Scots Euan Walker and Sandy Scott have been named in the Great Britain and Ireland team to play the USA in the 47th Walker Cup at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake next month.
Walker (23) and Scott (21) join notables like Amateur champion James Sugrue of Ireland and Alex Fitzpatrick – younger brother of top tour professional and 2013 Walker Cup cap Matthew – in the ten-strong team looking to win back the trophy from the US, who won 19-7 at Los Angeles Country Club in the last matches in 2017.
Walker had a strong 2019 to push himself into a certainty to make the team. The home-based player from the Kilmarnock Barassie club that has produced a number of GB&I caps in recent years including Jack McDonald, Gordon Sherry and Jim Milligan, started his season by winning the South African Amateur Open in February.
It was his performances in high season that won him a Amateur World Ranking of 14th, second on the team behind the 16-year-old English Amateur champion Conor Gough, who lies second in the rankings.
Walker fought all the way to the final of the Amateur Championship at Portmarnock before narrowly losing to Sugrue, and a couple of weeks later was again runner-up in the European Individual Amateur Championship.
Scott, from the Nairn club on the Moray Firth, first came on the scene with a high finish in the St Andrews Links Trophy four years ago when only 17, but has continued his development in the USA while attending Texas Tech University in Lubbock.
He won the El Macero Classic during his junior season and will complete his studies next year.
Ireland has three players picked in Sugrue, Australian Amateur champion Conor Purcell and Caolan Rafferty, the 26-year-old from Dundalk who has been a consistent high finisher in the last two years.
Fitzpatrick, like his brother, has done most of his development in the US at Wake Forest University, where Arnold Palmer studied and played golf.
Scot Craig Watson, the GB&I captain, said: “It has been a very difficult decision to select ten players for Great Britain and Ireland from a strong squad but we have been very impressed with the results of those we have picked and we believe they will give us the best chance of regaining the Walker Cup against a strong American team.
“The Walker Cup is a fantastic opportunity for these amateur golfers to demonstrate their talents on the big stage and it will be an experience that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We are looking forward to the match at Hoylake and I’m sure the players will give it their very best to win.”
The GB&I team:
Alex Fitzpatrick (Hallamshire and England), Conor Gough (Stoke Park and England), Harry Hall (West Cornwall and England), Thomas Plumb (Yeovil and England), Conor Purcell (Portmarnock and Ireland),Caolan Rafferty (Dundalk and Ireland), Sandy Scott (Nairn and Scotland), Tom Sloman (Taunton & Pickeridge and England), James Sugrue (Mallow and Ireland), Euan Walker (Kilmarnock Barassie and Scotland).
