Category Archives: Match Play

The Walker Cup is The Ryder Cup of Amateur Golf (Sept 5-6, 2026)

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If you love the Ryder Cup then you need to tune into the Golf Channel this weekend to watch the Walker Cup. This year the Walk Cup is being played in Ireland at Lahinch Golf Club (The Old Course) so be ready to get up early if you want to watch the early matches live. Golf Channel times:

Saturday, September 5: 3:30 am to 8 am (Morning Foursomes); 9 am to 2 pm (Afternoon Singles). There are four foursome matches and and eight singles matches

Sunday, September 6: 3:30 am to 8 am (Morning Foursomes); 9 am to 2 pm (Afternoon Singles). There are four foursome morning matches and 10 singles matches.

I assume the Golf Channel will rebroadcast in the evening but I can’t find any times listed.

The Teams: On paper the USA should win over GB&I (Great Britain and Ireland) because the world amateur golf rankings for the USA team members are all in the top 25 and GB&I team members world amateur golf rankings are not as strong. GB&I does have two top ten players (Tyler Weaver and Luke Poulter) but the rest of the team are not as high in the rankings.

The USA team really is impressive and if you want to learn more about each member you can read Team USA bios on the USGA website. The website also has the team GB&I bios.

Now I think there are a number of reasons the GB&I team can give the USA a run for their money:

(1) It’s a home game for GB&I which always seems to make a difference.

(2) A few of the top players on the USA side have not shown very good form in recent big amateur events. Specifically, the #1 player in the WAGR (World Amateur Golf Rankings) Preston Stout and #4 Ethan Fang did not make the cut to match play at the U.S. Amateur.

(3) If GB&I can get off to a fast start and win the majority of the alternate shot matches that would help; we all remember how that was the advantage for Team Europe at the most recent Ryder Cup.

Cheering for the USA

Team USA (defending champions) needs 13 points to win and GB&I need 13.5 points to win. I am definitely cheering for Team USA. I want to see good golf on both sides so that it is exciting to watch. I never really enjoy blowouts (unless the points don’t really indicate the closeness of matches). I want to see it come down to the single matches on the last day to decide the winning team.

Next UP – THE SOLHEIM CUP is the following week from September 7 to 13, 2026. It is being hosted by Team Europe in Netherlands at Bernardus Golf. And yes, I will post a blog post next week with all the details.

U.S. Amateur – August 10 -13 at Merion Golf Club

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The U.S. Women’s Amateur was just completed on Sunday August 9 with Asterisk Talley winning 8&6. Now it is time for the most prestigious amateur men’s event – the U.S. Amateur.

Today, Monday August 10 the stroke play has already begun with 312 competitors playing two courses; Merion Golf Club and Philadelphia Country Club. The match play portion of the championship will be played at Merion Golf Club. Match play will begin on Wednesday with the round of 64. You can follow live scoring on the USGA website.

How To Watch: Peacock and Golf Channel will be broadcasting the following match play rounds:

Wednesday, August 12
Round of 64: Peacock/NBCSN, 3 p.m.-6 p.m.
Thursday, August 13
Round of 16: Peacock/NBCSN, 3 p.m.-6 p.m.
Friday, August 14
Quarterfinals: Peacock/NBCSN, 3 p.m.-6 p.m.
Saturday, August 15
Semifinals: Peacock, 3 p.m.-4 p.m.
Semifinals: NBC, 4 p.m.-6 p.m.
Sunday, August 16
Championship Match (Afternoon 18), Peacock, 3 p.m.-4 p.m.
Championship Match (Afternoon 18): NBC, 4 p.m.-6 p.m. 

Players to Watch: There are so many amazing young golfers but let’s start with the reigning U.S. Open Champion, Mason Howell. Howell is ranked 49th in the WAGR (World Amateur Golf Rankings) and plays college golf for the University of Georgia. I don’t think he will win back-to-back.

Other players that are top Amateurs are Preston Stout (#1 WAGR), Miles Russell (#3 WAGR), Luke Poulter (#4 WAGR) and the son of Ian Poulter. Ethan Fang (#9) and Luke Colton (#48) are Americans that also get a lot of press from the golf analysts.

I will also keep my eye on Stewart Hagestad who is 39, won the U.S. Mid-Am in 2016 and was the Low Amateur at the Masters with a T37 finish in 2017. He has also been on five Walker Cup teams including last years 2025 winning team.

The oldest player in the field is Mike McCoy (63). McCoy was the 2025 U.S. Senior Amateur Champion and that qualified him for the U.S. Amateur. He has had a very storied amateur career winning the 2022 British Senior Amateur Champion and the U.S. Mid-Amateur Champion in 2013, and two U.S. Four-Ball Championship in 2015 and 2019. Plus he has captained the Walk Cup. He has even more accomplishments that you can read in his bio from the Iowa Golf Association.

Finally the youngest players Landon Tudor and Bento Assis both 15 years old. Of course, there are a number of 16 year old golfers in the field (which speaks to the age of golfers with amazing games getting younger and younger).

SIDE NOTE: The youngest player in the U.S. Womens Amateur last week was Maggie Ma (14). She is from California and advanced to the quarterfinals where you played Asterisk Talley forcing the match to 19 holes where Talley took the win. That is very impressive considering Talley won the championship overall by 8&6..

So do you have a favorite golfer playing in the U.S. Amateur this week? I would like to see Miles Russell win since he was just the runner-up at the U.S. Junior Amateur. But it will be fun to watch all the golf and hopefully it will be an exciting Championship.

Week in Review: U.S. Jr. Amateur, Women’s Scottish Open, and Jackson Koivun

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There was lots of golf to watch this week and I was surprised at the outcomes in men’s amateur golf, the women’s professional game and the men’s professional game.

