In-form Irish pair key to team’s hopes of ending decade-long Walker Cup drought

Stuart Grehan’s standout season on his return to the amateur ranks, which saw him complete the AIG Irish Close and Flogas Irish Open Championship double, has seen him selected for the Walker Cup at famed Cypress Point, California, next month. He will be joined there by Irish teenager Gavin Tiernan, who has been in spectacular form.

The team features five English players, including Luke Poulter, son of Ian, three Scots and the two Irish players. Captain Dean Robertson believes it is a mix of players that can offset the underdogs tag.

“We are underdogs but I’m confident we are equipped to compete at the highest level and will give it our best shot,” said Robertson, a former European Tour player. “We are travelling to Cypress Point to embrace the challenge, honour the legacy of the Walker Cup and aim to make history by reclaiming this famous trophy.”

Britain and Ireland have not won the trophy since 2015. In seeking to end that decade-long drought, Robertson’s team was brought together in two ways. There was automatic qualification for the leading five players in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, with the remaining players then selected. The match against the United States on the Monterey Peninsula takes place on September 6th and 7th.

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Both Grehan and Tiernan, who reached the final of the Amateur Championship, play out of Co Louth Golf Club, while Dundalk’s Caolan Rafferty, who played in 2019, has been named as first reserve.

The 10-man team consists of: Cameron Adam (Scotland) (22), Eliot Baker (England) (22), Dominic Clemons (England) (23), Charlie Forster (England) (22), Connor Graham (Scotland) (18), Stuart Grehan (Ireland) (32), Luke Poulter (England) (21), Niall Shiels Donegan (Scotland) (20), Gavin Tiernan (Ireland) (19) and Tyler Weaver (England) (20).

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“Selection for the Walker Cup is a huge honour for any player, and I’m absolutely delighted for Stuart and Gavin,” said Neil Manchip, high performance director of Golf Ireland. “To represent Great Britain and Ireland at a venue as special as Cypress Point is something that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

“We had a very strong group of Irish players pushing for places again this year. Stuart’s form over the summer has been superb and Gavin has shown his quality at the very highest level of amateur golf too. Both have earned this opportunity and I know they will bring a lot to the team.”

Eyebrows raised over Rahm’s LIV success

When is a winner not a winner?

Jon Rahm is LIV Golf's Player of the Year, despite winning none of the tour's 13 tournaments and Joaquin Niemann winning five of them. Photograph: Justin Casterline/Getty Images

Well, the case of Jon Rahm pretty much sums up the vagaries of LIV Golf’s Player of the Year race. The Spaniard didn’t win once in the tour’s 13 tournaments, yet emerged as the Player of the Year to scoop the $18 million (€15.4 million) bonus for the honour.

To put it in perspective, Joaquin Niemann won FIVE TIMES . . . yet still lost out to Rahm.

“It’s kind of hard to swallow,” admitted Niemann, who lost out on a system that rewarded Rahm’s greater consistency.

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Under the LIV points system, Rahm – who had 12 top-10 finishes in the 13 starts – got more ranking points that Niemann, who blew hotter and colder, with five wins and one other top-10 finish.

Rahm didn’t win a tournament but did lose out twice in playoffs, including at the LIV Indianapolis tournament on Sunday (to Colombia’s Sebastian Munoz).

Word of mouth

“I can probably be a bit too hard on myself and I’m always trying to work on that . . . It was a little bit stressful coming in there but I felt my game all day, ball-striking wise, was very strong so just kind of backed it up then coming in. I hit the shots I needed to hit coming down the stretch” – Stuart Grehan on adding the AIG Irish Close title at the weekend in Westport to his Flogas Irish Amateur Open championship win earlier in the summer. He joined Peter O’Keeffe and Pádraig Harrington as the only players to complete the double in the same year.

By the Numbers: 10,000,000

That’s the amount – in US dollars – the winner of the PGA Tour’s closing Tour Championship will win as FedEx Cup champion this week. The event, at East Lake Country Club in Atlanta, is confined to the leading 30 players on the FedEx Cup standings. In a change from past years, all players will start from even par with no staggered opening leaderboard.

On this day: August 19th, 2001

Tobias Dier’s journey to the European Tour was a bit different. His initial sporting ambition was to follow his father Werner as a professional footballer.

Tobias Dier on the way to winning the 2002 Dutch Open. Photograph: Allsport/Inpho

A bad achilles tendon injury in his youth put paid to those ambitions, and after studying biochemistry, Dier pursued his second sporting choice to be a professional golfer, with his breakthrough win coming in the North West of Ireland Open at Slieve Russell.

The tournament was a dual-badge event on the European Tour and the Challenge Tour. The win, secured with a final round 71 for a 17-under-par total of 271, gave Dier an exemption onto the main circuit for the following year when he would add the Dutch Open to his roll of honour.

Dier had carried a three-shot lead into the final round in Co Cavan. However, the 24-year-old German’s advantage was cut to just one playing the last, where Stephen Dodd’s eagle putt slid by the hole. Dier was able to match the Welshman’s birdie to claim the one-stroke win.

Social Swing

“Viktor and I used to be friends . . .” – Michael Kim, very much tongue-in-cheek, after a closing birdie by Viktor Hovland on the 72nd hole at the BMW Championship. It meant Kim slipped to 31st in the FedEx Cup standings, missing the Tour Championship in Atlanta by one spot.

A career best @robertlefty becomes the first Scot to break into the Official World Golf Rankings Top 10 since Colin Montgomerie in January 2006 – The official social media platform of the DP World Tour gives some consolation to Bob MacIntrye after losing out to Scottie Scheffler in the BMW Championship. MacIntyre moved up eight spots from 16th last week to a career-best eighth.

Two great characters and golfers back on Team Europe. Team is shaping up nicely 💪🏼🇪🇺 https://t.co/nrU6aFPu2A
— Luke Donald (@LukeDonald) August 18, 2025

Two great characters and golfers back on Team Europe. Team is shaping up nicely – Europe captain Luke Donald happy with the additions of Bob MacIntrye and Tyrrell Hatton through the automatic qualifying process.

Know the Rules

Q A player had accidentally left their driver in the clubhouse and was playing with 13 clubs, with the player’s three-wood being the longest club in their bag. On the seventh hole someone brought the player their forgotten driver which was added to their bag. When measuring a relief area on the eighth hole, the player was unsure whether the size of the relief area is measured using the length of the three-wood, or with the added driver which is now the longest club in their bag. What is the ruling?

A The relief area is measured using the newly-added driver. This is covered under Clarifications: Club-Length/1: If the added club is longer, then it is used for measuring, as long as it is not a putter.