Musings from the Jar
September 2023
The 49th Walker Cup: GB&I Take 3 Point Advantage
USA 4.5 – 7.5 GB&I (Photo by Oisin Keniry/R&A/R&A via Getty Images) Walker Cup Saturday from St Andrews will live long in the memory. Glorious September sunshine lit up the Old Course for the most historic of matchups. Play got underway at 08.30, with Dylan Menante sending one down the middle alongside Gordon Sargent and taking on Barclay Brown and Mark Power. Menante and Sargent got off to a quick start, birdieing the first and giving the American fans a huge fist pump to get them going. Not only were they off to a quick start, but they were also setting a formidable pace of play at the top of the order. Sargent, the World #1 and his unassuming partner played some excellent golf, including an eagle to a very tough pin on 12 to seal victory 3&2. The dash of red first to go up on the [...]
The Walker Cup: 5 Things
We are very lucky here at Cookie Jar Golf to have subscribers and followers who love to share their thoughts on the game. John Haddon has written this short piece about the weekend's play ahead and what to look out for at The Walker Cup. Thanks John, it is going to be a great weekend. (Photo by Oisin Keniry/R&A/R&A via Getty Images) 1) The Score A quick glance at the match series score paints a dark picture if you’re a Great Britain & Ireland supporter. The USA leads the series 38-9-1. A quick check of recent results does little to raise the spirits either, with the USA winning the last 3 matches. However, after the USA won an astonishing 28 of the first 31 matches (1 draw, 2 losses), a turning point came in 1989, when GB & I won on US soil for the first time, at [...]
August 2023
The 49th Walker Cup: A Seminole Reflection
Team Great Britain and Ireland and Team USA pose for a photograph during a putting contest at the Himalayas - (Photo by Ross Parker/R&A/R&A via Getty Images) As anticipation builds and with just four days until the opening tee shot at the 49th Walker Cup, taking place 100 years since the first staging, it’s worth taking a brief moment to reflect on the last transatlantic battle that took place at Seminole in May 2021. The build-up to Seminole lingers in the memory for a rather peculiar reason; Florida played host to the Walker Cup during the remnants of the COVID golf era, marked by woggles in holes and foot raking in bunkers. So, when the GB&I team crossed the pond, they were still completing daily screenings for the virus. When a number of players from both sides took ill just a couple of days before play, confusion abounded [...]
The 49th Walker Cup: The Barclays
Words by Darragh Garrahy. Barclay Brown will tee it up for GB&I in the Walker Cup at St. Andrews in early September, aged twenty two. In the 2021 iteration at Seminole, his trademark bucket hat had an R&A logo on it in Juno Beach – he wore a camo bucket en-route to a 68 at The Open on Thursday at St. Andrews last year). The atypical headwear is where the non-traditional motif stops for Brown – he is a classic ballstriker, good enough to qualify for this year’s US Open at George Thomas’ LACC (Thomas also designed the course at Stanford where Brown studies Economics). Barclay Brown in camouflage at The Open at St. Andrews, 2022 The last time another Barclay entered the Walker Cup fray was in 1997 – Barclay Howard. Unlike Barclay Brown, he did not attend Stanford; his education growing up outside Glasgow was more [...]
R&A Confirm Selection of 2023 GB&I Walker Cup Team
Following the conclusion of the U.S. Amateur Championship and the Boys’ and Girls’ Amateur Championships at Fulford and Ganton, the R&A have confirmed the eight remaining players to make up the GB&I squad for St Andrews. The R&A's announcement can be seen here. James Ashfield (22) – Wales, WAGR: 71st Wales’ highest-ranked player, winner of the 2022 Welsh Amateur Championship. 2nd place finishes in this year’s Lytham Trophy and European Amateur Championship. Strong performance in the recent Home Internationals at Machynys Peninsula. Loves matchplay. Jack Bigham (19) – England, WAGR: 88th Another player to perform well with a 4th place finish at the European Amateur Championship in Estonia at the end of June. Plays his college golf for Florida State and has a very consistent record. A 12th place finish at this year’s Links Trophy shows he knows how to plot his way around St Andrews, too. Connor Graham (17) [...]
