Future Venues – Walker Cup

144. Chicago G.C. To Host The 2036 Walker Cup Match

1st November 2022

The USGA has announced that the 2036 Walker Cup match will be played at Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Illinois.

Chicago Golf Club (Photo: USGA / Fred Vuich)

The USGA made the announcement alongside confirmation that Chicago would also be staging the 2033 U.S. Women’s Open.

Founded in 1892 and one of the five founding member clubs of the USGA Chicago G.C. has previously hosted 12 USGA championships, namely the U.S. Open (1897, 1900 and 1911); U.S. Amateur (1897, 1905, 1909 and 1912); U.S. Women’s Amateur (1903); Walker Cup (1928 and 2005); U.S. Senior Amateur (1979) and U.S. Senior Women’s Open (2018).

USA won both of the Walker Cup matches played at Chicago G.C.; 11-1 in 1928 and 12½-11½ in 2005 to reclaim the Cup after three straight defeats.

“Hosting the best players in the world – men, women, amateur and professional – for USGA events is a point of pride for our club and a significant part of our long history,” said Herb Getz, Chicago Golf Club president. “We very much look forward to building upon that history and continuing our valued partnership with the USGA on an even larger stage well into the future.”

ME.

141. Walker Cup Moves To Even Years From 2026

21st March 2022

The R&A and the USGA have announced that the Walker Cup match will be contested in even years from 2026 onwards.

The 49th Walker Cup match will be contested in September 2023 at St Andrews and the 50th at Cypress Point in September 2025.

The R&A had not yet announced their 2027 venue but given that this match has now been brought forward to 2026 a statement in this regard can be expected shortly.

The above calendar change means the USGA has confirmed that the matches previously scheduled by them for Bandon Dunes in 2029 and Oakmont Country Club in 2033 will now be played in 2028 and 2032 respectively.The move has been driven by the International Golf Federation moving the World Amateur Team Championship to odd years from 2023, a decision which was announced in 2020. This was in turn caused by golf returning to the Summer Olympic Games schedule in 2016 and now taking place in even years.

Phil Anderton, Chief Development Officer at The R&A, said, “We believe that this change creates the best schedule for the players and for the Walker Cup match itself. The Walker Cup is at the forefront of men’s amateur golf and we want to ensure that its status is reflected in its position in the golfing calendar.”

“This is just the next step as we make sure team competitions have a balanced schedule and in this case, encourage participation by the world’s best amateurs without unnecessary conflict,” said John Bodenhamer, Chief Championships Officer at USGA.ME.

139. Oakmont C.C. To Host The 2032 Walker Cup Match

11th August 2021

The USGA has announced that the 2032* Walker Cup match will be staged at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania.

The USGA made the announcement during the U.S. Amateur Championship which is currently being played at Oakmont.

Oakmont Country Club

Following recent commitments to both Pinehurst Resort and Bandon Dunes Golf Resort the USGA has now also undertaken to bring a number of its future Championships to Pennsylvania and in particular the state’s two premier courses, Oakmont C.C. and Merion Golf Club.

Oakmont has to date hosted 20 major Championships, more than any other course in USA, except for Augusta National Golf Club, the permanent home of The Masters. The 2021 U.S. Amateur being its 17th USGA Championship – nine United States Opens (1927, 1935, 1953, 1962, 1973, 1983, 1994, 2007, 2016), five U.S. Amateurs (1919, 1925, 1938, 1969, 2003, 2021) and two U.S. Women’s Open (1992, 2010). In addition it has also staged three U.S. PGA Championships (1922, 1951, 1978).

Oakmont and Merion are iconic in every sense of the word – they’re in rare company in golf and continue to test the best in the game,” said John Bodenhamer, USGA senior managing director, Championships. “We’re making history and kicking off a new era for our national championships in Pennsylvania, and we couldn’t be more excited for what lies ahead.”

