Last Thursday, the USGA announced the first four members of the U.S. Walker Cup team that will face Great Britain & Ireland in September at Lahinch Golf Club on the Emerald Isle. Preston Stout, Tyler Watts and Ethan Fang earned berths as the top three Americans in the World Amateur Golf Ranking as of July 8, while the USGA Team Selection Committee selected Miles Russell.
Stout, who rose to No. 1 in the ranking after Jackson Koivun turned pro earlier this month, is the reigning NCAA individual champion, while his Oklahoma State teammate Fang (ranked No. 4) won the 2025 Amateur Championship at Royal St George’s. Both were part of the U.S. team that defeated GB&I last September at Cypress Point.
Watts (No. 3) and Russell (No. 5) are two of the nation’s top junior golfers. Watts, 18, won the recent Northeast Amateur, while Russell, 17, leads the boys’ Rolex AJGA Rankings and made the cut in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.
Ethan Fang and Preston Stout during the 2026 U.S. Open
Kathryn Riley, USGA
“Preston and Ethan bring the kind of experience that only comes from having done this before, and that continuity is vital heading into Lahinch,” said Nathan Smith, the U.S. captain. “Tyler and Miles are young players on the rise who have already shown they belong on this stage. Together they give us a great mix of proven and rising talent, and I couldn’t be more excited to lead this group.”
Now, with less than two months remaining until the match, the USGA and Smith will look to fill the remaining six spots on the team. Automatic exemptions will go to the winner of the 2026 U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club next month and the recipient of the 2026 McCormack Medal, awarded to the No. 1 player in the WAGR at the end of the cycle in August (provided both are American). However, it appears likely the medal will go to an American already on the team.
In this column, I project the remaining spots based on the WAGR and, more importantly, form in the last year with an emphasis on performances in elite amateur, USGA, collegiate and professional events.
Three strong candidates represented the United States in the recent Arnold Palmer Cup, the match among top collegians staged this year in Ireland. The first is William Jennings, who is sixth in the WAGR. The Fred Haskins Award finalist is coming off a great sophomore year at the University of Alabama. Last fall, Jennings was medalist at the Folds of Honor Collegiate and tied for first at the Ben Hogan Collegiate Invitational before losing in a playoff.
This spring, Jennings posted five top-10 finishes in eight collegiate starts, including a victory at the NCAA Marana Regional and a runner-up to Stout in the NCAA Championship stroke play. Jennings also made the cut in the Korn Ferry Tour’s BMW Charity Pro-Am event, finishing T-12.
The second is Kihei Akina, who like Jennings was a Haskins Award finalist. Akina, 11th in the WAGR, is coming off a strong freshman year at BYU, where he was the Big 12 Freshman of the Year and earned a spot on the All-Big 12 First Team.
Kihei Akina
E. M. Pio Roda, USGA
In 2026, Akina played in 10 collegiate events and failed to finish in the top 10 only once. He won twice and finished runner-up twice, including at the Big 12 Men’s Golf Championship. Akina also made the cut at the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open and was a quarterfinalist at the Amateur Championship at Royal Liverpool.
The third is Josiah Gilbert, eighth in the WAGR and a member of Auburn University’s NCAA Championship team. As a junior last season, Gilbert earned First Team All-SEC honors and won twice in the fall (The Invitational at the Honors Course and The Clerico).
In the spring, Gilbert was top five at the NCAA Athens Regional and in stroke play at the NCAA Championship. On the way to Auburn’s title, Gilbert went 2-1 in match play, including a 4-and-3 victory over Fang in the semifinal match against defending champions Oklahoma State.
Two other players to watch are Ryder Cowan and Jacob Modleski. Cowan was a Haskins Award finalist as a junior at Oklahoma. He’s ninth in the WAGR and was recently co-low-amateur with Koivun at the U.S. Open.
Modleski, who’s 13th in the WAGR, was a member of last year’s Walker Cup team as well as the last two Arnold Palmer Cup teams. In his junior year at Notre Dame, Modleski played in 12 events and finished in the top 10 eight times. He was also co-champion at the Schenkel Invitational in March.
The U.S. Amateur champion, if American, would garner the final spot. Last year, 18-year-old Mason Howell was a virtual unknown who was ranked 362nd in the world before winning at the Olympic Club and earning a berth at Cypress Point.
How much will tradition influence the picks? Typically, one of the spots on the team is reserved for a mid-amateur. Captain Smith himself played on the 2009, 2011 and 2013 Walker Cup teams as a mid-amateur.
In the spring, the USGA sent a letter to as many as 20 mid-amateurs, telling them they were on the Walker Cup radar. The letter suggested that to be seriously considered, they needed to play in tournaments featuring amateurs of all ages, not just mid-amateur tournaments.
However, it’s difficult to identify any mid-amateurs who have stood out so far in this cycle. That’s largely because to this point, the leading contenders haven’t played in many of the top events. That’s not their fault; most have full-time jobs, unlike college kids and junior players.
Stewart Hagestad
Logan Whitton, USGA
The two leading mid-amateur candidates are Stewart Hagestad (46th in the WAGR) and Bobby Massa (73rd), who both attended the Walker Cup practice session that met last December. Evan Beck (81st) also attended, but the 35-year-old has played in only two WAGR-counting events so far this year and therefore has some ground to make up.
Hagestad, 35, has been a Walker Cup mainstay, playing in the last five matches, all of which the U.S has won. The 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion has compiled a 7-1-0 record in singles, which is a top-five singles winning percentage in Walker Cup history (among those who have played at least four matches).
But since last year’s Walker Cup, Hagestad has played in only three WAGR-counting events. He made it to the round of 16 at the 2025 U.S. Mid-Amateur, made it to the quarterfinals of the 2025 Crump Cup and made the cut at this year’s Northeast Amateur.
By comparison, the 38-year-old Massa made it to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Mid-Amateur, was runner-up at the Crump Cup, won the 2026 Huddleston Cup and made it to the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball. However, missed the cut at the Northeast Amateur and last week’s Trans-Miss Amateur, both events for all ages.
If anyone is doing the best in keeping with the USGA’s recommendations, it’s 27-year-old Connor Doyal. Don’t let Doyal being 260th in the WAGR fool you. In April, he won the Terra Cotta Invitational, an all-ages event with a strong field.
Since then, Doyal made the cut in the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic, a PGA Tour event. After last week, he’s also three-for-three in making the cut in Elite Amateur Golf Series events, first at the Sunnehanna Amateur, then the Northeast Amateur and the Trans-Miss Amateur. Despite his WAGR ranking, Doyal is making his case for Walker Cup selection in a way other mid-amateurs haven’t so far.
There is still time for players to distinguish themselves. Expect performances in events such as this week’s Southern Amateur, the Pacific Coast Amateur (July 21-24), the Western Amateur (July 27-Aug. 1) and the U.S. Amateur (Aug. 10-16) to have a big impact on the selections.
Top: William Jennings is a leading candidate for the U.S. Walker Cup team.
Chris Keane, USGA
