John Huggan: British and Irish left with it all to do

Published on Saturday 12 September 2009 19:38

GREAT things have always happened at Merion, but the 42nd Walker Cup hasn't, so far at least, been one of them. Not if your preference is for Great Britain & Ireland anyway.

On the course near Philadelphia where Bobby Jones completed the Grand Slam in 1930, where Ben Hogan struck that iconic 1-iron to the 18th green en route to his 1950 US Open triumph and where Australian David Graham played the "perfect round" to become America's national champion back in 1981, GB&I are 8-4 down to a rampant

Commendably, non-playing captain Colin Dalgleish put a brave face on things. Which was fair enough; it could have been a lot worse. Before as many as four fighting halved matches (in three of the four, GB&I won the 18th hole) and a lone victory by England's Stiggy Hodgson in the afternoon singles restored some semblance of respectability, it had been a near-disastrous day on the links for the visitors. Two down at the turn, the Sunningdale teenager made four birdies on the back nine and beat Brendan Gielow 2&1. That apart, however, there was no disguising the near pasting that Dalgleish's side had taken – or the size of the task facing them in today's four foursomes and ten singles.

"The morning obviously hurt us," said the former Scottish Amateur champion. "What looked like all square ended up two down. But, at the end of the day we will take 8-4. We fought back well and are still very much in contention."

It wasn't the greatest of days either for Scots Gavin Dear and Wallace Booth. Both lost their morning foursomes, but each did well to salvage halves from their post-lunch encounters with Brian Harman and Cameron Tringale respectively. Both were round in approximately 71 – one over par for the 6,846-yard course.

Elsewhere, however, the diminutive Hodgson – who is 19, looks 12 and plays like a gnarly veteran - apart, there was precious little for Dalgleish to celebrate. All ten of his men played at least once and as many as five have yet to win a full point. Hutsby, in fact, has won but three holes, two in the morning foursomes alongside Booth and only one in what became a "dog license" defeat – 7&6 - to the rampant Fowler, surely the best player on either side.

That catalogue of disaster was, sad to say, merely more of the same after the morning foursomes. What should have been no worse than 2-2, was suddenly 1-3 more through the poor play of the visitors than anything wonderful produced by the home side.

Indeed, from a purely parochial point of view, things began badly and didn't really get much better. Given the honour of hitting the opening tee-shot by Dalgleish, Booth made a less than auspicious start when the Perth & Kinross man pulled his long iron into sand up the left side of the 350-yard par-4. When Hutsby was unable to reach the putting surface, the visiting pair was immediately one down to Brian Harman and Morgan Hoffmann.

The first point of the day actually came from the third foursome, where the English pair of Luke Goddard and Dale Whitnell misfired so badly that their "match" with Fowler and Bud Cauley lasted only 13 holes. Only once did the visiting pair win a hole; not once did they record a birdie.

Even more disappointing news was to follow from the pair of Dear and England's Matt Haines, who lost to Peter Uihlein and the 31-year-old Nathan Smith on the last green. Never down until that moment, the visiting pair should have won what was a high- scoring encounter – and not in a good way – against opponents who were as many as six over for the 18 holes.

The only bright moment for Dalgleish came from the Anglo-Irish pairing of Hodgson (the only visitor with a 100 per cent record so far) and Niall Kearney. Five birdies, 11 pars and but one lapse over par, a double-bogey six at the 504-yard fifth, was collectively good enough to see off Tringale and Adam Mitchell by 3&1. Only one over par for the 17 holes themselves, the Americans could feel proud of their contribution to what was a terrific match.

If only the same could be said of more than a minority of the GB&I squad. Nothing less than humiliation beckons if there is no improvement today.