186. 2025 GB&I Walker Cup Team Is Announced

18th August 2025

The Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup team was announced at 2.00pm today by The R&A and captain Dean Robertson.

In line with the stated team selection criteria Tyler WEAVER (ENG) #11, Cameron ADAM (SCO) #21, Dominic CLEMONS (ENG) #41 and Connor GRAHAM (SCO) #44 were automatically selected on the 6th August 2025 based on their World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) on that date.

As expected Eliot BAKER (ENG), Charlie FORSTER (ENG), Stuart GREHAN (IRL), Luke POULTER (ENG), Niall SHIELS DONEGAN (SCO) and Gavin TIERNAN (IRL) were invited to make up the remainder of the team. Unusually these six players have clearly separated themselves from the remainder of the pack in recent months so I believe the selection will have been a straight forward one.

Caolan RAFFERTY (IRL) will be the team’s reserve.

Robertson said “This talented team represents the very best in skill, unity, resilience and determination and each player is thoroughly deserving of the opportunity to compete in the Walker Cup for Great Britain and Ireland. I’ve been watching the players over a long period to understand their personalities and attributes to meet the demands presented by Cypress Point. We are underdogs but I’m confident we are equipped to compete at the highest level and will give it our best shot. We are travelling to Cypress Point to embrace the challenge, honour the legacy of the Walker Cup and aim to make history by reclaiming this famous trophy.”

GB&I Walker Cup Team (Graphic: The R&A)

GB&I Player Profiles

Cameron ADAM (22) – Royal Burgess, Scotland
Recently graduated from Northwestern University.
Left-handed.
Winner of the 2025 St. Andrews Links Trophy. Won all four of his games.
Qualified for the 153rd Open at Royal Portrush via The Open Amateur Series.
Member of the victorious 2025 GB&I St. Andrews Trophy team.

Eliot BAKER (22) – Tiverton, England
Led England to 2025 Men’s Home Internationals success (P6 W5 L1)
Winner of the 2025 Scottish Men’s Open Championship by 7 shots.
Winner of the 2025 Portuguese Int. Men’s Amateur Championship.
Member of the victorious 2025 GB&I St. Andrews Trophy team.

Dominic CLEMONS (23) – Gog Magog, England
Member of the 2024 & 2025 GB&I St. Andrews Trophy teams.
Member of the 2025 European Bonallack Trophy team.
Qualified for The 2024 Open Championship.
Runner-up in the 2024 Amateur Championship.
Won the 2024 Scottish Men’s Open Championship by 17 shots.
Won the Daytona Beach Intercollegiate and Folds of Honour Collegiate in 2024.

Charlie FORSTER (22) – Basingstoke, England
Recently graduated from Long Beach State.
Member of the 2024 & 2025 GB&I St. Andrews Trophy teams.
Member of the International Team at the 2025 Arnold Palmer Cup.
Won the Lake Las Vegas Invitational and Wyoming Cowboy Classic in 2025.

Connor GRAHAM (18) – Blairgowrie, Scotland
Rising sophomore at Texas Tech University.
Member of the 2024 & 2025 GB&I St. Andrews Trophy teams.
Qualified for the 153rd Open at Royal Portrush.
Stroke play medalist in the 2024 and 2025 Amateur Championships.
Member of the International Team at the 2025 Arnold Palmer Cup.
Member of the 2023 GB&I Walker Cup, the youngest player ever
Member of the Europe Junior Ryder Cup Teams.

Stuart GREHAN (32) – County Louth, Ireland
Turned pro in Oct. 2017, reinstated as an amateur in Apr. 2025.
Winner of the 2025 Irish Open and Close Amateur Championships.
Member of the victorious 2025 GB&I St. Andrews Trophy team, having previously played in the 2016 match.

Luke POULTER (21) – Woburn, England
Rising junior at University of Florida.
Member of the victorious 2025 GB&I St. Andrews Trophy team.
Member of the International Team at the 2025 Arnold Palmer Cup.
Won the Schenkel Invitational U.S. collegiate event in 2025.

Niall SHIELS DONEGAN (20) – Meadow Club (California, USA), Scotland
Rising junior at North Carolina after transferring from Northwestern.
Semi-Finalist at the 2025 U.S. Amateur Championship.
4th in this year’s St Andrews Links Trophy.
Qualified for the knockout stages of The Amateur Championship in 2024 and 2025.

Gavin TIERNAN (19) – County Louth, Ireland
Rising sophomore at East Tennessee State University.
Runner-up in the 2025 Amateur Championship at Royal St. George’s, England.
Best Irish player at the 2025 Men’s Home Internationals (P6 W4 H1 L1)
Member of the victorious 2025 GB&I St. Andrews Trophy team.

