The 1999 Walker Cup
Relive GB&I’s famous victory at Nairn
There is something magical about golf by the sea. Nairn, found on a raised strip of linksland, is as special as they come.
What happens when an exceptional layout meets an extraordinary competition? Fireworks. Such was the 1999 Walker Cup.
At the end of a millennia, amid the promise of a new century, amateur golf in Great Britain & Ireland began a glorious new era in the Scottish Highlands.
The 15-9 victory? That’s only a fraction of the story. But time passes and memories fade. So let’s remember the feats of GB&I skipper Peter McEvoy and his talented young titans – as they took on the might of America and produced two days of the finest golf ever seen.
Team
GB&I
What a special group. Gary Wolstenholme was the greatest British male amateur of his generation, while Luke Donald arrived as the World No. 1. Who would know he would hold that honour in the professional realm too?
The names of McEvoy’s men drip off the tongue now. Paul Casey, Simon Dyson, Graeme Storm – how many trophies adorn those mantelpieces?
Fittingly given the location, a triumvirate of Scots made the line up. David Patrick and Lorne Kelly were joined by Graham Rankin. Englishman Phil Rowe made up to the 10 but was no filler. He’d win all three of his matches.
Team
USA
Danny Yates led an equally precocious USA outfit, with Matt Kuchar the eye-catching prodigy. He’d won the US Amateur in 1997 and was low amateur at the Masters in 1998. He has since won 18 times as a professional.
Jonathan Byrd, Bryce Molder, and David Gossett would all win on the PGA Tour – Byrd multiple times. Gossett was the reigning US Amateur champion, while Steve Scott took Tiger Woods to the brink in the 1996 final and had played in the comfortable US Walker Cup win at Quaker Ridge.
Spider Miller, the oldest member of either team at 49, won the US Mid-Amateur in 1996 and 1998. He would captain the US Walker Cup team in 2015 and 2017.
The Captains
GB&I captain
Peter McEvoy
A winner of the Amateur Championship in 1977 and 1978, Peter McEvoy is amateur golfing aristocracy. He played on five Walker Cup teams between 1977 and 1989 and in five Eisenhower Trophy teams – winning as an individual in 1988.
He won the Silver Medal for low amateur at The Open in 1978 and 1979 and was the first British amateur to make the cut at Augusta National in 1978, while also winning the Lytham Trophy in 1979 and the Brabazon Trophy in 1980.
Named captain for the GB&I Walker Cup teams for 1999 and 2001, McEvoy was tasked with motivating a talented but young outfit.
“I knew we had a strong team. We’d had strong teams before and still lost,” he said. “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 at all’.
In that, as Luke Donald explained, he was incredibly successful. “He did a brilliant job of getting us in the right frame of mind and making us prepared,” said the Ryder Cup captain.
“He painted a picture that we were champions and that we knew how to win. He would go through each player individually and go through their records; he would say to me, ‘you are conquering America’.
“You don’t think about your achievements each and every day and then you take a step back and you think, ‘yeah, I have done all that’. Then you think, ‘we are capable of winning’.”
USA captain
Danny Yates
A member of Georgia’s SEC Championship teams in 1971 and 1972, Danny Yates made the cut at the US Open at Merion in ’71. He also claimed the US Mid-Amateur in 1992 and competed at the Masters in 1989 and 1993.
Yates played in the Walker Cup in 1989, partnering a young Phil Mickelson in foursomes, and 1993. He captained the team in 1999 and 2001.
“To me, it’s the purest event in golf. My uncle [Charlie] played on the ’36 and ’38 teams and I can remember as a child he always went. I think it meant a lot to him. He didn’t go around bragging about it, but he loved it.”
NAIRN AND THE WALKER CUP
Until 1999, the Walker Cup had never been held north of the central belt, and Nairn needed to build up experience of holding major events to reassure the R&A it would be a successful venue.
It is, of course, a highly respected and classic links. Andrew Simpson, Old Tom Morris, James Braid, Ben Sayers, and Martin Hawtree all made their mark in shaping the layout.
Four major stepping stones were passed to holding the Walker Cup. The club staged the British Boys in 1989 and the Vagliano Trophy two years later. They transformed their clubhouse facilities at the same time and held the British Amateur in 1994.
Nairn made important course developments too, renovating bunkers, improving drainage, and upgrading the practice area.
“Having a links course was a big advantage and we did talk about it during the week as well,” said GB&I captain Peter McEvoy. “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 do make basic errors – like pitching on the back of the green and going into the thick stuff. Those things do happen.
Nairn is about as linksy as you can get”
The First Day
Get off to a good start. It’s the ultimate sporting cliché but, in a Walker Cup, it is usually crucial to finish the first day with a lead.
