Stuart Grehan will lead out Great Britain and Ireland alongside his friend Eliot Baker in the opening foursomes match of the 51st Walker Cup against the United States of America at Lahinch on Saturday morning.
County Louth’s Grehan and Englishman Baker will tackle world number one Preston Stout and last year’s Amateur champion Ethan Fang at 08.30 am and it is expected that the bulk of the 8,000 coming through the gates will be setting their alarms early to catch this one.
Great Britain and Ireland are bidding to win their first Walker Cup since 2015 and arrest a run of five straight defeats in the contest. Six of the side that played in last year’s defeat to the USA in Cypress Point have been retained including Grehan and Baker who won one and lost one of their two foursomes matches twelve months ago.
Match two sees Connor Graham of Scotland, making his third appearance at just 19 years of age, paired with Tyler Weaver of England who will hit his first competitive shot since April after battling an oblique injury. They will face the US pair of Kihei Akina and Jay Leng Jr.
In the third match English duo Luke Poulter and Sam Easterbrook will face the US pair of 17-year-old Miles Russell and 18-year-old Tyler Watts.
The anchor match pits the controversial pick of Josh Hill and Scotland’s Niall Sheils Donegan against Josiah Gilbert and Ryder Cowan at 09.00 am.
Great Britain and Ireland captain Dean Robertson has opted to leave out 19-year-old Ben Bolton and US Amateur champion Jack Whaley.
The singles pairings will be released tomorrow.
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