Tyler WEAVER (20) – Bury St Edmunds, England
Rising junior at Florida State University.
Played in the 2025 U.S. Open Championship.
Member of the victorious 2025 GB&I St. Andrews Trophy team.
Member of the International Team at the 2025 Arnold Palmer Cup.
Winner of the 2025 Cabo Collegiate event.

ME.

Copyright © Mark Eley. All rights reserved.

184. GB&I’s Four WAGR Picks Are Confirmed

6th August 2025

In line with The R&A’s stated team selection criteria Tyler WEAVER (ENG), Cameron ADAM (SCO), Dominic CLEMONS (ENG) and Connor GRAHAM (SCO) have today automatically been selected for the 2025 Great Britain & Ireland (GB&I) Walker Cup team.

The policy stated that ‘the top 5 GB&I players in the WAGR on Wednesday 6th August with a minimum divisor of 18’ would be selected for the team.

WAGR As At 6th August 2025 – Europe Only Extract

As can be seen above GB&I’s leading five players in WAGR today are :-

Tyler WEAVER (20) – Bury St Edmunds G.C., England #11
Cameron ADAM (21) – Royal Burgess G.C., Scotland WAGR #21
Luke POULTER (21) – Woburn G.C., England #29
Dominic CLEMONS (23) – Gog Magog G.C., England #41
Connor GRAHAM (18) – Blairgowrie G.C., Scotland #44

As Luke POULTER does not meet the ‘minimum divisor of 18.0000’ rule he has not earned automatic selection today. However, I don’t think he has anything to worry about as given his recent performances his selection must now be considered a formality.

Poulter’s WAGR place is not transferable to the sixth ranked GB&I player, namely Charlie FORSTER (ENG), and will now become an additional Captain’s pick.

The remaining six players will be selected by the Captain, Dean Robertson, and announced by The R&A on 18th August 2025.

Eliot BAKER (ENG), Charlie FORSTER (ENG), Stuart GREHAN (IRL), Luke POULTER (ENG) and Gavin TIERNAN (IRL) are clearly in the box seats for five of these spots. After all they were all picked by Robertson only last month for the St. Andrews Trophy match where GB&I beat Continent of Europe 16.5-8.5 in Madrid.

Jack BIGHAM (ENG), Oliver CAGE (ENG), Matthew DODD-BERRY (ENG), Daniel HAYES (ENG), Matt MCCLEAN (IRL) and Niall SHIELS DONEGAN (SCO) seem to have the best chance of breaking into the discussion as they are amongst the 14 GB&I players who are competing at next week’s U.S. Amateur Championship in San Francisco.

ME.

Copyright © Mark Eley. All rights reserved.

181. The R&A Select The 2025 GB&I St. Andrews Trophy Team

4th July 2025

The R&A and Captain Dean Robertson have announced the nine players who will represent Great Britain & Ireland (GB&I) in the 2025 St Andrews Trophy match against the Continent of Europe.

The match will take place on 24-25 July at Real Club de la Puerta de Hierro in Madrid, Spain.

The GB&I St. Andrews Trophy Team (Graphic: The R&A)

The GB&I team consists of : –
Cameron ADAM (21) – Royal Burgess, Scotland WAGR #29*
Eliot BAKER (22) – Tiverton, England #134
Dominic CLEMONS (23) – Gog Magog, England #41*
Charlie FORSTER (22) – Basingstoke, England #58
Connor GRAHAM (18) – Blairgowrie, Scotland #40*
Stuart GREHAN (32) County Louth, Ireland #845
Luke POULTER (21) – Woburn, England #49
Gavin TIERNAN (19) – County Louth, Ireland #652
Tyler WEAVER (20) – Bury St Edmunds, England #14*

*Adam, Clemons, Graham and Weaver all received automatic selections based on their 2nd July 2025 WAGR rankings. The other players were Captain’s Picks.

Dominic Clemons, Charlie Forster and Connor Graham all played in the 2024 match at Royal Porthcawl G.C.. Stuart Grehan played eight years ago in the tied 2016 match at Prince’s G.C.

Cameron Adam, Eliot Baker, Stuart Grehan, Luke Poulter, Gavin Tiernan and Tyler Weaver will all make their GB&I debuts.

Whilst certainly worthy of being in the mix the selections of Irish pair, Grehan and Tiernan, are a little surprising as respectively there are 47 and 37 GB&I players ranked above them in the current WAGR. Grehan, who turned pro in October 2017, only regained his amateur status in April 2025 whilst Tiernan has clearly been given considerable credit for reaching the Final of The Amateur Championship.

With the GB&I selectors having now shown their hand it appears that their other leading players, such as Jack BIGHAM (ENG), Seb CAVE (ENG), Thomas HIGGINS (IRL), Zach LITTLE (ENG), Tom OSBORNE (ENG) Niall SHIELS DONEGAN (SCO) and Freddie TURNELL (ENG), will need to produce some good results in the next six weeks to force their way into the Walker Cup picture.

