Great Britain and Ireland captain Stuart Wilson believes his side are ready as they attempt to end the United States’ winning run in the biennial contest.
The Americans are bidding to win the match for the fourth time on the spin following wins at Seminole in 2021, Royal Liverpool in 2019 and Los Angeles Country Club in 2017.
Great Britain and Ireland have won only two of the previous nine matches – at Royal Lytham and St Annes in 2015 and at Royal Aberdeen in 2011.
There are two Scots in the home side with Nairn’s Calum Scott and 16-year-old Connor Graham teeing up against the USA.
Wilson is pleased with his side’s preparation ahead of the match getting under way at The Old Course at St Andrews on Saturday morning.
He said: “The team has done a fantastic job this week of preparing.
“It’s been a long week.
“I don’t think there’s many weeks like this in the golfing calendar when there’s so much preparation, but we had our two practice rounds early in the week and then we had a little break over to Kingsbarns, which was a bit more of a social, relaxed day, and then rounding them up Thursday and Friday here for the official practice days.
“Preparations have gone well, and the guys are all playing well, which is great to see.
“Playing well and practising creates a nice situation but a difficult situation as well.
“It has given us a little bit of a headache as to pairings and obviously we’ve got to leave two players out each of the first three sessions so the guys have made my job difficult by deciding who to leave out.”
Close-knit group eager to shine
Wilson says the close bond between the players will hopefully make selecting pairings an easier process.
He said: “We’ve tried to look at it in a bit of depth but the way the Old Course is set up, it’s with a par-3 on the front that’s even and a par-3 on the back that’s odd, and vice versa with the par-5s.
“So if they’re playing regulation golf, everybody is going to be doing the same amount of putting, and it’s the same coming in or going out.
“If you’re a strong wedge player, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 are your holes, and then on the back it’s 10, 12, 14, 16, 18.
“We do a bit of matching with personalities but we’ve probably got 10 personalities here and we’ve looked at the pairings, we’ve done a lot of the numbers and stats but I don’t think we could have done any better of a job than actually putting 10 balls in a hat and pulling them out. The team is that close-knit which is great.”
All 10 of the USA team set off together this morning to play the opening and closing holes at @TheHomeofGolf 🇺🇸 ⛳️ pic.twitter.com/7jqXayJrgL
— The Walker Cup (@WalkerCup) September 1, 2023
His American counterpart Mike McCoy expects a close match at the Old Course.
McCoy, who is captaining the United States of America for the first time in the match but played in the 2015 defeat, said: “I think we all know that we’re expecting a very competitive match. We certainly know they’re familiar with the golf course.
“I played on a losing team over here, so that’s sort of scorched into my mind. We had a good team and got beat pretty handily.
“I don’t think anybody is taking it for granted. We really are prepared for a tough match. I don’t think anybody is complacent.
“These guys are all competitors, and I think they’re ready to go.”
The match is played over two days with 18 singles matches and eight foursomes matches.
