The USA won the Walker Cup in 2025 thanks to a brutal final-day drubbing in the singles, and this is not the first time we’ve said that.
At the 2017 matches at Los Angeles Country Club, the home team collectively won the singles sessions 14-4. That was the one Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa and Will Zalatoris played in.
Great Britain and Ireland edged the first singles session at Hoylake in 2019, but were hammered 8-2 in the decisive one. At Cypress Point last week, GB&I won one singles match on day two, having entered the crunch afternoon only one point behind.
The moral of the story is America’s depth of talent eventually shines through, and since the GB&I turn-of-the-millennium golden age passed, the record books are a tough read.
Two wins in the last 11 attempts only fuel the cries for the Walker Cup to abandon tradition and to incorporate a European team instead.
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It was in 1979 that Team Europe in the Ryder Cup was formed. At that point, GB&I had won the event once since 1935. Change was needed to stoke interest. Now, it is an even contest in which European fans have most of the bragging rights.
But tradition dictates that the GB&I team faces the Americans every two years. There is less of a commercial element to the Walker Cup. It isn’t a week where US TV networks chase ratings, and it isn’t necessarily about the result.
The Walker Cup exists in its own sphere of tradition to give stepping stones to top amateur golfers.
Having said that, the match is still one-sided, and this got us thinking: What would a European Ryder Cup team look like if it weren’t European, but GB&I? And would it stand a chance of beating the USA?
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Using this year’s Ryder Cup rankings, we have listed the players who would line up for Luke Donald’s side if the Walker Cup format were adopted instead of continental Europe.
GB Ryder Cup team: Could it beat the USA?
| A Ryder Cup team from Great Britain and Ireland |
| Rory McIlroy |
| Robert MacIntyre |
| Tommy Fleetwood |
| Justin Rose |
| Tyrrell Hatton |
| Shane Lowry |
| Matt Fitzpatrick |
| Matt Wallace |
| Marco Penge |
| Aaron Rai |
| Jordan Smith |
| Harry Hall |
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One would assume that the quality of the team drops in this case, which might be true of the bottom half of the squad, but certainly not the top half.
At the end of the qualifying period, Rasmus Hojgaard was the only player in the top seven of Europe’s standings from the continent.
You would see players who ply most of their trade on the DP World Tour involved such as Marco Penge and Jordan Smith. Aaron Rai is a PGA Tour winner, but a relatively new face to the PGA Tour all the same. Harry Hall played in the Tour Championship at the end of the FedEx Cup Playoffs in 2025, and Matt Wallace has won several times in Europe, but has yet to crack America.
On the outskirts of this imagined team, you have Yorkshire’s John Parry and Dan Brown, Paul Waring, Laurie Canter and Dan Bradbury.
The glaring omissions here would make a Ryder Cup extremely difficult to win for a GB&I side. Jon Rahm is a two-time major winner and one of the best players in the world. Ludvig Aberg is a major champion in waiting, as is Viktor Hovland. They have both won multiple times on the PGA Tour.
There have been underdog stories down the years, where titans have been taken down by the plucky hero. Philip Price beating Phil Mickelson 3&2 in the Ryder Cup singles in 2002 comes to mind. But they are one-offs.
What the Walker Cup and our make-believe team show is the absence of continental European talent works in the immense favour of the USA, and makes for a lopsided affair.
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Could a GB Ryder Cup team ever be competitive against the USA? Was it right to remove the Ryder Cup GB&I side? Tell us on X!
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