U.S. Jr. Amateur at Saucon Valley

The USGA championships are a grind with two days of stroke play to finish in the top 64 to advance to match play.

I was fully expecting Miles Russell to win the U.S. Amateur. He is ranked #1 in the AJGA (American Junior Golf Rankings) and #7 in WAGR (World Amateur Golf Rankings). Russell sailed through stroke play as “medalist” (meaning he finished in first place in stroke play).

In match play Russell won his first match 6 and 5, the next won 4 and 2, the next match won 2 up; and won his quarter final match 6 and 5 and his semifinal match 2 and 1. In the final, championship match, they play 36 holes (18 morning then lunch and 18 in the afternoon). Russell’s opponent was Noah Maclauchlan with an AJGA ranking of 31 and a WAGR of 2,047. Maclauchlan got into the championship as an alternate and did great finishing T39 to make it into stroke play.

Noah Maclauchlan won the U.S. Jr. Amateur against Miles Russell 6 and 5 (ending on the 31st hole). It was certainly nice to see the “under dog” win; but I also felt it was a very disappointing final. It was televised on golf channel and you could see that Russell was off his game all day (with a two-way miss). Russell fought hard but was down in the match the majority of the day. Frankly I feel like this is the problem with the national amateur championships being settled by match play. My opinion is that it just seems if you want to crown the best player in the world then you need to have the championship be stroke play.

Scottish Women’ Open

Jenny Shin won the Scottish Women’s Open. It is her first win in 10 years. Shin is Korean and her other win 10 years ago was the 2016 Volunteers of American Texas Shootout.

Happy for Shin but it was another odd tournament where the big names did not show up to the party. Nelly Korda finished T16 (+2), Lottie Woad finished T37 (+7), and Charley Hull finished T44 (+10). Now every player faced the same cold and windy conditions and only seven players were under par; Shin had two great rounds of 66 and 67 to start and that gave her a huge buffer going into Sunday so that even shooting 75 in the final round she was able to win at 9 under (two strokes ahead of second place.)

Let’s hope at the AIG Women’s Open (which follows the Scottish Open) the big names have a better week.

Jackson Koivun

You know the name Jackson Koivun if you follow college golf because he has been the top golfer for a few years; with an all time NCAA career scoring average record at 68.89 and won every major award for men in college golf. He helped Auburn win the NCAA D1 championship in June (of this year) and in his third PGA Tour tournament start this week he won the 3M Open with a score of 25 under par; and holding off world #1, Scottie Scheffler who finished 22 under par.

We have seen other players come out of PGA Tour University (a program that let’s the #1 college golfer go straight to the PGA Tour) and win (remember Nick Dunlap) but many of those players haven’t made much of a splash lately. Will Jackson Koivun be the “one in a million” that comes out and gives the current superstars a run for their money? A number of PGA Tour pro were asked about Koivun’s game. Most Pros just praised his game but the funniest reply I heard was from Ben Griffin who shared that he joked with Koivun (when he played with him while he was still an amateur), “Tell me when you are going to turn pro so I can plan my retirement.”

One final thing that was interesting, the reporter interviewing Koivun after the win asked what was written on his glove. He said “Confidence, Trust, and Dominate.” Here is the clip on Instagram

Tis’ the Season of Match Play

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If you love to watch match play then this is the time for you to make excuses to watch a lot of golf on TV. However to watch live you better be an early riser since all the events are in Europe in 2023. I assume the Golf Channel will have plenty of coverage leading up to the actual match play days but below is information on how to watch the actual match days (USA information only).

September 2 & 3: The Walker Cup

The Walker Cup is the amateur match play event with the top males amateur golfers from the United States and Great Britain & Ireland. It is organized by the USGA (the governing body of golf in the United States) and the R&A (the governing body of golf for the rest of the world and headquartered in St. Andrews, Scotland).

You can view the Walker Cup on the Golf Channel. The event is being contended at The Old Course at St. Andrews so that is a treat to see as a golf fan.

Day 1: Saturday, September 2 starting at 8 am (est) Also, it will be rebroadcasted Saturday night at 9 pm est.

Day 2: Sunday, September 3, starting at 8 am (est) to 2 pm on Golf Channel.

September 22 to 24: The Solheim Cup

The ladies take the stage at Finca Cortesín in Andalucía, Spain. The USA and Europe both have stellar teams so it should be an exiting event. The Solheim cup record is 10 USA and Europe 7 but Europe has won the last two meetings (2019 at Gleneagles in Scotland and 2021 at The Inverness Club in Ohio).

When to watch the coverage live on the Golf Channel

Day 1, Friday: 2 am to 1 pm (est)

Day 2, Saturday: 2 am to 1 pm (est)

Day 3, Sunday: 5 to 11 am (est)

My bet is that there will be replays later in the day if you don’t care about seeing it live.

September 29 to October 1: Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup is being contested at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, Rome, Italy. This will be the 44th event with the USA leading in the series (27-14-2) but Europe has won nine of the last 13 editions of the Ryder Cup. The first 39 years the matches were between the USA and GB&I (Great Britain and Ireland) but in 1979 the GB&I team was expanded to include all of Europe; thus making the matches more competitive.

It is early to confirm but here is the broadcast schedule I found online:

Friday, September 29 – USA Network, 1:30 am to Noon (est)

Saturday, September 30 – USA Network, 1:30 to 3 am (est) and NBC 3 am to Noon (est)

Sunday, October 1 – 5:30 am to 1 PM (est) on NBC

Side Bar: There is also the Junior Solheim Cup and Junior Ryder Cup but they are not televised. You can follow the scoring online at the respective websites for the events.