Hindsight is wonderful. A quarter of century on from one of Great Britain & Ireland’s finest hours – the Walker Cup in 1999 – it’s churlish to think the result was ever in doubt.
A 7-1 final day slaughter in the foursomes and singles propelled GB&I to a 15-9 victory over the United States at Nairn Golf Club.
It was a match that launched the careers of a golden generation of European golfers, including Luke Donald and Paul Casey.
But the Americans were also packed full of future multiple tour winners and GB&I’s Walker Cup past had been dominated by failure.
Captain Peter McEvoy’s young lions, bolstered by the likes of Graeme McDowell and Nick Dougherty, would retain the trophy at Sea Island two years later before claiming three in a row at Ganton in 2003.
They only narrowly missed out on a fab four by a single point in Chicago two years later, when a certain Rory McIlroy was left at home.
We asked McEvoy to look back to where it all began, reminisce on a couple of memorable days, but also wonder what might have been during a golden period for golf on this side of the pond…
The 1999 Walker Cup at Nairn… with Peter McEvoy
Did you know this was a special group?
I knew we had a strong team. We’d had strong teams before and still lost. Our expectation level in the Walker Cup was dreadful because we’d played something like 36 games and lost 32 of them.
I sought to see if I could change that. What I tried to do was get our team to think ‘we’re not underdogs here at all’.
We’re playing at home. We’ve won the Curtis Cup. We’d won the Eisenhower Trophy. We had the number one player in the world in Luke Donald.
How did you motivate the players?
In team meetings, I’d bring them all forward and go through their record [one by one]. By the time you’ve done that with 10 high achieving individuals it seems like an insurmountable opposition the Americans had.
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A Saatchi & Saatchi video we did was key. It was only short – two or three minutes – but it said: “Have you any idea who the Americans are playing? They’re playing the team that’s won the world championship, done this, done that, got the number one player in the world.”
It was black and white and moody. It was very successful. According to Phil Rowe’s parents, he just played it over and over.
I knew we had the players. If I could change the expectation level, I felt we had a really good chance. Even though we were losing after the first day, I never thought we were going to lose.
I really didn’t. I felt like we had team full of people who were hungry to win and were going to. I just thought we were better than them.
How did Nairn set up for GB&I at the Walker Cup?
Any links course was a big advantage. We did talk about it during the week as well. If the pins are at the back, feed the ball through from the front of the green if it’s downwind.
The Americans are flying it at the flag, and they did make basic errors – like pitching on the back of the green and going into the thick stuff. Short siding themselves. Those things do happen. Nairn is about as linksy as you can get.
Picking Donald and Casey in the foursomes looks inspired now. How did you put together your combinations?
I’ll tell you how I used to do foursomes. I used to go in confidence to each player and say, ‘who do you want to play with and who do you not want to play with?’ I wrote it down and that was my foursomes pairings.
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I did this 50 times. I never felt there was anyone better to play with than the person you wanted to.
I didn’t worry about ball types or playing strengths. I just went with who they wanted to play with. It was amazing how often you had just five foursomes pairings.
How did you influence players when they were out on the course?
So much is common sense. If somebody is four down after seven, I’d say, ‘I’m going to come and see you in three holes and I want you back to 3 or 2 down’.
Let them think about something that’s more achievable because you can think, ‘I’m 4 down and there’s no way back’.
But if you tell them ‘just win one of the next three holes and I’ll see you on the tee and we’ll talk about what we’re going to do there’. They’ve got a target.
It must have been incredible watching on Sunday – particularly in the singles when the games were tight?
I remember standing on the 1st tee with Peter Dawson, watching all the tee shots, and just saying to him, ‘look, we’re better than they are’. Our players just looked better than they did. That was the way we thought all week.
It one thing to say, it’s another to do it…
It’s all about the players. You can say what you like. They’ve got to go out and do it. I had complete confidence. There were a few real hard nuts in there – like Casey, Donald, Gary Wolstenholme. It doesn’t matter what you say to any of them, they’re going to try and win a point. They were determined. It makes life easy.
I had Graham Rankin, whose Walker Cup record at that stage was not great, but he was very talented. I thought, ‘How am I going to deal with this?’
The best way was to have him as my champion, going out first in both foursomes and singles. Tell him he’s the one who’s going to bring the Scottish crowds with him and get everybody cheering.
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It was all he needed. It was all he’d ever needed – somebody to believe in him and give them that role. He was fantastic. He did exactly what I hoped. Everything flowed from there.
