The rapidly changing professional golf landscape could be producing some unintended consequences for one of the most important events in amateur golf.
For those who care about the Walker Cup, a 100-year-old biennial match contested between the top amateurs from the U.S. and their counterparts from Great Britain and Ireland, serious concerns exist on multiple fronts.
The tremors started when LIV Golf made progress in poaching young players, bringing in the likes of Spain’s David Puig and Eugenio López-Chacarra, Thailand’s Ratchanon “TK†Chantananuwat, 2021 NCAA champion Turk Pettit and former U.S. Amateur winners Andy Ogletree and James Piot.
This created two main problems for the Walker Cup. One is the omnipresent threat of LIV signing top players and offering guaranteed status before the match. The second is that the PGA Tour responded to LIV by better protecting their talent pipeline, offering enhanced benefits to college seniors through the PGA Tour University program, making for a more convenient route to the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour. Last month, the PGA Tour announced even more direct access to the big leagues by allowing the top PGA Tour University finisher to gain immediate tour membership after the NCAA Championship.
That’s tough news for the Walker Cup, which is traditionally played in early September. The top college seniors seem more reluctant than ever to remain amateur through the summer.
“These players are wanting to turn professional, candidly, as fast as they can,†Brendan von Doehren, the executive director of PGA Tour University, told Global Golf Post.
Sources told GGP that multiple American players, including Sam Bennett, Austin Greaser and Travis Vick, declined invitations to the Walker Cup practice session taking place Dec. 15-18 in Jupiter, Florida, because each of them plans to turn pro well in advance of the event. Bennett (No. 2), Greaser (No. 5) and Vick (No. 8) are three of the top seven American amateurs in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. They rank among the top six of the PGA Tour University standings heading into the spring semester, so they figure to be in line for Korn Ferry status or potential PGA Tour starts.
Americans William Mouw, Patrick Welch, Reid Davenport, Brian Stark and Ricky Castillo are in the top 20 of the PGA Tour University rankings, and none of them will be in Florida for the 16-man practice session as they, too, gear up for professional golf. The American side went as far down the board as Palmer Jackson, the No. 39 amateur in the world. There are eight U.S. players ahead of Jackson who aren’t going to the practice session. Of the top 10 Americans attending the practice session, only Dylan Menante is a college senior.
“I wish I had a chance to get in front of (the players) and their parents to tell them that this is just not the right thing to do. I know money is important. But I'm just very passionate. I just think that it's your responsibility to go play for your country.â€
Jim Holtgrieve
Participating in the practice session holds no guarantee for actually making the 10-man roster, but it’s entirely possible that this year’s U.S. Walker Cup team includes no graduating seniors because all of them have left for professional golf. The GB&I squad figures to be less affected because only one of its players is in the PGA Tour University top 30, and there are just two GB&I contenders are in the top 40 of the WAGR.
Jim Holtgrieve, the 2011 and 2013 U.S. Walker Cup captain, told GGP that he takes issue with the situation.
“I wish I had a chance to get in front of (the players) and their parents to tell them that this is just not the right thing to do,†Holtgrieve said. “I know money is important. But I'm just very passionate. I just think that it's your responsibility to go play for your country.â€
While the Walker Cup has long dealt with kids leaving for pro golf – Collin Morikawa, Justin Suh and Matthew Wolff eschewed the 2019 match to turn pro (Morikawa already had played in the 2017 edition) – the match has rarely struggled to pull in top college seniors because of how slow the process was to reach the PGA Tour.
Holtgrieve’s 2011 team had graduated seniors Harris English, Russell Henley and Kelly Kraft. English and Henley played Korn Ferry Tour (then called the Nationwide Tour) events as amateurs – Henley even won as an amateur – and turned pro immediately after the Walker Cup. Kraft turned pro after the 2012 Masters because of his U.S. Am exemption.
That is indicative of the pull the Walker Cup has held. Even in that 2019 edition, Brandon Wu, Isaiah Salinda and Alex Smalley held off their pro pursuits to play in the Walker Cup. Wu and Smalley have full status on the PGA Tour now.
