St Andrews to stage 2023 Walker Cup

Two years after it stages the 150th Open Championship in 2021, the Old Course at St Andrews will also host the Walker Cup for a record ninth time.

The 17th green at the Old Course, St Andrews.

It will mark the biennial event’s return to Scotland for the first time since a star-studded American side spearheaded by Jordan Spieth lost to Great Britain & Ireland at Royal Aberdeen in 2011.

An even stronger visiting team – it included three future major champions in Jerry Pate, Craig Stadler and Curtis Strange – triumphed 15½-8½ in the most recent encounter at St Andrews in 1975, though GB&I prevailed there in both 1938 and 1971.

Confirming the event’s return, Duncan Weir, the R&A’s executive director - golf development, said: “The Walker Cup is the pinnacle of men’s amateur golf in Great Britain and Ireland and the United States with many of the game’s greatest players including Bobby Jones and Sir Michael Bonallack having featured in memorable matches played over the Old Course at St Andrews.

“We are excited to be bringing the Walker Cup back to the home of golf for the first time in nearly 50 years and look forward to watching some of the world’s most talented amateur golfers contest the match over the famous Old Course in 2023.”

Next year’s match is being held at Royal Liverpool while Seminole (2021) and Cypress Point (2025) had also already been confirmed as future venues.

Meanwhile, the USGA has announced that any future US Open play-offs will be decided over just two holes instead of what has been a customary 
18 holes for the season’s second major.

It means the 2008 event won by Tiger Woods, who beat Rocco Mediate at Torrey Pines, will be last US Open to have an 18-hole shootout on the Monday.

The change means the Masters will be left as the only men’s major that won’t be decided with an aggregate play-off, with the US PGA and The Open having three and four extra holes respectively.