Great Britain and Ireland lead the USA 6½-5½ as day one of the Walker Cup witnessed some early controversy. Luke Poulter - son of European Ryder Cup star Ian - earned a crucial victory in the last match to conclude on the first day of the two-day event which pits many of the world's top amateur players against each other. But the day will be remembered for some early controversy involving the GB&I team of Niall Sheils Donegan and Josh Hill at Lahinch Golf Club.
The pair were 4UP after eight holes of their morning foursomes match against Josiah Gilbert and Ryder Cowan when Sheils Donegan narrowly missed an six-foot birdie putt at the ninth. The ball finished around 18 inches from the hole and Donegan scooped up his ball believing he had extended the duo's lead, only for his opponents to claim they had not conceded the putt. Cowan called an official and the USA were controversially awarded the hole, as there had been no verbal communication between the two teams.
Despite the drama, Sheils Donegan and Hill went on to win the match 4&3 to help GB&I win the morning session 2½-1½ and Scotland's Sheils Donegan accepted culpability for the incident. "I hit the six-footer and missed it like an idiot. I had a foot back, and I just dragged it away like I'm in a Sunday bounce game, but those aren't the rules of golf.
"You screw up, but it's not about how you screw up, it's about how you bounce back and we bounced back amazingly." Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Graham Connor and Tyler Weaver were also victorious for GB&I on Saturday morning, beating Jay Leng Jr and Kihei Akina 1UP while Eliot Baker and Stuart Grehan halved their match with Preston Stout and Ethan Fang. Miles Russell and Tyler Watts picked up the USA's only win the foursomes, beating Poulter and Sam Easterbrook 1UP thanks to a birdie on the 18th hole. Poulter and Russell went head to head again in one of the eight singles matches played on Saturday afternoon, but this time it was the British player who came out on top.
Poulter started strongly, but lost the 12th and 13th holes to leave the match all square with five to play, only to win the 15th hole to move ahead again. With the other seven games concluded and the overall match score level, Poulter then won the 17th hole to seal a 2&1 victory and ensure GB&I were ahead going into Sunday. I was playing really good all day and he played good as well," Poulter said afterwards.
"We're ahead, which is always nice, but we need to reset for tomorrow. It's a new day, so we're going to go out there and do our own thing and try and take an early lead for foursomes. This crowd is unbelievable.
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