Just a few years later, conditions have changed.
“I get worried about the future of the Walker Cup,†Holtgrieve said. “LIV and what the tour is trying to do is certainly going to create some problems for us. I've been talking to all the previous captains and trying to figure out what we can do to try to keep these young guys focused on trying to play for their country and then go play for the money. I'm not sure how we do it.â€
The PGA Tour has put a provision in place by which PGA Tour University graduates can defer their benefits, play in professional events as an amateur throughout the summer and then participate in the new direct-to-tour Q-School as a pro where they could use benefits like automatically advancing to the final stage. However, the player would not accumulate points while being an amateur, so he would be voluntarily falling behind in the race for Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour status.
“We worked with John (Bodenhamer) and the team at the USGA,†von Doehren said. “It's kind of a moving target. We're trying to respect those prestigious championships and add some sort of ramp for those that want to play in (amateur tournaments).â€
The PGA Tour already has announced that younger college players now will have a path to professional golf if they reach certain benchmarks. What happens if those benefits continue to improve over time, pushing more college kids into professional golf sooner?
But in the opinion of Holtgrieve and other guardians of the Walker Cup, not enough has been done.
The fear from their perspective is that this trend continues. The PGA Tour already has announced that younger college players now will have a path to professional golf if they reach certain benchmarks. What happens if those benefits continue to improve over time, pushing more college kids into professional golf sooner?
We already are seeing top amateur events struggle to get the best amateurs in their fields. Could the Walker Cup slowly lose prominence and become an afterthought?
“I'm hoping that we can get a few people in the room to figure out what we are going to do,†Holtgrieve said. “I mean, the fact that the Walker Cup could fade away or would be played mostly by high school-age young men, it’s really concerning.â€
There are some potential solutions on the table, although all of them have obstacles.
One obvious question is whether the date can be changed. The 2021 Walker Cup was played in May because Seminole Golf Club hosted. Many players competed before turning professional shortly after the event.
The pitfalls are that GB&I is put in a difficult time crunch coming off of winter, a factor that doesn’t impact the U.S. nearly as much. A spring or early summer Walker Cup also has to be worked around the NCAA Championship, June’s Palmer Cup, prominent amateur events and tour events that can offer sponsor exemptions.
The USGA recently announced that the Walker Cup is moving to even-numbered years starting in 2026 so that it can avoid conflict with the World Amateur Team Championship, an event that changed to odd years to avoid conflict with the Olympics. The Walker Cup and the WATC will take place in the same year for 2023 and 2025, with about six weeks separating the two.
The PGA Tour also could allow college graduates to play in professional events as an amateur but award them points for their performance, similar to how non-tour members can earn special temporary membership by collecting a certain amount of points in limited starts. This appears to be a nonstarter, however, because FedEx Cup points eventually can be cashed in for bonus money, which breaks amateur-status rules.
The Walker Cup undoubtedly will want to maintain its standing as an amateur-only event, carefully navigating the blurred lines between the amateur and professional games. With that in mind, there may have to be some non-monetary incentive to keep kids in the event. It’s tough to come up with anything in that category, outside of something like exemptions into future majors or other pro events in which the player can then compete as a professional. (This wouldn’t be too dissimilar from the USGA’s exception for U.S. Amateur winners to turn pro and still keep their U.S. Open exemption).
Money has become such a dominant part of the game now, but many who have gone on to earn millions say that they cherish their Walker Cup experience more than just about anything else in their competitive careers. The emotional significance of the event and the relationships formed are deeply meaningful.
Does representing your country still have the same pull? A lot of the LIV players essentially turned down future Ryder Cup captaincy or the ability to play in the event, and they are the ones who already have made millions.
Ultimately, can the Walker Cup still be protected in an age of guaranteed contracts and an easier path to the PGA Tour?
It’s a question a lot of people in the amateur game will be pondering in the coming years.
With three Walker Cups in the next four years, we’ll discover the answer sooner rather than later.
Top: U.S. Amateur champ Sam Bennett is among many to decline an invitation to the Walker Cup practice session.
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