The stage is set for one of the most anticipated amateur events this year: the Walker Cup at Cypress Point. Ten of the best American amateurs will take on 10 of their counterparts from Great Britain & Ireland in the biennial match, with the United States seeking its fifth consecutive victory.
“We feel good about our team,” said Nathan Smith, a three-time Walker Cup player and 2025 U.S. captain. “We’ll have an incredible experience and we’ll be trying our hearts out.”
The United States team comprises Jackson Koivun, Ben James, Michael La Sasso, Preston Stout, Ethan Fang, Mason Howell, Tommy Morrison, Jase Summy, Jacob Modleski and Stewart Hagestad. The team includes the top six players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and seven of the top 10. The only amateur on the team who isn’t in the WAGR’s top 40 is Howell, who earned his spot by winning the U.S. Amateur at the Olympic Club.
“All of those guys stepped up,” Smith said. “They were the ones who kind of came out of the pack.”
Two players on the squad, James and Hagestad, will bring previous Walker Cup experience. James, the world’s No. 2 ranked amateur, played on the winning team in 2023 at the Old Course at St Andrews, posting a 1-2-0 record. A University of Virginia senior, James made it to the quarterfinals of this year’s Western Amateur and the round of 32 in the U.S. Amateur, where he lost to Howell.
Hagestad is a 34-year-old mid-amateur who has played in the last four Walker Cups, dating to 2017. The three-time U.S. Mid-Amateur champion holds an 8-6-1 record in his matches and has never been part of a losing team.
“I think to have those two guys to take the guys through the week is a huge help to me and a huge benefit to the team,” Smith said. “There is such a flow to the week with all the engagements and dinners and they can kind of plan it out with me. It’s really invaluable to have guys like that on the team.”
Then there’s Koivun, an Auburn University junior and the world’s top-ranked amateur, who earned a PGA Tour card in May via the PGA Tour University Accelerated pathway. He elected to defer his membership until at least after his junior year at Auburn. Koivun still has more to prove as an amateur, and being part of the Walker Cup played into his decision.
“It was just another reason to stay amateur,” Koivun said. “Because it’s kind of hard to beat a Walker Cup at Cypress Point.”
Although Koivun lost in the round of 32 at the U.S. Amateur, the 20-year-old posted three strong finishes on the PGA Tour this summer – T11 at the John Deere Classic, T6 at the ISCO Championship and T5 at the Wyndham Championship.
“It was fun watching him every Sunday at the end of the summer there,” Smith said. “It seemed like he was always in the top 10 of a tour event.”
NCAA Division I champion Oklahoma State has two representatives on the team: Fang and Stout. In June, Fang won the Amateur Championship at Royal St. George’s, becoming the first American to win the event since 2007. Fang was also the co-medalist at the Western Amateur.
Stout won the Northeast Amateur Invitational in June and was medalist at the U.S. Amateur, where he made it to the round of 16. Smith says having the two college teammates will help the U.S. squad as a whole.
“It’s nice when you have a combo of players who know each other’s games well,” Smith said.
Howell earned an automatic spot on the Walker Cup team with his U.S. Amateur victory, which he capped by defeating Jackson Herrington, 7 and 6, in the scheduled 36-hole final. While many golf fans may not have been familiar with Howell before his breakthrough title, Smith said he’s been following the 18-year-old since he qualified for the U.S. Open at Oakmont with rounds of 63-63 at Piedmont Driving Club in Atlanta in early June.
“That really turned my head,” Smith said. “I was watching him through the summer and then to watch him at the Olympic Club, I was pretty blown away with how he played.”
La Sasso, Morrison, Summy and Modleski round out the team. La Sasso, who won the NCAA individual title in May, made the cut at the PGA Tour’s 3M Open in July and shot a third-round 63 before finishing T44. Morrison won the 2024 European Amateur Championship in Denmark and qualified for match play at this year’s Western and U.S. amateurs. Summy won the Western Amateur and made it to the round of 32 at the U.S. Amateur, while Modleski won the Atlantic Coast Conference individual title, made the semifinals at the Western Amateur and the quarterfinals at the U.S. Amateur.
“When it was crunch time down the summer they performed at a pretty high level where you could see their games kind of peaking,” Smith said. “It’s a little bit of WAGR, but it’s a lot of who’s peaking at the end of the summer for their best golf in September.”
“I don’t think you realize, even maybe until you get a little older, how big and how special this is.”
Nathan Smith
Smith’s job will be putting his players in the best spots to succeed. Things like familiarity with each other, shot shape and type of ball they play will factor into creating foursomes pairings. Ultimately, Smith wants to give his players a say.
“I think the biggest thing is to listen to what the guys want to do,” Smith said. “As captain I’ll hopefully listen to the players and put them in situations to be comfortable and succeed.”
Smith said all of the players on the team have accomplished great things and will likely continue to do so in the future, some of them as professionals. However, Smith doesn’t want them to take this Walker Cup experience for granted.
“I don’t think you realize, even maybe until you get a little older, how big and how special this is,” Smith said. “I think it’s one of those things when you look back and realize how incredible it is.”
E-MAIL EVERETT
Top: A Walker Cup opportunity influenced Jackson Koivun’s decision to remain an amateur for now.
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