NCG meets Peter McEvoy

Mark Townsend talks to recetly retired GB&I chairman of selectors Peter McEvoy about this year's Walker Cup and the evolution of the matches in general

IN September of this year the 41st staging of the Walker Cup will take place at Royal County Down in Newcastle, Northern Ireland.

The current scoreline reads 32-7, with one halved match back in 1965, but hopes are high for Colin Dalgleish's men. And rightly so.

With three wins from the last four meetings the tables have been turned on their American counterparts and much of that is down to one man.

Peter McEvoy OBE.

Gone now are the days of sub-standard clothing, economy travel and an inferiority complex. Just as Tony Jacklin is credited with beginning the European resurrection in the Ryder Cup, McEvoy has done likewise with the 10 leading amateurs from Great Britain and Ireland.

McEvoy captained the 1999 and 2001 sides to emphatic 15-9 triumphs and then, as chairman of selectors, oversaw a thrilling win at Ganton before a reversal of that 12.5-11.5 scoreline at Chicago two years ago.

Welshman Tony Disley has taken over McEvoy's chairman's role but the former two-time Amateur champion is as keen as ever to see another GB and Ireland win and, despite the defeat of 2005, is urging the players to emulate the success of their professional counterparts at The K Club last September.

"I would be encouraging them to go in as favourites. I would be stressing the home advantage, stressing what's happened in international team golf, not just the Walker Cup, but look at the Ryder Cup.

"The Americans don't relish this kind of thing any more so we need to try and get our team thinking as positively as possible. I think the only reason to like the underdog status is to take a little bit of attention off you. I have never seen that as a positive, rather go into it thinking you're going to win."

It comes as little surprise to hear McEvoy talking up the home chances. When handed the captaincy for Nairn eight years ago, one of his first ideas was to put together a motivational video, an idea he got from a speaker who was encouraging salesmen to sell dictaphones.

With matters off the course in place, Great Britain and Ireland could turn to a string of amateur stars on it, including Paul Casey and Luke Donald. The pair were unbeaten in the foursomes but McEvoy's role was nothing short of inspirational as NCG columnist and GB and Ireland's record points scorer Gary Wolstenholme remembers.

"Peter instilled so much more self-belief in the squad than was previously present. Just little things like the kit we use help to create a positive feeling in the camp. We now sincerely feel we are as good as the Americans – that was not the
case in the past years."

Two years later at Sea Island, Donald, then the leading amateur in the world, was joined by Graeme McDowell and Nick Dougherty and, once again, McEvoy's leadership proved to be pivotal as the visitors prevailed by the same 15-9 scoreline.
In the lead-up to that match McEvoy took his side to Buckingham Palace before flying out to Georgia on club class and his influence was not lost on a young McDowell.

The Northern Irishman recalled the win at Ocean Forest with fondness. "It was a special week for so many reasons but the main one was playing under Peter McEvoy. He's a special guy and an unbelievable leader," he told NCG.

"I remember him being a great communicator who makes every player feel like they're an important member of the team. He motivates and inspires you to play better golf and it was the best managed team I've ever been part of, no doubt about it."

With a third successive win now in sight McEvoy, now chairman of selectors, and skipper Garth McGimpsey came in for some criticism after ending the first day 7-5 in arrears and with a side lacking the likes of Richard Finch, Richard Walker and Brabazon winner Jonathan Lupton.

But the plan to pick a team who would cope with the fast-running Yorkshire track came off as the hosts snatched five-and-a-half points from the eight singles.

"My way of thinking is you are picking a team to win a match on that course at that time. It may not be the 10 best players and it is not for any other reason other than to win that match on that course at that time. There could be all kinds of factors. Ganton is a very particular type of golf course. Fast running, tight and it was always going to be a short-game
test. A big, glamorous long game was never going to be the thing so we tried to pick a team of nigglers."

Unlike the Ryder Cup, the Walker Cup course is presented by the R and A as it would do for an Open Championship. That is to say, not to suit a certain team's strengths or weaknesses, but to serve up a proper test of links golf. And McEvoy, who finished as the low amateur at both the 1978 and 1979 Open Championships, is prepared for another test of shot-making and short-game expertise in Northern Ireland.

"When I first became captain I came in full of boyish enthusiasm wanting to do what they did in the Ryder Cup and they weren't like that. The R and A were very, 'we want to prepare the golf course, it's a great golf course' and I think they'll do it like that. They'll prepare it in a very linksy way whether that is to anyone's advantage or not.

"It reminds me of Pinehurst No 2. The real challenge is that lots of greens are perched up. As a consequence anything that misses the green falls off into swales and anything off line stays off line. In my experience the better your short game is the better you're going to perform. You obviously pick on results but if in doubt and one's got a great short game and the other hasn't you pick the former."

McEvoy played on five Walker Cup teams and, despite a glittering career he was the first British amateur to make the cut at the Masters - did not enjoy the best of times in the competition.

"My singles record is better than anyone's but my record in Walker Cup is won five, lost eleven an, halved two. It is something that I hate myself for because there are very few mitigating circumstances. I failed," he explains in his excellent autobiography 'For Love or Money'.

He did save his best for his last appearance though when he contributed two-and-a-half points to the first win on American soil at Peachtree. And the lessons he learned there, playing other courses instead of just practising at the host venue, are ones that he carried forward to his captaincy.

The turnaround in the GB and I fortunes have not been lost on the Americans, though, and McEvoy has seen a shift in their outlook in recent years.

"They've copied everything we've done. And very successfully. They used to pick a couple of old boys to show there were older people playing amateur golf but they don't do that any more. They were straight in with 10 college players last time and they were their 10 best players.

"The one thing I always say about Americans is there are 300 million of them they are bound to find 10 good ones. You know they're going to be good."

McEvoy is always keen to accentuate the positives and one huge one in Newcastle will be the level of support the hosts can expect to receive. The scenes at The K Club were some of the most special witnessed on a home golf course and McEvoy insists that it could make all the difference.

"The support will be amazing, it always is in Ireland. It is a different set of rules to anywhere else. It is also an enormous factor, if you look at any league table in any sport you will see that two thirds of any points are won at home.
Everything is the same but just the noise coming in your ears can double your chances."

Of course one player who won't be representing the home side is the hugely-talented Oliver Fisher. The Essex teenager made his debut in Chicago as a 16-year-old but has since turned professional and McEvoy, who has been critical of others for leaving the amateur ranks so soon in their careers, believes that Fisher has made the right decision.

"I always feel with amateurs is when they are good and moving forwards there's no point in doing things again. With Oliver Fisher he has done the right thing and it is quite evident from his early results that he's ready to move on to the next stage. We were always half conscious that he might be one who would go."

McEvoy made his Walker Cup bow alongside another teenage prodigy in Sandy Lyle at Shinnecock Hills in 1977. He recalls that day as one where synthetic blue trousers, which heated up in the in the sun, played their part in a winless debut and a crushing victory for the Americans.

How times have changed.