hole 16: 233 yards (3)
Hole 17: 381 yards (4)
Hole 18: 345 yards (4)
BACK NINE: 3,211 yards, Par 34
TOTAL: 6,620 yards, Par 70
Course Rating 73.1 / Slope Rating 141
Cypress Point Course Routing (Graphic: USGA)
The USGA (2025) posted hole-by-hole drone footage of this famous course narrated by Condoleezza Rice ahead of the match.
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Match Notes
The USGA announced on 15th December 2016 that Cypress Point Club had agreed to host the 2025 match.
Due to the coastal nature of the Cypress Point site ticket sales were limited by the USGA with a one ticket for one day ballot utilised (priced at $200 each). Spectators were not allowed on holes 7-9 due to the sensitivity of the sand dunes and the tight fairways on the 8th and 9th holes.
Dean Robertson was the first professional golfer to captain a GB&I Walker Cup team. He played in 239 tournaments on the DP World Tour, winning the 1999 Italian Open and earning €1,884,270 in prize money over 13 years.
Robertson invited Raymond Russell, who was a Walker Cup teammate in 1993, and Kath O’Connor, a Welsh International and Callaway Next Generation representative, to assist him. Dr. John Mathers was brought in to advise on mental skills with Amy O’Donnell advising on nutrition. The R&A’s Euan Mordaunt managed the team.
Ireland’s Stuart Grehan, 32 and now employed as a financial advisor for DFP Pension Investments in Dundalk, is a reinstated amateur having quit the professional ranks in October 2024. He returned to amateur competition in April 2025 with the goal of playing in the 2026 Walker Cup at Lahinch. However, after winning the Irish Open and Close Amateur Championships he was selected for the 2025 team. In 2016 he represented GB&I in the St. Andrews Trophy and Europe in the Arnold Palmer Cup matches. After missing out on selection for the 2017 Walker Cup team due to an elbow injury he returned to the GB&I fold in July at this year’s St. Andrews Trophy match in Spain.
The GB&I team’s preparation included a visit to the Stanford University golf facility, an early course walk at Cypress Point with caddies, a few balls, a putter and a wedge, a round at The Hay at Pebble Beach (a nine hole short course where they beat the USA Team in a fun competition), a round at Monterrey Peninsula Country Club before three days of work at the host venue leading into the match. In an attempt to pace themselves and conserve energy the team rested on the Tuesday of match week.
GB&I’s Luke Poulter, enjoyed an exciting start to his Thursday practice round. He holed out from 110 yards for an eagle on the 1st hole and followed it up with a hole-in-one on the 155 yard 3rd.
USA’s Mason Howell made an albatross 2 on the par 5 579 yard 2nd Hole in his Friday practice round. The reigning U.S. Amateur champion hit a 6-iron 237 yards for his second shot.
Jackson Koivun was born and grew up in San Jose 75 miles north east of Cypress Point but his family moved to North Carolina when he was 17. Therefore it was a GB&I player who lived the closest of the players on both teams to this year’s USA venue. Niall Shiels Donegan emigrated with his parents from Scotland when he was 3 years old and now resides 140 miles north of Cypress Point in Mill Valley, near San Francisco. He also benefitted from home town advantage when he was very well supported during his run to the semi-finals of the U.S. Amateur Championship played a few weeks before this match at The Olympic Club. Charlie Forster has just graduated from Long Beach State University and Stewart Hagestad is from Newport Beach and a University of Southern California graduate so they also knew Californian conditions well.
Three of the GB&I player’s had noteworthy fathers. Luke Poulter is the son of English professional and seven-time Ryder Cup star Ian, who hosted a barbecue for the team on the Wednesday evening. Tyler Weaver’s father Jason was a British flat racing jockey with over 1,000 winners to his name and is now a respected television presenter and pundit. Niall Shiels Donegan’s father, Lawrence, was a bass player in The Bluebells and Lloyd Cole & The Commotions in the 1980’s before becoming a journalist for The Scotsman and The Guardian and thereafter a successful writer.
Two sets of 2024/25 college teammates played together in foursomes in this Walker Cup match. Oklahoma State’s Ethan Fang and Preston Stout and Northwestern Cameron Adam (who graduated in May) and Niall Shiels Donegan (who has now transferred to North Carolina this summer)
Stewart Hagestad took his Walker Cup points tally to eight at Cypress Point moving him up to tied 10th, with Charlie Coe, on USA’s all-time list.
Nineteen of the twenty players in the match produced at least one point. Dominic GB&I’s Clemons (W0 L2) was the exception losing his opening foursomes game and his closing singles on Sunday.
The Walker Cup Society reported that 56 past players, 49 from USA and 7 from GB&I, had attended the match at Cypress Point.
North Carolina-based clothing company Peter Millar was engaged by the USGA and The R&A to outfit both teams for the Cypress Point match.
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The R&A arranged two training sessions for players under consideration prior to the match.
The first took place at Cypress Point G.C. on 30-31 October 2024. U.S. college based players Cameron ADAM (SCO), Dominic CLEMONS (SCO), Charlie FORSTER (ENG), Connor GRAHAM (SCO), Gregor GRAHAM (SCO), Sean KEELING (IRL), Calum SCOTT (SCO) and Niall SHIELS DONEGAN (SCO) attended this get together.
On 2-3 June 2025 a second meeting was held at Dunbarnie Golf Links ahead of the St. Andrews Links Trophy being played nearby in Fife. Potential GB&I players Cameron ADAM (SCO), Eliot BAKER (ENG), Jack BIGHAM (ENG), Tomi BOWEN (WAL), Seb CAVE (ENG), Dominic CLEMONS (SCO), Matt DODD-BERRY (ENG), Sam EASTERBROOK (ENG), Matt ROBERTS (WAL), Niall SHIELS DONEGAN (SCO), Harley SMITH (ENG) and Freddie TURNELL (ENG) were all in attendance.
GB&I Walker Cup Party (Photo: Dunbarnie Golf Links)
Leading GB&I players Charlie FORSTER (ENG), Connor GRAHAM (SCO), Luke POULTER (ENG) and Tyler WEAVER (ENG) were unable to attend as they had been selected for the Arnold Palmer Cup International Team who were playing USA at Congaree G.C. in South Carolina on 5-7 June 2025.
The USGA’s International Team Selection (ITS) Working Group arranged a USA Walker Cup practice session on 14th-16th December 2024. The players played at McArthur Golf Club, Seminole Golf Club and The Bear’s Club in Florida.
Evan BECK (Virginia), Parker BELL (Florida), Blades BROWN* (Tennessee), Luke CLANTON (Florida), Ethan FANG (Texas), Stewart HAGESTAD, (California), Max HERENDEEN (Washington), Ben JAMES (Connecticut), Noah KENT (Florida), Jackson KOIVUN (N. Carolina), Michael LA SASSO (N. Carolina), Bryan LEE (Virginia), Tommy MORRISON (Texas), Jase SUMMY (Oklahoma), Brendan VALDES (Florida) and Jackson VAN PARIS (N. Carolina) were invited to attend. 17 year old Blades Brown decided to forego college and turn pro shortly before the event and was replaced by Carson BACHA (Pennsylvania).
ME
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