*On 21st March 2022 The R&A and USGA announced that the Walker Cup match would move to even years from 2026 to avoid future conflicts with the World Amateur Team Championships, which will be played in odd years beginning in 2023. The USGA had already announced its venues for 2029 and 2033 at this point so these two matches were brought forward by a year.

ME.

138. Bandon Dunes To Host The 2028 Walker Cup Match

20th July 2021

The USGA has announced that the 2028* Walker Cup match will be staged at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon.

Neither the course – Bandon has five – or the match dates have been confirmed.

18th Hole, Bandon Dunes Course (Photo: Bandon Dunes Golf Resort)

The USGA has entered into a partnership with Bandon Dunes which will see 13 of its championships / international matches staged at the resort between 2022 and 2045.

The Walker Cup will be played in 2029 and the Curtis Cup in 2038.

Bandon Dunes has previously hosted the 2006 Curtis Cup (Pacific Dunes), the 2007 U.S. Mid-Amateur (Bandon Dunes), the 2011 U.S. Amateur Public Links & U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links (Old Macdonald & Bandon Trails), the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four Ball (Pacific Dunes), the 2019 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball (Old Macdonald & Pacific Dunes) and the 2020 U.S. Amateur (Bandon Dunes & Bandon Trails).

John Bodenhamer, USGA Senior Managing Director of Championships, said “With five championship-caliber courses and incredible support from the resort’s ownership, Bandon Dunes is the perfect location for these USGA championships. Mike Keiser has been an incredible advocate for amateur golf and his ongoing support for the USGA and our mission served as the vision for this partnership. We are excited to work together for years to come.”

ME.

84. St. Andrews To Host the 2023 Walker Cup Match

26th February 2018

The R&A today announced that St. Andrews will host the 49th Walker Cup match in 2023.

The match is to be played on the weekend of 2nd and 3rd September.

This will be the ninth time that the Old Course has hosted the Walker Cup. No other course has hosted the match more than twice.

The previous St. Andrews matches took place in 1923, 1926, 1934, 1938, 1947, 1955, 1971 and 1975. USA won 6 of these matches with GB&I picking up two victories in 1938 and 1971, their first and second.

The Old Course, St. Andrews

To read the full R&A Announcement click here – St. Andrews To Host 2023 Walker Cup

ME.

37. Future Venues: Seminole Confirmed And Cypress Point Announced

15th December 2016

It’s not very easy to top the confirmation of Seminole Golf Club as your 2021 Walker Cup venue but the United States Golf Association (USGA) managed to do it today.

Probably fearing the news would break elsewhere soon, as it did with Seminole in 2013, the USGA saw fit to also announce the Cypress Point Club as it’s 2025 host course.

Whilst Florida is normally great for golf all year round the risk of Autumn storms, and possibly worse, has led the USGA to move the 2021 match to 8th – 9th May.

As a result of the above 2021 will be the first time the match will be played in the Spring in the USA. Traditionally every USA home match has been played in late August or September.

The Walker Cup was always held in May in Great Britain & Ireland (GB&I) up until Portmarnock Golf Club hosted the 1991 match when it moved to the September berth we are now familiar with.

The 8th – 9th May will be the earliest date in the calendar the match has ever been played in it’s entire history.

Selection for the 2021 GB&I team will be more challenging than normal for The R&A given that very few major events will have been contested by that time in our season. From a US perspective some changes may also need to be made to that year’s NCAA Championship schedule which normally concludes in May.

The 50th Walker Cup match in 2025 will be played on the Monterey Peninsula, back in it’s September slot, at the Cypress Point Club in California.

This will be the second time Cypress Point has staged the Walker Cup match with the USA winning the previous encounter 15-9 in 1981.

Both courses opened in 1929 and to this day remain amongst the most private in the world as you can clearly see from the photos below.

Members Only

Nevertheless the opportunity to explore first hand both Seminole, designed by Donald Ross, and Cypress Point, with it’s strong Alister MacKenzie connections, will be a treat that many golf supporters will want to take up in the years ahead.

For more information on this topic take a look at my website page – Future Venues.