You’ve heard of the Ryder Cup… but what’s the Walker Cup?
This is golf’s most prestigious amateur event — where the best young players from the U.S. take on the best from Great Britain & Ireland in a Ryder Cup-style team match play format.
In this video, we break down:
🏆 What is the Walker Cup?
🌍 Who plays in it and how teams are picked
📍 Why Cypress Point Club is the perfect venue for 2025
🔥 Notable past players: Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, Phil Mickelson, and many more
🎯 Why it’s often the last step before PGA Tour stardom
📖 Fun history, rules, and standout moments you’ve probably never heard about
Whether you’re a golf fan or just learning the game — this is one event you need to know.
We got the Walker Cup coming up, the uh amateur version of the RDER Cup, if you will. Little less hype, little less uh press conferency leading around the team picks and stuff. Yeah. But um I Pebble Beach, though. It is. It’s Well, it’s in the town of Pebble Beach, but it’s being played at Cypress Point. Cypress Point, the neighboring course, cuz right there in that little corridor, you have Pebble Beach, Cypress Point, and Spy Glass. And it’s like the indoor golf mecca of courses that everybody picks. It’s like, “No, no, we’re playing Spyr. I want to be on Cypress, you know.” What was your rank? Um, I would say just for like history and all that, I would like to play Pebble first. Um, then I’m probably Spy Glass, then Cyprus for no reason whatsoever. But that’s where I’m going. If if like I got to go out there and someone’s handing me one tea time on the house, I’m picking Pebble. You just you kind of got to, you know what I mean? I hate Cypress, too. Yes. Screw him. Come on. Um, so of course 10-man teams, uh, the difference is though, there’s less players automatically locked and they got to go to the committee for the rest. So, here’s how it kind of breaks down. the US team. Uh, you must be still amateur status, a US citizen, and there is no age limit. I, in my mind, I’m thinking, you know, amateurs. I don’t know why. Or am you will? Yeah. Amitter, as they say in golf. I don’t know why we pronounce it. We’re different. Listen, it’s not amateur hour, but we’re going to be amateurs in golf. Um, yeah. Two automatic spots. Uh, top US player in the world. uh world amateur golf or the W AGR world amateur golf ranking and then also the US amateur champion are the two locked in spots the rest go to a USGA committee uh so the remaining eight guys for the US team they take a look at the Wagr rankings the NCAA performance the big amateur events like the Western the North and South etc yada yada past USG experience and uh they usually try and bring in one or two older midams to come in and bring a little experience to the team to be like people your age, Dan. Yeah, midams. I’m I’m very I’m very mid amitter. You’re very mid. Thank you. That’s the story of my life. My golf is mid. Yeah. I don’t know. Whatever. Um GB and I I that does not roll off the top. No at all. GB and I either way uh they got three autolock players. They take the top two players uh from the Wagr and then the amateur champion of uh the British amateur and the rest go to the committee as well. I how do you get on these committees guys? Do I see here that Justin Rose is playing? Uh those are notable previous players. Yeah, notable past players. Ah, gotcha. Gotcha. US team has seen players like Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, Ricky Fowler, Jordan Spe, Patrick no expression can’t lay Brooks Gapka, Justin Thomas, Bryson Dashambo, Colin Marawa, and Scotty Sheffler have all played in the Walker Cup. Then for the very difficult to say GB and I, Colin Montgomery, Patrick Harrington, Justin Rose, Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Graham McDall, Rory Mroy, Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood, and Maddie Fitzpatrick. Lot of guys have strolled through this event. Yeah. Lot of guys you notice are ones and done zo usually. Yeah. Well, you know what? Go get paid playing pro. That’s what I’m saying. Yeah. Like this is like a leadup to Okay, you’re the best amateur group. Now go on and go on to the tour. It’s like a farewell. Uh do we know the age of the oldest player to compete in the Walker Cup? They call him the Walker Cup Iron Man, Jay Seagull. His last performance was at 47 years old. Wow. Veteran. He played in the 1977 79 81 83 85 87 89 91 and 93. Hell of a run. You know what that means? You’re eligible, Dan. Oh, dude. I still got like two or three more years. Yeah, I could sneak in there. Uh, and then we also have uh playing this year Stuart Hagestad. He’s sort of our modern version of the Walker Cup Iron Man. He’s going to be playing his fifth Walker Cup this year at uh 34 years old. Still younger than me. All right. I know. I know. Well, Jay Seagull still hasn’t beat so that that helps. So, why did Jay, I wonder, not ever go pro? Um I you know, I think that’s a really interesting question. I mean because obviously he’s playing very well at the highest level at the amateur ranks in for 20 years straight.
