Before the European’s made their historic comeback at the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah, Ian Poulter had to make five birdies in a row to help him and Rory McIlroy win their Saturday match and trim Team USA’s lead to 10-6 heading into Sunday.
“This has given us a heartbeat,” Poulter said that Saturday night. One day later, the Europeans had stormed back to snatch the Ryder Cup away from the Americans in historic fashion. But the comeback all started with Poulter creating momentum out of thin air for his team to feed off — creating belief.
On Sunday at the 51st Walker Cup, Great Britain and Ireland faced a similar mountain to climb. After getting whitewashed in the morning foursomes, GB&I entered Sunday singles trailing the Americans by three points. The Americans needed just 3.5 points from their 10 matches to retain the cup and four to win outright. GB&I captain Dean Robertson believed his team could mount the biggest comeback in Walker Cup history, but first it needed a pulse.
Enter: 33-year-old mid-amateur Stuart Grehan.
The Irishman already authored a Walker Cup moment to remember on Saturday when he won the final three holes of his match against World No. 1 amateur Preston Stout to steal a crucial point. After pouring in the winning putt on Saturday, Grehan and his son were mobbed by Irish fans as chants of “Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole” filled the air.
Grehan called that moment at Lahinch, one he had envisioned for over a decade, a memory of a lifetime. But ensuring it wasn’t in vain would be key to cementing it in Walker Cup lore.
But on Sunday, Grehan did one better.
With his team needing momentum and belief, Robertston sent Grehan out first in singles again against Stout. With Roberton walking with him, Grehan set out to give GB&I a heartbeat. He lost the first two holes to Stout, but Robertson implored him to stick in and believe that he could flip the match, and with it, the momentum of the Walker Cup.
“I was telling Stuart — Stuart is 2-down, and I’m saying, ‘These guys will do it behind you. You need to bring the energy, Stuart, come on.’ And he did. Literally, that was it,” Robertson said on Sunday night as the sun set over Ireland.
Just as he did on Saturday, Grehan started to claw back against the world’s top amateur. He won the fifth and sixth holes to even the match. He fell 1 down at the turn, but he won the 10th to bring the match all square. Then, an eagle-birdie run at 12 and 13 put him 2 up on Stout. After Stout bogeyed 14, the lead was three, and Grehan closed out the match with a par on 17 to win 2&1.
Grehan faced Stout in all four matches across the two days, going 2-1-1, including two pivotal singles wins against the Americans’ best player.
“He’s probably sick of the sight of me as well,” Grehan told The Irish Independent after beating Stout on Sunday. “Look, I knew that [I’d be going out first] to start the day. Just really proud of the way that I hung in because the start was not very good.”
As Robertson predicted, as Grehan flipped his match against Stout, the rest of GB&I followed suit. U.S. Amateur champion Jack Whaley ran over William Jennings 8&7, Luke Poulter dispatched Ethan Fang 3&1 and Tyler Weaver did away with Jay Leng Jr. 4&3 to put blue flags on the board in the first four matches and give GB&I the lead.
But even with a 10-9 lead, GB&I still needed things to break perfectly to pull off their historic comeback. Ryder Cowan and Josiah Gilbert both put points on the board for USA, but GB&I got a half point from Niall Sheils Donegan and a full point from Eliot Baker, who defeated Stewart Hagestad with a birdie on 18. That meant that GB&I needed a point and a half from the two remaining matches.
Miles Russell, who led Connor Graham all day, made a mess of 17 to lose the hole and then missed his birdie attempt on the par-5 18th to retain the cup. When Graham answered by making his own birdie to halve the match, GB&I needed Josh Hill, who was all square with Tyler Watts coming up 18, to win his match. Watts lost his tee shot to the left in the rough and gauged out to 170 yards. Hill put his second in the greenside bunker but played a brilliant bunker shot to five feet. Watts missed a lengthy birdie attempt and then Hill rolled in the five-foot birdie to put the exclamation point on the comeback and set off a celebration at Lahinch.
“We are so elated. It’s hardly — we’re hardly able to put it into words,” Robertson said after the improbable win. “There’s a lot of emotion, a lot of happy tears. But pride, pride is the word I would use to describe.”
In order for GB&I to erase a three-shot deficit and win its first Walker Cup in six tries, everything had to go according to plan. But it all started with Stuart Grehan, his refusal to relent against the World No. 1 and the energy and belief he delivered to the rest of the team.
“He showed grit. He showed character. He showed tenacity, and he brought what was required, which was the 11th man, the Irish crowd, and that energy was fed by it,” Robertson said of Grehan.
All weekend, Grehan and Stout had been linked. They halved their foursomes match on Saturday when Stout missed a short birdie putt on 18. Grehan stole their Saturday singles match with a late flurry, but Stout and Fang triumphed early Sunday morning during the Americans’ historic sweep. But Grehan won the final match, delivering another critical point while taking out Team USA’s top gun.
Over an hour after his last victory over Stout, the 33-year-old mid-am was no longer alongside the No. 1 amateur. He had long since dispatched him. It was just Grehan, his son, his wife and his GB&I teammates soaking in an unforgettable comeback that will long live in Walker Cup lore — one that Stuart Grehan made possible.
