WAGR – Walker Cup

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.

120. The PGA Tour University Program Is Introduced

5th June 2020

On 1st June 2020 the PGA Tour announced its new PGA Tour University program.

The program is designed to improve the pathway for leading U.S. College golfers on to one of the PGA Tour’s satellite tours, namely the Korn Ferry Tour, Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica and PGA TOUR Series – China.

A PGA Tour University Ranking is to be introduced for NCAA Division I golfers from all countries who are completing their fourth year in college.

This Ranking will be based on the World Amateur Golf Ranking methodology and will only include NCAA Division I Men’s Golf events, official PGA Tour events and Major Championship performances in the preceding two years.

Performances in other leading amateur events, such as the Western Amateur, St. Andrews Links Trophy, European Amateur or South Beach International Amateur, will not be of assistance to a player in this Ranking.

Each player will also have to compete in a minimum of nine events, including the NCAA Division I Men’s Regional Championship, during their final Senior year.

The first PGA Tour University Ranking will be unveiled prior to the 2020-21 Division I season commencing with weekly updates provided every Thursday during the season.

Starting from 2021 the leading 5 players on the the final PGA Tour University Ranking List, produced after the conclusion of the NCAA Men’s Division I Golf Championship (normally early June), will be awarded full tour membership of the Korn Ferry Tour. Players finishing 6th to 15th will be entitled to play on one of the three other International Tours. From here players will eventually hope to finish in the top 25 on the Korn Ferry Tour’s annual points list to earn promotion to the PGA Tour.It will be interesting to see how the PGA Tour University program affects players’ attitudes towards the Walker Cup and the selection of teams in the coming years.

The PGA Tour have clearly given some thought to this. Within their FAQ’s they state that if a top 15 PGA Tour University ranked player wishes to remain amateur to be considered for that year’s Walker Cup (or World Amateur Team Championship) they must declare this in writing to the PGA Tour within three days following the release of the final list. They will then be able to participate in tournaments as a non-member prior to these major amateur competitions. I assume they will be allocated order of merit points in the normal way so they are not disadvantaged by doing so. Thereafter, players will have 10 days following the conclusion of these amateur events to join the Tours they are eligible for membership of.

The emergence of a new ranking, highlighting the players that the PGA Tour considers best suited to fast tracking in to their own tournaments, may also produce a different dynamic for the two team Walker Cup selection committees, particularly the USGA, with the USA likely to have more players in the top 15 (and 25) than GB&I.

The PGA Tour University program appears to be an important new development for the elite amateur game and is therefore worth keeping an eye on with regard to its future impact on the Walker Cup.

ME.

45. GB&I Amateur Golf Rankings – 31st March 2017

7th April 2017

The table below summarises the ranking positions of the Top 30 GB&I amateur golfers as at the end of March 2017.

The Golf Bible Combined Amateur Ranking (GBCAR), shown in the blue columns on the right, uses the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WGAR – yellow) and the Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking (SPWAR – green) to produce a composite ranking based on the average of the two main rankings.

As I have stated before my preference is for the SPWAR, which I consider to be far more accurate and therefore useful for team selections.

The table below looks at the Top 30 GB&I players listed in the SPWAR and reviews their ranking trend for the last 12 months.

I have expressed the opinion in previous articles that Connor SYME, Robert MACINTYRE and Scott GREGORY are already as good as selected for the GB&I Team for me.

In Quarter 1 Robin DAWSON, Liam JOHNSTON and Jack DAVIDSON have stepped forward most impressively.

Other players trending well in the SPWAR Top 20 include Craig HOWIE, Stuart GREHAN, Marco PENGE, Alex GLEESON, Jack SINGH BRAR, Daniel BROWN and David WICKS.

Whilst many factors go into selecting the 10 man GB&I Walker Cup team there is no question that the two world ranking lists provide an important foundation for the future discussions that will take place around the Committee table.

For more information on the Amateur Golf Rankings please click here – Golf Bible’s Rankings Page.