Match play is what makes Stewart tick, says McEvoy

PETER McEvoy, who led Great Britain & Ireland to a Walker Cup triumph at Nairn in 1999, is expecting Michael Stewart to be one of the potential matchwinners for Welshman Nigel Edwards in this weekend’s clash with the Americans at Royal Aberdeen.

McEvoy, a five-time Walker Cup player before captaining the side in 1999 and 2001, watched Stewart come through the GB&I ranks and reckons the 21-year-old Ayrshireman is a player no one on the visiting US team is likely to relish locking horns with in the two-day encounter.

“I captained Michael when he was playing boys’ golf and matchplay is right up his street,” said McEvoy, one of the legends of amateur golf and still heavily involved as chairman of the R&A boys’ selection committee. “He’s a very determined character and I don’t think anyone would fancy facing him over 18 holes of match-play.”

Playing that format, Stewart won the Scottish Boys in 2008, the Scottish Amateur in 2010 and the South African Amateur back in March. He also reached the final of this year’s Amateur Championship at Hillside, losing to Australian Bryden Macpherson by 3 and 2 in the 36-hole title showdown.

“Once Michael got to the final in the Amateur, I thought he would go all the way,” added McEvoy, who doesn’t know James Byrne, the other Scot in the ten-man GB&I team, so well but is also looking for him to be a “strong” performer along with Tom Lewis.

The Englishman won the St Andrews Links Trophy in June then underlined his enormous potential a few weeks later by earning a share of the first-round lead with European golf’s man-of-the-moment, Thomas Bjorn, in the Open Championship at Royal St George’s,.

Lewis went on to pocket the Silver Medal as leading amateur and McEvoy, who himself won the coveted prize twice and was also a two-time Amateur champion, said: “Tom came through my juniors and I’d say he is the pick of his generation.

“You could stick him between anyone on the range at Augusta National and he would look just as good. He proved that at The Open this summer. But the Americans also have some players like that as well.

“I don’t know James Byrne as well, but he’s also very impressive and a strong player, too. They are all good players – the secret in the Walker Cup is turning good into a point.”

McEvoy managed to get his players to do that on two occasions. A side that contained Luke Donald, Paul Casey, Simon Dyson and Graeme Storm won 15-9 at Nairn while Donald had Graeme McDowell, Marc Warren, Nick Dougherty and Steven O’Hara among his team-mates as GB&I repeated that winning margin at Sea Island, Georgia, two years later.

Edwards was also in the 2001 side and the Whitchurch man went on to display qualities on his three subsequent appearances that McEvoy believes can help him become a winning captain.

“Nigel is a very diligent chap and I, for one, expected his preparations to be as thorough as they have been,” said the Englishman. “More than any other recent captain, I’d say he’s been the most willing to pick up the phone and have a chat about things. It might not have been about anything terribly important, but it could have been information that has been useful to him and I have certainly been happy to help. Nigel is vastly experienced. When I was still involved with the team, he would be down near the anchor role because we knew that he had the stoical qualities required to handle any sort of pressure.”

He might not be hitting any shots on this occasion but Edwards has found himself under pressure even before a ball has been struck over the controversial omission of David Law, the two-time Scottish champion, Northern Open winner and Royal Aberdeen member.

McEvoy insisted he isn’t close enough to the current players to give an “honest opinion” on that matter, but he is confident the ten golfers who have been picked can make the most of home advantage to give GB&I a first victory in the biennial event in eight years.

He also reckons the “Class of 2011” will have a belief that they can come out on top despite the fact they go into this weekend’s match as underdogs against a side that contains the top four players in the amateur world rankings in Patrick Cantley, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Rodgers and Peter Uihlein.

“In any sport, home advantage is huge,” he said. Two out of three points are won at home, so that gives you double the chance. In golf, I think that is even greater.

“In the Walker Cup, the Americans put us in a swamp in Georgia in 100 degree heat and we put them on a links course where the sleet can sometimes be horizontal – all is fair in love and sport. The type of course this week is a big trump card for Nigel and the weather might be, too. Heavy rain and a 20mph wind is forecast for Friday – I’d have thought that would be a glorious sight for GB&I and not for the Americans probably.

“Home crowds are another advantage. The crowds at Nairn were like having two extra men. They were not only big but on our side. It was inevitable that intimidated the Americans and I expect the same thing to happen at Royal Aberdeen.

“Two of our three recent losses were both by just one point – in Chicago and at Royal County Down. The players in this GB&I team are close enough to a generation that won in the Walker Cup, unlike previous generations which I don’t think felt like that.

“Even what happened in the Ryder Cup last year can be of a benefit going into a match like this. Our players will always take confidence from seeing an American team lose.”