Since the contest’s inception in 1922, 55 Irish golfers have represented Great Britain and Ireland with Joe Carr as Ireland’s leading Walker Cupper with a whopping eleven appearances.
Of Ireland’s Walker Cup players Pádraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy have gone on to win major championships with McIlroy also completing the career grand slam and reaching world number one on several occasions while Harrington and Paul McGinley have captained Europe in the Ryder Cup.
Many Irish Walker Cup players have gone on to enjoy successful professional careers while others have remained in the amateur ranks, hoping to earn another call up in the future.
This weekend, Lahinch plays host to the 51st Walker Cup contest, the first to be held on Irish soil since 2007. Team USA arrive in Clare heavily fancied to make it a whopping six victories in a row. GB&I haven’t tasted victory since 2015 where Ireland’s ‘Famous Five’ proved pivotal at Royal Lytham.
Stuart Grehan is Ireland’s only representative and he becomes the first Irishman to play in back to back Walker Cups since Mark Power in 2021 and 2023 – where he top scored on both occasions for GB&I, including as one of four Irish players in St Andrews three years ago.
Power bowed out of amateur golf in a blaze of glory at the Home of Golf and cried tears of joy, anger, disappointment and mostly pride, even if it was overshadowed by defeat for Great Britain and Ireland. The Mount Juliet man put together a string of special back nine performances that weekend on his way to three points including birdies on 17 and 18 to beat Ben James 1UP to close his amateur career.
“I’m not much of a crier! I don’t think I’ve cried on a golf course apart from when I was ten or eleven so that was a release of emotion I didn’t think I had inside of me. My family and friends were there, everyone gave me such great support so just tried to soak it in.
Two years earlier in Seminole Power and John Murphy carried the fight to a star-studded US side with no player ranked outside the top-35 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. The pair combined to win both of their foursomes matches on the 18th hole.
Of course, who could forget that several of the GB&I players had been hit by food poisoning…
“I suppose it’s very hard to forget that week. I think the whole atmosphere in the Great Britain and Ireland team room just made it such an enjoyable week,” said Murphy.
“Yeah, it was a shame that a lot of us got sick that weekend. It was a shame that many of the golfers from England were coming after a few months in lockdown, so you know, the odds were certainly stacked against us going into it. There was something bittersweet about putting up a good fight. Nobody really expected that, you know, it was a very closely contested match. We played well. The whole team got on great it was clear to see we were up for it.
“It was just a shame that coming down the last few holes there on the last day it just kind of swung the other direction. But yeah, an incredible week, was obviously great to play with a good friend in Mark Power. We had such a good time that together, so yeah certainly a week I won’t forget.”
Dundalk star Caolan Rafferty earned his first Walker Cup call in 2019 in Royal Liverpool having won the South and West of Ireland Championships in 2018 and 2019 respectively, and reaching 23rd in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Raff played just twice, winning one singles match against PGA Tour pro Alex Smalley as GB&I went down 10.5-15.5, but it was certainly the experience of a lifetime.
“It was unbelievable. From meeting up with the lads the first day, I was lucky to have the two Irish lads with me. We had great craic all week,” said Rafferty who was joined by Conor Purcell and James Sugrue.
“The whole buzz of what the Walker Cup is and what we had to do off the golf course was just so different to what you do each week. To tee it up then was unreal. Teeing it up in the singles the atmosphere was unreal, there was only a couple of thousand, but it felt like a million people on the first tee.
“Literally, the crowd walks up to your golf ball, you nearly don’t have enough room to swing at times, they’re that close to you which is great compared to being stuck on the sidelines at professional events.
“Anyone I spoke to who was at it all said it was the best experience they’ve ever had being at a golf event because you were able to get so close and get involved in it. They all loved it. There were boys looking into your golf bag and trying to see what club you were hitting.
“Walker Cup was never even in my head when I made it that time back at Hoylake (in 2019). It wasn’t something that I dreamt about at the time because I was a late bloomer on the scene. I just let the golf do the talking and if it was good enough, which it was that year, then it’d get me in. It was great. Probably the best experience I’ve ever had at amateur level.
The Island’s Paul McBride was Ireland’s only representative on the 2017 GB&I side who were comprehensively beaten 19-7 by a scintillating US side who had Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa, Cameron Champ, Will Zalatoris and Maverick McNealy.
McBride, now on the Clutch Pro Tour, picked up one point from his three matches including beating his Wake Forest teammate Zalatoris and losing to Morikawa at LA Country Club.
“It was amazing,” said the Dubliner. “It was an incredible experience. The Walker Cup really is a great event and being able to experience it away from Great Britain or Ireland was really enjoyable to be honest.
“There was something about it, it was just brilliant. It’s one of those events that you remember forever. It was the most enjoyable event I’ve played in, even though we got hammered, but it was a brilliant experience playing in L.A. so far away from home with huge crowds.”
McBride was joined by the likes of Robert MacIntyre, Connor Syme and Matthew Jordan but it is fair to say that this was a golden generation of an American team.
“Our team have done pretty well since turning pro but the U.S. team is fairly successful!
“It definitely was the strongest team they arguably ever had. The money they have made on tour and Majors and tournaments won since is outrageous.
“I think in a Walker Cup there is maybe more of a friendly atmosphere than a Ryder Cup but it is still difficult. I remember playing against Will (Zalatoris) and Doc Redman with Conor Syme in the foursomes and on the eighth hole, Will holed a huge 40-footer across the green and the roar was absolutely huge.
“I holed a putt from five feet for a half and there was just the customary little clap, so it was very different.”
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