Martin Dempster: Walker Cup needs a third day and all in for every session

It’s only played over two days and should be longer. Enthusiasts of the amateur game look forward to the biennial encounter for so long, yet it’s over in a flash.

At least one more day should be added and, while the R&A and USGA are at it, they should also come up with a schedule that sees all ten players in each team involved in each of the sessions.

It’s nonsensical that someone should play their guts out for two years in a bid to make the team, yet find themselves having to spectate rather than be in the thick of the action. James Byrne was in that boat on the opening morning at Royal Aberdeen and, though he did a good job of showing a brave face, it must have hurt like hell for him not to be involved. One of golf’s great events – played once again on one of the game’s great courses – definitely needs to be tweaked before the next match on this side of the pond, at Royal Lytham in four years’ time.