Francis Ouimet at the Walker Cup

Hey, everyone. I am heading to California this week for the Walker Cup. I won tickets for the Saturday session and found it very hard to pass up a chance to walk a course I will likely never play.

So, the Walker Cup is on my mind. It has some connections to Massachusetts, so I wanted to highlight the Bay State ties to such a great amateur golf event.

I’ll be posting over on Instagram if you’d like to follow along in real time, and paid subscribers to the newsletter will get some content about the trip next week.

In 1921, the idea for the Walker Cup was born. A cadre of American golfers traveled to England to try to capture the Amateur Championship at Royal Liverpool. The day before the Amateur Championship started, a team of British players took on a team of Americans in an exhibition match set up by Gershom Stewart, Chairman of Royal Liverpool.

One year later, the favor was returned at National Golf Links of America on Long Island when the British came to play in the U.S. Amateur at The Country Club.

This time, however, it was formalized as an event and named the Walker Cup. The cup is named after George Herbert Walker, the president of the USGA at the time of the cup’s birth. Walker was the grandfather of George H. W. Bush and the great grandfather of George W. Bush.

Over the 103-year history, two courses in Massachusetts have hosted the Walker Cup. In 1932 and 1973 The Country Club hosted the event and in 1953 The Kittansett Club played host. Team U.S.A. won on all three occasions.

The U.S.A. has won 39 of the 48 competitions. GB&I has nine wins, and there was one tie

The ties to the Walker Cup are deeper than just venues. That first team in 1921 included two men from New England - Jesse Guilford (New Hampshire) and Francis Ouimet (Brookline, Mass.)

Incredibly, both Guilford and Ouimet were members at Woodland GC along with one other Walker Cupper, Ted Bishop. That’s an incredible legacy for the club.

Guilford would play in 1922, 1924, and 1926. He was also the 1921 U.S. Amateur champion. He beat Walter Hagen in the semifinals and then defeated Charles “Chick” Evans in the final. An impressive set of pelts for the long-hitting Guilford.

Ouimet would become a cornerstone of the American team and the tournament as a whole.

Not including the 1921 appearance, which isn’t part of the record books, Ouimet was involved in the first 12 Walker Cups and won 11. The only loss came at St. Andrews in 1938 as a captain.

It’s likely that Ouimet would have had an even bulkier resume if World War II hadn’t cancelled the Walker Cup from 1940 to 1946.

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