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To the surprise of no one, mid-amateur Stewart Hagestad was named to the American Walker Cup squad that will defend at Seminole Golf Club in May. This will be Hagestad’s third consecutive appearance in this venerable international amateur competition, tying him with his pal, Nathan Smith, and putting him in some interesting company.
Consider the list of Americans with the most appearances in the Walker Cup Match in the modern era, which I define as post-1963. That is the year that the competition changed format: After being 36-hole foursomes matches on the first day and eight singles matches on the second day, it shifted to two sessions each day, foursomes and singles.
I include in this list those who played in a match in 1963 or later, but I also recognize their pre-1963 appearances.
A note about Campbell: He was named playing captain of the 1955 team that won, 10-2, at the Old Course at St. Andrews, but he chose not to play in any of the matches. I give him credit for that appearance.
Jay Sigel tops the list. His was an amazing run, all the more so when you consider he did not make his first Walker Cup team until he was 33 years old. He is not likely worried about Hagestad catching him any time soon, but consider this: Hagestad will turn 30 in April. If Hagestad were to make the 2023 team that travels to St. Andrews, he will have played four times before the age at which Sigel made his maiden start.
Hagestad, currently enrolled in graduate business school at the University of Southern California, made his Walker Cup debut in 2017 after winning the 2016 U.S. Mid-Amateur. He went 1-1 on the Spider Miller-led team that won, 19-7, at Los Angeles Country Club in California. Two years later Hagestad went 2-1 at Royal Liverpool for captain Nathaniel Crosby's winning side.
To be sure, Hagestad played his way onto this 2021 team. He is ranked No. 11 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and he went deep at the U.S. Amateur last summer, advancing to the quarterfinals. In a pandemic-shortened competitive year, that performance alone made him a virtual lock for the team. An 11th-place finish at the schoolboy-dominated Jones Cup last month eliminated any remaining doubt.
Still, the reality is that, at the moment and perhaps for the foreseeable future, Hagestad is the most prominent mid-am for consideration. The Walker Cup has passed Smith, Mike McCoy, Todd White and Scott Harvey by. They have not been replaced yet; the next highest ranked mid-amateur in the WAGR is Joe Deraney, at No. 72. U.S. Mid-Amateur champions of recent vintage, including Matt Parziale and Kevin O’Connell, simply have not mounted a Walker Cup effort. COVID-19 didn’t help either of them in 2020, and we will see what happens in a more normal run-up to the 2023 match.
Absent the emergence of another elite mid-amateur and provided the USGA remains committed to having at least one mid-am on its roster, Hagestad will climb the appearance list, assuming he can continue to play at near his current level.
And with each additional appearance, it becomes more likely that he will share another distinction with many of the esteemed players on that list, well down the road: captain of an American Walker Cup squad.
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