Thomas Higgins’ spot on the Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team for next month’s contest against USA in Lahinch has been snatched away from him at the eleventh hour with captain Dean Robertson selecting US Amateur champion Jack Whaley following his victory at Merion on Sunday.
Roscommon star Higgins has enjoyed an excellent summer, holing the winning putt for Ireland at the European Team Championships in Estonia while he also won the Home Internationals and the Irish Amateur Close Championship to give belief that he would bow out of amateur golf on its greatest stage in a fortnight.
The 23-year-old has been selected as first reserve with Whaley, Ben Bolton, Josh Hill, Sam Easterbrook and Connor Graham who will make his third appearance aged just 19.
Fota Island’s David Howard who qualified for the Open Championship and the semi-finals of the South of Ireland last month is second reserve. Robertson would have loved to have added at least one more Irishman to the team but admitted that Whaley’s US Amateur victory forced his hand.
“Before last week, I wouldn’t have seen Jack in the team, but after watching him, the talent that he’s got and the
humility that he’s got and the way that he spoke, I’m really excited to welcome him. The only downside of that is that if it wasn’t for Jack, Tom Higgins would have been in the team, 100 percent,” said Robertson who captained GB&I last year in Cypress Point.
“I would have loved to have had more Irish on the team, and you and I spoke at the South. I spoke to Thomas at length this morning on the phone, and he was brilliant. We went through in detail some feedback from what I had seen watching him. He had a brilliant year.”
While Higgins boasted a very impressive matchplay record in team competitions for Ireland, Robertson felt his ability to explode with a blitz of birdies was offset by too many bogeys while Howard was not on his radar at the start of the year and probably did need to win the South of Ireland.
“Thomas stood up and he won the Europeans for Ireland in Estonia. He makes more birdies than any of the other players in the team, but he offsets that with a lot of bogeys as well, and that’s why the likes of Josh Hill just gets ahead of him.
“But I do think he’s going to have a fabulous career, given that if he can raise his floor, he is already able to do all the great things once he starts to improve in areas like maybe a little bit more rhythm on the golf course. He can take a little bit of excessive time and maybe indecision in short selection or commitment. These are things we spoke about or I gave my feedback, and he agreed with all of it, and we had a lovely conversation, and he was absolutely class.
“I spoke to David as well today. David is in Spain on holiday. He flew out this morning. David Howard wasn’t somebody that I knew of, really under the radar until he qualified through Dundonald to play at Birkdale, narrowly missing out. He was so impressive at Lahinch.
“I so wanted him and Thomas to be in the team, but it just wasn’t to be, and the selection I’ve made is a fair selection and it’s an unbiased selection.”
Higgins and Howard are expected to be on site for the contest should there be any injuries for GB&I. Tyler Weaver, the world number two amateur, hasn’t played since April because of a back injury and also withdrew from the US Amateur last week but Robertson insists that was as a pre-caution and has no doubts about the Englishman’s abilities having impressed during the team camp at the South last month.
“Tyler spent three days with us in our panel at the end of July, and he was good there. He was holding himself back a little bit. He spent a lot of time with Connor Graham, and he hit all the approach shots for the two days, and he was absolutely fine.
“He’s progressed massively since then. He is absolutely good to go. But in saying that, he withdrew from the U.S. Amateur as well. I was on a family vacation and he phoned me just to say I’m withdrawing from the U.S. Amateur but I am fit and I’ve progressed since I was at Lahinch. If he was to go deep into Merion, the volume that week — he wanted to prioritize the Walker Cup over the U.S. Amateur.”
Otherwise Robertson has a very strong squad on his hands. GB&I will still be rank outsiders as they bid to stop the Americans winning six in a row but all of their players are ranked inside the top-100 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking with five in the top-25.
It is also the first time since 2013 that GB&I have boasted both the Amateur and US Amateur champions in Stuart Grehan and Whaley. 33-year-old Grehan is Ireland’s lone representative and is primed to play a leadership role for Robertson’s side.
“Stuart being 33 and the old one and winning the Amateur this year and being in Ireland, he’s going to be a real leader for the GB&I team, and I couldn’t be more proud to have him as that, and I’m sure he’ll rise to the occasion.”
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