PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) — U.S. Amateur champion Mason Howell delivered more big moments at Cypress Point as the Americans took a one-point lead into the Sunday afternoon singles as they tried to win the Walker Cup for a fifth straight time.
Howell, the Georgia high school senior who earned his spot on the U.S. team by winning the Amateur up the coast at Olympic Club last month, holed a 35-foot birdie putt on the par-3 15th for the match to go dormie, on the par-4 17th.
That gave the 18-year-old Howell and Jacob Modleski a 2-and-1 victory over Stuart Grehan and Eliot Baker and capped off a morning foursomes session that ended with two wins apiece.
Jackson Koivun and Tommy Morrison escaped with a 1-up win. The GB&I duo of Connor Graham and Tyler Weaver went from having a putt to win the match on the 17th to three-putting for the match to go all square, and then GB&I got stuck behind the cypress trees right of the 18th fairway and lost the 18th hole — and the match — with a bogey.
Luke Poulter and Charlie Forester turned around a GB&I match in stunning fashion. They fell 4 down to Oklahoma State teammates Preston Stout and Ethan Fang through 10 holes. Poulter’s father, Ryder Cup stalwart Ian Poulter, walked along and explained to his youngest son the secret to coming back. And then he watched it unfold.
GB&I won the 11th with a par, and then won four straight holes with two birdies and two par through 16 to take a 1-up lead, closing out the a 1-up win.
Niall Shiels Donegan and Cameron Adams had no trouble winning the anchor match of foursomes against NCAA champion Michael La Sasso and Jase Summy.
The final session was singles matches of all 10 players.
GB&I, trying to win on U.S. soil for the first time since 2001, has not won the final singles session since 2015 at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, its last Walker Cup victory.
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