The St. Andrews Trophy (Photo: Suomen Golfliitto / Finnish Golf Union)

The re-jigging of the amateur calendar means that the normally biennial contest is being played just a year after Europe beat GB&I 16.0-9.0 in Wales.

The timing of the match is advantageous to GB&I, at least in theory, as it comes just over a month before the Walker Cup match against USA and will give the players the opportunity to get to know each other better and to compete as a team.

ME.

Copyright © Mark Eley. All rights reserved.

146. The R&A Announce A 19 Player Squad For The 2023 Walker Cup

16th December 2022

The R&A have announced an initial squad of 19 players for the Great Britain and Ireland (GB&I) team to play the USA in the 49th Walker Cup match.

Here is a list of the players with their ages, golf clubs, nationalities and current world rankings (in alphabetical order): –

James ASHFIELD (21) – Delamere Forest, Wales
– SPWAR #204 / WAGR #195 *

Josh BERRY (17) – Doncaster, England
– SPWAR #199 / WAGR #960

Barclay BROWN (21) – Hallamshire / Stanford University – England
– SPWAR #80 / WAGR #34

Archie DAVIES (21) – Carlisle / East Tennessee State University – Wales
– SPWAR #64 / WAGR #65

Arron EDWARDS-HILL (23) – Chelmsford – England
– SPWAR #37 / WAGR #135

Hugh FOLEY (25) – Royal Dublin – Ireland
– SPWAR #62 / WAGR #142

John GOUGH (24) – Beaconsfield – England
– SPWAR #25 / WAGR #20

Connor GRAHAM (16) – Blairgowrie – Scotland
– SPWAR #146 / WAGR #249

Josh HILL (18) – Trump International Dubai – England
– SPWAR #322 / WAGR #55

Frank KENNEDY (17) – Trump National Jupiter – England
– SPWAR #274 / WAGR #127

Matthew MCCLEAN (29) – Malone – Ireland
– SPWAR #53 / WAGR #75

Robert MORAN (23) – Castle – Ireland
– SPWAR #70 / WAGR #101

Liam NOLAN (22) – Galway – Ireland
– SPWAR #135 / WAGR #335

Peter O’KEEFFE (41) – Douglas – Ireland
– SPWAR #155 / WAGR #298

Mark POWER (22) – Kilkenny / Wake Forest University – Ireland
– SPWAR #233 / WAGR #125

Calum SCOTT (19) – Nairn / Texas Tech. University – Scotland
– SPWAR #49 / WAGR #59

Dylan SHAW-RADFORD (17) – Huddersfield – England
– SPWAR #318 / WAGR #360

Harley SMITH (17) – The Rayleigh Club – England
– SPWAR #154 / WAGR #255

Tyler WEAVER (17) – Bury St Edmunds – England
– SPWAR #309 / WAGR #477

* Amateur rankings as at 16th December 2022.

Nine players from England, six from Ireland and two each from Scotland and Wales have been selected.

Barclay Brown and Mark Power are both aiming to play in their second Walker Cup having previously been selected at Seminole in 2021.

The final ten-man GB&I team will be announced in August just a few weeks before the match starts.

Whilst there are no major surprises in this squad announcement players who may consider themselves unlucky not to be included, assuming they haven’t unbeknown to me expressed an intention to turn pro shortly, include (in alphabetical order):-

Jack BIGHAM (ENG) – SPWAR #339 / WAGR #308

Jack BROOKS (ENG) – SPWAR #124 / WAGR #423

Paul CONROY (IRL) – SPWAR #162 / WAGR #724

Charlie CROCKETT (ENG) – SPWAR #161 / WAGR #421

Sam EASTERBROOK (ENG) – SPWAR #259 / WAGR #907

Will HOPKINS (ENG) – SPWAR #217 / WAGR #625

Alex MAGUIRE (IRL) – SPWAR #137 / WAGR #486

Gregor TAIT (SCO) – SPWAR #179 / WAGR #763

GB&I captain Stuart Wilson said, “We have selected a talented group of players who are key to our preparations for the Walker Cup and share our determination to win back the trophy from the United States of America.”

We will be getting together in St Andrews so that the players can really get to grips with the Old Course, understand its subtleties and learn from those individuals who have vast experience of the links.”

Our aim is to select a team which will give us the best chance of winning the match next year. In that regard, we will continue to monitor the players’ performances in amateur events over the coming months and provide them with support and advice. There is also still time for golfers not included in the squad to play their way into our plans and we will be keeping a close eye on their results too.”

The 2023 match is scheduled to be played on the Old Course in St. Andrews on the weekend of  2nd – 3rd September.

The second Walker Cup match, and first in Great Britain, was played on the Old Course on 18th and 19th May 1923 so the forthcoming fixture will mark the anniversary of this occasion.

ME.

Copyright © Mark Eley. All rights reserved.