It hadn’t happened often for GB&I. And it didn’t at Nairn, either.
They got out of the morning foursomes all square. Phil Rowe and Gary Wolstenholme, along with what would prove an unstoppable combination of Luke Donald and Paul Casey, won their points for GB&I.
Hunter Haas and Spider Miller, as well as David Gossett and Tim Jackson replied for the United States.
But in the afternoon singles, it was the Americans who took charge. Donald and Casey shone for GB&I, beating Tom McKnight and Steve Scott 4&3 respectively. Edward Loar, Haas, Jonathan Byrd and Jackson struck for the visitors.
The USA won the session 5-3 and led 7-5. GB&I trailed in a Walker Cup… again. But McEvoy remained bullish.
“I never thought we were going to lose. I really didn’t. I felt like we'd got a team full of people who were hungry to win and were going to. I just thought we were better than them.”
Saturday Foursomes
Rankin and Storm lost 1up 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 1up
Session: GB&I 2-2 USA
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
The Second Day
GB&I produced one of their most glorious Walker Cup days, trouncing the Americans 10-2 to bulldoze to a 15-9 win.
The rout began in the morning foursomes, continuing a McEvoy plot that eventually proved a tactical masterstroke. Graham Rankin had previously lost all six matches he had played in the event, until the skipper made an inspired, but risky, decision.
“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 so, tell him he’s the one who’s going to bring the Scottish crowds with him, and get everybody cheering.
“It was all he needed. It was all he’d ever needed – somebody to believe in him and give him that role. He was fantastic. He did exactly what I hoped.”
Everything flowed from there. Rankin and Graeme Storm beat Loar and McKnight 4&3, while Casey and Donald eased past Gossett and Jackson. Rowe and Wolstenholme hammered Kuchar and Molder, as GB&I won the session 3-1.
With the match now tied at 8-8, the final singles were finely poised. But Rankin did it again – leading from the front as he beat Steve Scott 1up. He almost stiffed a 9-iron at the 17th before drilling in a 20-foot birdie at the last for the grandest of grandstand finishes.
Edward Loar dominated Simon Dyson but, from there, it was one way GB&I traffic.
Casey recovered from two down to beat Spider Miller 3&2 and Donald saw off Molder by the same scoreline.
With Paddy Gribben handling Hunter Haas – he would win 3&2 – Storm sank a four-footer at the final hole to beat Byrd and guarantee GB&I would win the Walker Cup.
Phil Rowe (1up over Matt Kuchar) and Wolstenholme, beating David Gossett 1up at the back of the order, set the seal on an incredible display.
Sunday foursomes
Storm and Rankin beat Loar and McKnight 4&3
Dyson and Gribben lost 1up to Haas and Miller
Casey and Donald beat Gossett and Jackson 1up
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 1up
Dyson lost 5&4 to Loar
Casey beat Miller 3&2
Storm beat Byrd 1up
Donald beat Molder 3&2
Rowe beat Kuchar 1up
Gribben beat Haas 3&2
Wolstenholme beat Gossett 1up
Session score: GB&I 7-1 USA
Final score:
GB&I 15-9 USA
THE AFTERMATH
“You can’t imagine how it feels,” said winning skipper Peter McEvoy afterwards. “I’ve never known a match like this against the United States where we’ve had a day like today. They are a really special team.
“I just couldn’t be more proud of them. It is the proudest moment of my golfing life. At this moment this feels the best moment of them all.”
Hold that thought. Two years later, at Sea Island in Georgia, a team McEvoy arguably considered stronger than at Nairn – which contained Donald and Wolstenholme along with a fledgling Nick Dougherty and Graeme McDowell – won by the same scoreline.
Garth McGimpsey then took over the captaincy at Ganton in 2003 as GB&I made it three consecutive wins for the first time.
“We really did think we were the top amateur golfing country in the world,” McEvoy said. “2001 was much easier than ‘99 because you could draw on everything that had happened.
“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. I thought, ‘that’s a great moment’.”
What they said about Nairn
“We’ve had nothing but praise and compliments from everyone who has been here and we would hope that we’ve made a contribution to the Highlands of Scotland and not just Nairn Golf Club.”
Alistair Mackintosh, Nairn Walker Cup committee chairman
“I was very confident when I recommended Nairn to the Committee that it would be a great Walker Cup, but it was much better than that.”
David Hill, R&A Championship Secretary
“Of all the big events I have been involved in the last 25 years, the Walker Cup at Nairn will rank with the best of them”.
John Shrewsbury, BBC executive producer, Television Sport, Golf
“I cannot tell you how much we all enjoyed last week’s Walker Cup at Nairn, which was the best organised and happiest match I have been to and, bearing in mind that I have been to every one since 1957, that is saying quite a lot.”
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