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McCarthy and U.S. Team Open Walker Cup Play Saturday
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Sept. 11, 2015
Charlottesville, Va. – Former Virginia men’s golfer Denny McCarthy (Rockville, Md.) will open play Saturday at the 2015 Walker Cup as part of the United States Golf Association’s 10-man team. The U.S. squad will face its counterparts from Great Britain and Ireland. This year’s matches are being held at the par-70, 7,086-yard Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club in Lancashire, England.
On Saturday, Sept. 12, there will be four foursomes (alternate-shot) matches in the morning and eight singles matches in the afternoon. Foursomes is a match in which two players compete against two others players in an alternate-shot format, with each side playing just one ball.
On Sunday, Sept. 13, there will be four foursomes matches in the morning and 10 singles matches in the afternoon. All matches will be 18 holes.
A victory in each match scores one point. In the event a match goes 18 holes without a winner, a half-point is awarded to each team. The team that scores the most points wins the Match. In the event of a tie, the team that won the previous competition retains the Walker Cup.
The U.S. team features Bryson DeChambeau (21, Clovis, Calif.), the 2015 U.S. Amateur Champion, Scott Harvey (37, Greensboro, N.C.), Beau Hossler (20, Mission Viejo, Calif.), Lee McCoy (21, Athens, Ga.), Michael McCoy (52, Des Moines, Iowa), Maverick McNeally (19, Portola Valley, Calif.), Jordan Niebrugge (22, Mequon, Wis.), Robby Shelton (20, Wilmer, Ala.) and Hunter Stewart (22, Lexington, Ky.). The U.S. captain is John “Spider” Miller of Bloomington, Ind.
McCarthy, DeChambeau and Hossler led the U.S. to the World Amateur Team Championship last September.
McCarthy, who graduated last spring, was the first player in UVa history to earn All-ACC honors all four years of his collegiate career. He was a three-time All-American at UVa and is currently ranked as the No. 12 amateur in the world.
The Walker Cup is contested every two years. This year’s event is the 45th Walker Cup Match. This year marks the seventh time the match is contested in England.
The BBC will air matches on both Saturday and Sunday. ESPN2 will show taped highlights on Sunday from 3-5 p.m. ET. Fans can watch live on ESPN3 or the WatchESPN app. Saturday’s coverage runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Sunday’s coverage is slated for 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
In 2013, the United States regained the Walker Cup at the historic National Golf Links of America, site of the inaugural Match in 1922, with a resounding 17-9 victory over Great Britain and Ireland. It was the USA’s largest margin of victory since an 18-6 decision at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in 1997. Continuing the dominance from Saturday’s singles session, the USA, which entered the final day with an 8-4 lead, split the four Sunday foursomes (alternate-shot) matches and claimed seven of the 10 afternoon singles matches. That included a pair of 4-and-3 victories by the two mid-amateurs on the team, 45-year-old Todd White and 35-year-old Smith.
Bobby Wyatt, of Mobile, Ala., led the way for the Americans with a 3-0-1 record, including a 4-and-3 triumph over 2013 U.S. Amateur co-medalist Neil Raymond. Matthew Fitzpatrick, the first Englishman to win the U.S. Amateur in 102 years, posted a 3-1 record, including 2-0 in foursomes with GB&I teammate Raymond.