American captain Nathan Smith didn’t know it at the time, but he foretold what was to come on Sunday evening at the 51st Walker Cup.
“This is one of the greatest sporting events in the world, and we’re going to find out why this afternoon,” Smith said after the Americans swept the morning foursomes session to take a 9.5-6.5 lead at Lahinch.
Needing just 3.5 points to retain the cup and 4 to win, the Americans were on the verge of a sixth straight Walker Cup victory. After all, GB&I had only mounted two Sunday singles comebacks in Walker Cup history, and neither of those teams faced a mountain as large as the one the 2026 team faced.
But the beauty of sports is that anything can happen. It’s one of the only truly unscripted things left in a world ruled by social media, influencers and a tidal wave of reality T.V. shows.
So, as the 10 singles matches set out at Lahinch on Sunday afternoon, GB&I believed it could perform its own version of Team Europe’s Ryder Cup “Miracle at Medinah” comeback in 2012. They won the first four matches to take the lead, capture momentum and get the Irish crowd behind them. But after Ryder Cowan and Josiah Gilbert won their matches, GB&I needed everything to go its way to complete a historic comeback. If one domino didn’t fall, a sixth straight loss was certain.
American Kihei Akina needed to miss a short birdie putt on 18. He did. Niall Sheils Donegan had to follow with a par putt of his own to halve the match. Check. Eliot Baker had to become just the second player ever to beat Stewart Hagestad in Walker Cup singles. He did that with a birdie on 18. They needed Miles Russell to three-putt from 50 feet on 17, miss a 15-foot par putt on 18 and have Connor Graham make a six-foot birdie putt on 18 to halve the match. Done and done.
Even after all of that, GB&I still needed Josh Hill, the lowest-ranked player on either team, to beat World No. 2 amateur Tyler Watts on 18 to win the cup. Watts lost his tee shot left and had to gauge out. He left his third shot 20 feet from the cup for birdie. Hill put his second in the greenside bunker and played a magnificent, lengthy bunker shot to five feet for his third. When Watts’ birdie attempt missed, Hill put the exclamation point on a historic win by rolling in his birdie putt.
Smith was right, the Walker Cup is indeed one of the greatest sporting events in the world and, as my colleague Michael Bamberger wrote, has been making its case as the best team event in golf. All that was on display at Lahinch. The Walker Cup’s secret sauce is that it doesn’t bother with crowds and infrastructure and allows the event to go to places like Lahinch or, last year, Cypress Point. It’s a pure event for the diehard golf fans. One that’s steeped in the DNA of what golf was originally meant to be about before billions of dollars and television broadcasts and commercial interests started to mold pro golf into something different.
The Walker Cup is match-play golf in its purest form, with limited crowds — 8,000 were on hand per day at Lahinch — at some of the world’s great gems.
Sunday was the Walker Cup at its finest. It delivered high drama and ended with the Americans suffering a devastating collapse as the Irish crowd in attendance went bonkers. Even that showed what makes the Walker Cup different. Historic losses in sports often lead to tears and anger and sadness. The negative emotions that our current social-media scrolling society seems to lap up.
But as Smith and a team of young American stars digested a loss that was unthinkable hours before, there was none of that. There was no one taking the blame or rueing a heartbreak that they’ll have to live with for the rest of their lives. They were sad, yes. How could they not be? But when asked about their fresh scar, Smith, Cowan and Hagestad all leaned on a different emotion, one that speaks to how meaningful this event is, both to them and the game.
Gratitude.
“It sucks. It sucks losing, but at the end of the day, someone’s got to lose,” Cowan said. “What we can take from it is what means the most. Just being around all these guys, being around Stew, is a blessing. It really is. We had a great week. No matter where we ended up, we had an amazing week, and I feel like we all grew together as a team.”
The 35-year-old Hagestad, who was a member of the previous five victorious teams, echoed the sentiment. The loss will sting. But bigger things will remain after the scar has healed.
“It sucks. It sucks right now, but sports, right?” Hagestad said. “That’s why we do it. That’s why every one of us practice. That’s why we try and put ourselves in situations to be a part of stuff like this. It came down to literally the last match. It’s an honor to be a part of it. It’s an honor to be in the Walker Cup Society. As bummed as I am for me and our team and USGA and amateur golf and all the things, they earned it. They played great.”
With GB&I celebrating what Luke Poulter deemed the “Legend of Lahinch,” Smith and Hagestad looked at a team of budding young stars with bright futures — a group of players that are expected to go on to accomplish big things — and they delievered a message about this week and this event and what ultimately will be the lasting memory of something that hurts now, but will someday transform into a postiive. Such is the nature of the Walker Cup.
“I think that this is one of those things where, as they get older, they’re going to appreciate it more and more,” Hagestad said. “So to that extent for them, I’m really excited for them, and as they look back, I’m sure they’ll have a lot of really fond memories. It stinks in the moment right now, but at the same time, this is one of those things that ages really, really well. It’s just an incredible community, and we’re really, really fortunate to be a part of it. … It’s something that as we all get older, we’ll all come together and we’ll all have a really neat bond.”
“I told them how proud I was of them,” Smith said. “They played their hearts out. It’s a big trip. It’s a tough trip. Everything we, as a team, tried to overcome. Just told them I loved them. Anything they need in this life, they got it from me.”
As Smith predicted, Sunday afternoon at Lahinch showed why the Walker Cup is “one of the greatest events in sports.”
One that delivers pure golf drama and is ultimately about something bigger than the final result.