How much of what happened with those players in 1999 set you up for the Walker Cup in 2001?
If anything, we were stronger. Our belief changed because of ‘99. We really did think we were the top amateur golfing country in the world. So 2001 was much easier than ‘99 because you could draw on everything that had happened before.
How do you look back on that time?
My proudest moment was talking to a figure in the USGA after we won three in a row, and they formed a committee to find out why they were doing so badly in the Walker Cup.
It’s a pity we didn’t win four in a row. I do blame myself slightly for that. I was chairman of selectors in Chicago – we lost by a point – and at the committee meeting we sat picking the team and Rory McIlroy was available.
He hadn’t played many amateur tournaments. He kept getting invites to pro events, was missing the cut in all of them, and was only 16.
But we picked Oliver Fisher, who was also 16, because he’d played in all the amateur tournaments and had done well.
We ended up effectively having to choose between Brian McElhinney, who’d won the Amateur, and Rory. It wasn’t quite as simple as that, but they were among three or four people we were discussing.
At the time, Brian had played 14 times for Ireland and had won 14. He was known as The Terminator. He’d won the Amateur Championship and had a sound record in other things. Rory had missed the cut in every pro tournament he’d played in.
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We decided on Brian, but I remember saying to the rest of the selectors, ‘are we doing the right thing here? We’re leaving out Rory and I think we all know what he is going to be’. But we said it’s got to be Brian McElhinney when you look at records. It’s a no brainer. It was fair enough.
We picked the team just before The Open and went to the Association of Golf Writers’ dinner that evening. We sat beside the Irish table.
That was the day Rory went round Portrush in 61 at the North of Ireland. God, I got a hard time. ‘How can you not have picked him?’ If I’d known he was going to go round in 61 I would have picked him!
If we’d picked Rory, we would have won four in a row. It was difficult but, as you can tell, it’s 19 years later and I’m still annoyed about it.
What happened at the 1999 Walker Cup?
GB&I trailed the USA after the first day at Nairn. After sharing the points in the morning foursomes, Jonathan Byrd was the big afternoon singles winner – defeating David Patrick 6&5 as the Americans claimed a 5-3 session victory and a 7-5 overnight lead.
But it was utter domination from the home team on Sunday. Graeme Storm and Graham Rankin, along with Phil Roe and Gary Wolstenholme, led the way with thumping 4&3 foursomes wins.
With the scores tied at 8-8 going into the pivotal Sunday singles, GB&I won 7 of the 8 matches and claimed an emphatic 15-9 victory.
Casey and Donald were the big stars, winning all four of their matches, with amateur legend Wolstenholme and Rowe also unbeaten.
1999 Walker Cup scorecard
Saturday Foursomes
Rankin and Storm lost 1 up to Haas and Miller
Casey and Donald beat Byrd and Scott 5&3
Gribben and Kelly lost 3&1 to Gossett and Jackson
Rowe and Wolstenholme beat Kuchar and Molder 1 up
Session: GB&I 2-2 USA
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Saturday Singles
Rankin lost 4&3 to Loar
Donald beat McKnight 4&3
Storm lost 4&3 to Haas
Casey beat Scott 4&3
Patrick lost 6&5 to Byrd
Dyson halved with Gossett
Gribben halved with Molder
Kelly lost 3&1 to Jackson
Session: GB&I 3-5 USA
Day 1: GB&I 5-7 USA
Sunday Foursomes
Storm and Rankin beat Loar and McKnight 4&3
Dyson and Gribben lost 1 up to Haas and Miller
Casey and Donald beat Gossett and Jackson 1 up
Rowe and Wolstenholme beat Kuchar and Molder 4&3
Session score: GB&I 3-1 USA
Match score: GB&I 8-8 USA
Sunday Singles
Rankin beat Scott 1 up
Dyson lost 5&4 to Loar
Casey beat Miller 3&2
Storm beat Byrd 1 up
Donald beat Molder 3&2
Rowe beat Kuchar 1 up
Gribben beat Haas 3&2
Wolstenholme beat Gossett 1 up
Session score: GB&I 7-1 USA
Final score: GB&I 15-9 USA
Now have your say on the Walker Cup
What do you remember about the 1999 Walker Cup at Nairn? Could Great Britain & Ireland have made it four in a row had Rory McIlroy been picked in 2005? Why not let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment on X.