1995 Walker Cup, Porthcawl, Wales

Following the 1993 Walker Cup Match at Interlachen, which found the US team thrashing the Great Britain and Ireland team (GB & I) 19-5, the 1995 Match moved to Porthcawl, Wales.  Headed by amateur sensation Tiger Woods, along with returning team member John Harris, we had a high degree of confidence the Walker Cup would stay at home.  

Royal Porthcawl is a seaside links course in Porthcawl, Wales. A city of 16,000 on the Atlantic Ocean it is located due west of London.  A four-hour drive out the M4 highway from London found us in Porthcawl on September 7th, two days before the start of the Walker Cup.

Wales is a country which, similar to Scotland, is part of Great Britain. Historically a coal producing region, it has declined with the fall in coal production. The area is hilly with little to attract the tourist in 1995.  It has always been a blue collar area.

As is typical throughout Great Britain, the clubhouse was small. The contrast between the clubhouses at the US venues and the GB &I courses is dramatic. Whereas the US sites have huge buildings of 50,000 square feet or more, a clubhouse at a GB&I site might average 5,000 - 10,000 square feet. However, they are all fascinating to walk through, soaking up the history of the club. So it was at Porthcawl. 

At the last minute, the GB & I team was forced to substitute for an injured Graham Rankin, bringing in Gary Wolstenholme. While not an unknown, as he had won the 1991 British Amateur, this was his first Walker Cup appearance. He would go on to play on the next six Walker Cup teams, including four winning teams. Some now call him Great Britain's greatest amateur.

I watched Gary Wolstenholme play in five of his six Walker Cup appearances. I have never seen a more incredible player in the Walker Cup. Not because he hit it so far, but because he hit it so short. Pairing Gary against Tiger Woods each round at Porthcawl, Captain Clive Brown knew the older Wolstenholme would not be intimidated by Tiger. 

In his singles match on day one, with Tiger hitting drives over 100 yards past him, Wolstenholme hung in.  It was a brutal day with winds at 30+ MPH and squalls of rain blowing through. We watched play for a period of time, then retreated to the clubhouse or adjacent tent to warm and dry out. I walked back out to stand in the drive zone at number 18 as the match came to the final hole, all even.  The 18th is a par 4 and runs downhill with the club house close on the left and out of bounds. Wolstenholm hit his drive down the right side of the fairway and hit a five wood to the front right corner, just off the green. 

The wind whipped from right to left as Tiger looked over his shot, pulling out a seven iron. If he could hit a good shot it would put pressure on his opponent to hit a good chip and putt.  Under the pressure of the Walker Cup, no easy task. It wasn't to be. Hitting a shot most un-Tiger-like, he pull-hooked the ball out of bounds and the match was over. I stood stunned along with the few other spectators. The great Tiger Woods had hit a terrible shot with the match on the line. It was the third shot he hit out of bounds that day. Wolstenholme would later say he "had never seen anybody play the way Tiger did" with his prodigious drives. And Wolstenholme beat him. 

I watched Wolstenholm in 2005 at Chicago Golf Club play JB Holmes, an enormously long hitter. I picked them up on the 8th hole, a par four. Holmes was well over 100 yards in front of Wolstenholm. I thought Wolstenholme must have miss hit his tee shot. Nobody could be that far behind a fellow competitor with a good drive. Not so. Holmes hit the ball that much longer. The score? Holmes was lucky to win 1 up.  Anthony Kim, the great UC Berkley player, was not so lucky the next morning, falling to Wolstenholme, 1 down.

I heard a story about a teaching professional telling Wolstenholme he could help him hit it further. Wolstenholme kindly declined the offer. 

After the first day, the US trailed 7-5.  We awoke Sunday to a horrible day. The rains lashed the course the entire day. It was one of the worst days I have seen where golf was played. With no lightning and a sand base to the links course, the water drained through the soil and play continued. Captain Brown led the afternoon singles with his four best players starting with Gordon Sherry the British Amateur champion. The strategy worked and all four won. With the US putting our best players at the back end of the lineup, by the time the US players won, it was too late and the US fell 14-10. It was a watershed match for GB & I. From 1995 until 2015, they had six wins and five losses.  From the inception of the Walker Cup in 1922 until 1993, GB & I had only won three times.

Several factors led to the defeat. Tiger Woods had flu-like symptoms the entire weekend.  While he was 2-2 in the four matches, he seemed to have little interest in playing. Maybe it was the weather.  The US team had never played in conditions so severe. However, it was weather not atypical of Great Britain.  The wind and the rain were brutal but the GB & I team had grown up playing in tough conditions.

Each Walker Cup I have attended has special memories. At Porthcawl it was the weather, Tiger Woods' play and the emergence of Gary Wolstenholme on the international stage. While everybody wants their team to win, GB & I becoming competitive in the Walker Cup was a good development in A Life In Golf.