Oklahoma State teammates Ethan Fang and Preston Stout have been added to the 2025 U.S. Walker Cup team that will face Great Britain and Ireland at Cypress Point in September, the USGA announced Saturday.
The duo joins Jackson Koivun, Ben James and Michael La Sasso, who previously earned automatic selections to the 10-player roster as the three highest-ranked American players in World Amateur Golf Ranking as of June 18. Fang and Stout are currently ranked third and fourth, respectively, in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, and were both part of Oklahoma State’s NCAA Division I championship-winning team.
“Ethan and Preston are excellent additions to further solidify this year’s team,” said Nathan Smith, the U.S. captain. “These two players have worked tirelessly to put themselves in a position to be selected to this team and I’m thrilled to see their hard work rewarded. I look forward to having them on our side at Cypress Point.”
Fang, a 20-year-old rising junior from Plano, Texas, won the Amateur Championship at Royal St George’s last month. Stout, a 21-year-old rising junior from Dallas, won last month’s Northeast Amateur by eight strokes. Stout also won the 2024 and ’25 Big 12 Conference individual titles.
The USGA’s International Team Selection working group will name additional players to the Walker Cup team immediately following the U.S. Amateur at the Olympic Club next month. The U.S. Amateur champion and the recipient of the 2025 McCormack Medal, should they be American, will earn the final automatic berths on the team.
Massachusetts mid-amateur Matt Parziale won the Francis Ouimet Memorial Tournament for the fourth time, 16 years after his first victory.
Starting the final round Friday at Woodland Golf Club outside Boston, Parziale and Ben Spitz were tied at 2-under par in the championship division.
“Ben and I have had battles for 20 years now,” said Parziale, the 2017 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion. “We’ve met at the [Massachusetts Amateur] maybe four times, and at other down-the-stretch tournaments.”
Parziale took the lead at 3-under with a 6-foot birdie on No. 9 before Spitz leapfrogged him with birdies as Nos. 10 and 11. After Spitz bogeyed No. 13 to fall back into a tie, Parziale drained a 40-foot birdie from the front fringe on No. 16 that ultimately clinched the title.
“That was a nice one to get going there, I was pretty happy with the way I played all day,” Parziale said. “It’s always a pleasure to play with [Spitz], he played great, and I was just fortunate enough to get him by one in the end.
“I haven’t been in contention in a while, so it’s nice to know that it doesn’t go away. Once you get back out there, it’s kind of like riding a bike, all the adrenaline comes back and it’s fun to be in it.”
RESULTS
Staff reports