Blades Brown: 16-Year-Old Medallist and The Walker Cup Radar
After the 36-hole Strokeplay stage of the 2023 U.S. Amateur Championship, 16-year-old middle-schooler Blades Brown has earned himself the Medallist/Co-Medallist title. With rounds of 72 and 64 at Cherry Hills Country Club and Colorado Golf Club respectively, he is the youngest stroke-play leader of the event since Bobby Jones in 1920. Jones was 18 at the time. Whilst not quite the youngest player in the field, this Nashville teenager has caught the attention of golf fans around the world. With a name that will make the GolfWRX forums go wild, it would be great to see him kick on this week. The quality of youth has been on full show over the first two days, with Bowen Mauss and Preston Stout as two other 16-year-olds to also make it to the knockout stages from a staggeringly large field of 312. Both players carded 7-under rounds of 65 at Colorado. The [...]
Sounder x Cookie Jar Retro Golf Day at West Byfleet Golf Club
West Byfleet Golf Club - Thursday 19th October & Equipment Amnesty to Uganda Limited Places Available We're back for the second edition of the Cookie Jar Retro Day. After such a great day at Minchinhampton in June, with persimmons, blades, hickories and some glorious retro threads on display, we're excited to announce we'll be hosting another at West Byfleet Golf Club on the 19th October. This time aroud, we've teamed up with James Day and the guys over at Sounder Golf! Our events are always a lot of fun, and this will be a feast of nostalgic golf kit at one of the most underrated courses we've visited. This classic Abercromby layout, full of character and charm will provide the perfect setting for you to once again dust off your sets and enjoy a day of camaraderie and golf. We're delighted to also be running an equipment amnesty to [...]
A Tap on the Shoulder: Golf’s Weekend Markers
For the vast majority of golfers, the prospect of teeing it up at a major is a thought only in the world of fantasy. Yet, for top-level amateurs and club pros it is a possibility that can quickly become reality. Ahead of Walton Heath, pre-qualifying was held in July at The Buckinghamshire before final qualifying took place at Hankley Common on Monday. Anyone with a handicap of 0.4 or less can enter, meaning you’re actually just two fantastic rounds away from getting in. However, there is a different, rather unique way you can tee it up in a major. This only happens now and again and has often gone under the radar. Yesterday, Nicola Taylor, member at Walton Heath and Captain of the Surrey County team, received the invitation to play in the AIG Women’s Open as a marker for Moriya Jutanugarn from Thailand. Teeing off in the [...]
Ewing’s Runaway: Heading into the Weekend at Walton Heath
With 36 holes remaining, Ally Ewing (née McDonald), the 30-year old Mississippian holds a handsome margin that looks hard to bridge. As play commenced on Friday, 59 players started at even par or better and were within four shots of Ally Ewing’s opening 68. However, the American seized control and flew out of the blocks on a sunny Surrey Friday, surging into an extremely commanding position. Five birdies on the outward nine, which is certainly the more challenging of the two this week, was exceptional play to put her seven clear at one point. (Photo by Chloe Knott/R&A/R&A via Getty Images) She was clearly right in the zone, in an almost trance-like state, noting in her post-round interview: “I didn't really even know until I signed my scorecard that I had four birdies in a row, so I would probably say that stretch from like 6 to 11 [...]
AIG Women’s Open: Heaven or Heather
As anticipation builds for the opening tee shot of the 2023 AIG Women’s Open to be hit at 06.30 tomorrow by Englishwoman Mel Reid, much has been made of how long the course has been playing during the practice days. On Tuesday, the course endured some torrential rain, and the site is noticeably soft in certain areas. Naturally, you would assume that such conditions would play right into the hands of the longer hitters on the LPGA and LET Tours. However, the picture doesn’t seem that clear. Speaking today in her press conference, Nelly Korda raised an interesting point about such conditions actually favouring the shorter hitters. She said: “I feel like every single time I've talked about maybe having an advantage because of length at golf course, you actually kind of see more of the shorter hitters playing well… I mean, they are used to hitting hybrids into the [...]
