The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested biennially in odd-numbered years between teams comprising the top amateur golfers of the United States and Great Britain and Ireland. The event, officially called the Walker Cup Match (not “Matches”, as opposed to the professional Ryder Cup matches), is jointly organized by the R&A and the United States Golf Association and named in honor of George Herbert Walker (grandfather and namesake of George HW Bush, 41st President of the United States and great-grandfather of George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States), who was USGA president in 1920 when the series began. There was an unofficial event in 1921 at Royal Liverpool and annual events until 1924. From then on it became a biennial event, and after the Second World War it changed to an odd number of years. It is played alternately on both sides of the Atlantic.
Unlike the Ryder Cup, which also began as a competition between the USA and the UK, the Walker Cup never expanded to make all European amateur golfers eligible to compete. There's little current competitive reason to do so: though the United States leads the series 34-8, with a game halved until 2011, the two teams have had a much more even matchup in recent decades. Beginning with the 1989 game in which Team GB&I ended Team USA's eight-game winning streak, the two teams are tied at 6–6. The 1989 race and the three races between 2003 and 2007 were all decided by one point. — at National Golf Links Of America.
Photos: Walker Cup 2013 Comes to Southampton
