Experienced Walker Cup campaigner, Mark Power, says the World Amateur Golf Rankings could count for nothing when the biennial match begins at St Andrews later this week.
The US are hot favourites for this year’s renewal with all of their team ranked in the top 20 in the rankings while England’s John Gough (11) is GB&I’s sole representative there.
But the 23-year-old Kilkenny golfer, who will play in his second Walker Cup this weekend, is excited by the potential of his team as they look for a first win in eight years.
“St Andrews is such an iconic venue, there’s going to be an extra buzz around there and we’re hoping the home crowd will give us an extra bit of support because it’s going to be a strong US side, we’ll need to be firing on all cylinders,” said Power.
“People will try and write us off because of the US rankings. So just trying to ignore those sort of things and embrace that we are playing match play. Anything can happen in match play and obviously links golf will help us, so just trying to focus on what’s in front of you.
“Don’t be worried about people’s rankings, just try and focus on beating the guy in front of you. And that’s a good motto to have in match play.
“Things can chop and change throughout the match you just have to beat what’s in front of you. That’s one of the big things I learned.”
Power has a great record in his only appearance at the Walker Cup, he went 3-1-0, two years ago in the defeat at Seminole, and was 2-0-0 alongside John Murphy.
The Ireland international, and former Wake Forest Collegiate star, will look to his Walker Cup experience and potential link with Liam Nolan to help GB&I get across the line this time around.
“Liam and I have formed a pretty good partnership with Ireland in the last few years, we have only lost one match, that was at this year’s Europeans and it was a tough match,” said Power.
“So we will be looking forward to getting the chance to partner up again. It will be great to see two Irish lads partner up. I was with John Murphy last time around, we won two matches and we fed off of each other all week – that could be cool.
“I played GB&I at the St Andrews Trophy with Barclay Brown last year as well so that could be another possibility. It’s up to the manager so we will see what happens.
“I will be doing a lot of putting practise because match play, if you can rely on your putter that’s a good weapon to have. So I will just be doing a lot of putting practise and hopefully play a bit of links golf between now and then.
“We are meeting up with the team, we will make sure we have everything done and we’re not having any regrets at the end of the week.”
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