USGA's "Walker Cup Needs New Selection Process"

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Some people sample fine wines, GolfChannel.com's Ryan Lavner tracks the always-flawed Walker Cup team selection process. And while you might not care about the plight of college golfers snubbed because they don't fit the team room dynamic, or mid-ams because they didn't play well enough, the entire mess is important if you'd like to see amateur golf survive.

Unfortunately, as Lavner lays out, this appears to be yet another blow for an amateur game that is already struggling to keep top players from turning pro before the Walker Cup. (Even as great as the event has been.)

The latest top talent to be passed over by the committee working in secret, LSU's Sam Burns, is the Nicklaus Award winner and sports a resume as strong as the last LSU player passed over for suspicious reasons, John Peterson.

Lavner calls the oversight "egregious" and writes:

By almost any metric, Burns should have been a lock for the U.S. team. Three months ago, the LSU sophomore earned the Nicklaus Award, given to the top college player. Drawing significant interest from sponsors and tournament directors, he could have turned pro in June but opted instead to wait until after the Walker Cup in September. It should not have been a risk, but that decision proved costly: Last month he played the Barbasol Championship, an opposite-field event on the PGA Tour, and tied for sixth. Because he was an amateur, however, he forfeited a $113,000 payday and sacrificed other playing opportunities.

Burns was the Division I player of the year. He remained amateur through the summer. He starred in a Tour event. It’s unclear what else he could have done to show the committee how much making the team meant to him, save for getting an American flag tattoo.

Peterson took to Twitter and attacked the USGA:

 

 

The mid-amateur world is also upset, though in such a wide open year, the over-25 set had their chances to make the team and failed. This did not stop former U.S. Mid-Amateur winner Scott Harvey from protesting:

 

 

Besides the biennial oversight issue, the lack of a running points list and sense of momentum leading to the team selection hurts the marketability of the event. For better or worse, team cup points lists keep us aware of who is in the running. The Walker Cup, however, is selected in private and therefore, is conducted in private.