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With the 2019 Walker Cup within the books, it’s time to begin searching in advance to the 2021 fit at Seminole Golf Club.
The Donald Ross design in Juno Beach, Fla., will open its doors to the public for the primary time whilst it hosts the biennial suit-play opposition among the U.S. And Great Britain and Ireland in years. And in view that Seminole is closed for the summer time, it is going to be the web page of the first spring Walker Cup on U.S. Soil.
The playing dates could be May 8-nine, so Seminole have to be in brilliant form and the weather, apart from threat of rain, need to be an development over the standard time frame, that is in the height of storm season. (Florida has been tormented by predominant hurricanes during the last Walker Cup weeks.)
Of course, the transfer from September also provides plenty of latest demanding situations.
For one, the dates are sandwiched between convention and nearby tournaments, so at the same time as university players who make the Walker Cup might now not miss any tournaments, they might go back for regionals worn out from a demanding week. (This 12 months’s U.S. Walker Cup team played six rounds of exercise at Pinehurst a week earlier than leaving for England, and then practiced for 6 days in the leadup to the 4-consultation event at Royal Liverpool.
“Not best,” said one university coach.
There are also capacity faculty conflicts. Some schools have ended by early May, however others are either still in session, inside the middle of very last assessments or holding commencements. There’s a possibility that the 2020 U.S. Amateur champion ought to miss weeks of class, one in April for the Masters and some other for the Walker Cup, no longer which include time away for college tournaments.
“I ought to see a player agreeing to play however no longer arrive every week early,” said every other college educate.
And then there’s a shortened qualifying period. There could be just one summer beginner schedule between now and the next Walker Cup. Next year’s U.S. Amateur champion will earn an exemption. Spring university occasions and winter novice tournaments, most extensively the Jones Cup, gets added importance in 2021.
“Everybody knows what a unique region Seminole is, and it is sort of bizarre we most effective have one summer left of beginner golfing in between that,” said Cole Hammer, a Texas sophomore and 2019 Walker Cupper. “It’s developing speedy. It doesn’t really feel like two years from now. That’ll be an interesting deal.”
This is a larger trouble for the GB&I aspect, as lots of its gamers don’t play university golfing. Only the Lytham Trophy will have been performed earlier than the team is selected.
“Can we visit Australia and Dubai and South Africa to potentially scout some of the gamers?” stated this 12 months’s GB&I captain Craig Watson. “Because that’s wherein they’ll be gambling.”
There is one massive positive of a Walker Cup in May: it makes the event even extra applicable.
If this 12 months’s match became played within the spring, the U.S. Group possibly would’ve had Matthew Wolff and Collin Morikawa on it. Both players turned pro after NCAAs, and both went on to win PGA Tour occasions this summer.
The May dates mean pinnacle amateurs won’t must choose between leaving pro begins on the desk and staying novice to play the Walker Cup. It gives a number of this 12 months’s Walker Cuppers – Hammer, John Pak, Alex Fitzpatrick, Connor Gough – a threat to compete once more, some thing that now not too many gamers do anymore. And it’s going to likely preserve men which include Austin Eckroat, Noah Goodwin, Brandon Mancheno and Davis Shore inside the U.S. Pool.
Hammer said there’s no question that he’ll tee it up at Seminole if decided on.
“That’s now not a selection at all,” he said. “If we’re fortunate sufficient to have the possibility to play on that group again, we are now not missing it for the sector.”
