Walker Cup

Jay Sigel, a two-time U.S. Amateur champion from Berwyn, will be named next week to a record ninth Walker Cup team by the United States Golf Association. The Walker Cup, a biennial competition between teams from the United States and Great Britain/Ireland, will be played Aug. 18 and 19 at Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minn. Sigel, 49, will break the record for most appearances by an American. He shared the previous record of eight with Francis Ouimet and William C. Campbell.

Amateur team match between teams from the United States and Great Britain & Ireland At Merion Golf Club, Ardmore Par: 35-35-70, 6,846 yards SCHEDULE Today Practice rounds, 7:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Opening ceremony, 5:30 p.m. Tomorrow 4 foursome matches, 7:30 a.m. 8 singles matches, 1 p.m. Sunday 4 foursome matches, 7:30 a.m. 10 singles matches, 1 p.m. Closing ceremony, 5:30 p.m. TV: Tomorrow...

For Buddy Marucci, captain of the 2009 U.S. Walker Cup team, there's nothing like a home game. And it's not just that the team will be competing in the United States. No, this is a true home game for Marucci, a member of Merion Golf Club, site of the 42d Walker Cup Match from Sept. 11 (opening ceremonies) through Sept. 13. "It's a unique challenge to do this at home," Marucci said yesterday at Merion. "I think it'll be a little more stressful. I'm very excited about it. I'm excited for the club.

Nathan Smith thought his time for earning a spot on the U.S. Walker Cup team had passed. It had been several years since his graduation from college. He was married and had a good job at a Pittsburgh financial firm, so he felt a need to focus on other things besides golf. Until . . . "I was sitting on the couch watching the 2007 team play overseas," Smith said yesterday at Merion Golf Club. "It really kind of choked me up, and I started to get teary-eyed. I had played so much golf with those guys.

Buddy Marucci, best known for finishing a close runner-up to Tiger Woods in the 1995 U.S. Amateur, yesterday was named captain of the U.S. team for the 2007 Walker Cup. For Marucci, a 53-year-old Wayne resident, the captaincy is one of amateur golf's ultimate status symbols. The elite, 10-man U.S. team will compete against Great Britain and Ireland at Royal County Down in Newcastle, Ireland, on Sept. 8-9, 2007. "It's kind of humbling," said Marucci, a two-time member of the Walker Cup team (1995 and '97)

What has been rumored for more than a year became official last night: Merion Golf Club in Ardmore will host the 2009 Walker Cup. The most prestigious team event in amateur golf, the Walker Cup is a biennial competition between the United States and Great Britain and Ireland, a sort of amateur version of professional golf's Ryder Cup. There had been talk in certain golf circles that the Cup, named for George Herbert Walker, a former president...

The United States, still stinging from its first-ever Walker Cup loss on American soil, will seek to regain the Cup when the 33d biennial matches begin today at Portmarnock Golf Club. The United States amateurs hold a 28-3-1 lead in the series, which dates to 1922. But two years ago, at Peachtree Golf Club in Atlanta, the Britain/ Ireland amateurs won, 12 1/2-11 1/2, for their first victory in the United States. The 10-man American team is anchored this year by San Diego's Phil Mickelson, 21, a senior at Arizona State.

Facing certain defeat through 16 holes of his U.S. Amateur quarterfinal match with Danny Green, Jay Sigel decided to use "reverse Walker Cup psychology. " It almost worked. Sigel, who was 2-down after 16, kept his match alive against Green by winning the final two holes and forcing sudden death, but lost the 19th hole and the match yesterday, thwarting his chance at a third national amateur championship. Sigel, 45, of Berwyn, said the situation reminded him of his final singles match at the Walker Cup on Aug. 17, when he was 2-up on Scotland's Jim Milligan with three holes to go, but ended up even.

Jay Sigel already is well-chronicled in the Walker Cup history book, with seven appearances and more victories than anyone else who has played in the international amateur competition. But there is one piece of unfinished business that gnaws at Sigel, which is why he would eagerly accept another invitation to compete on the U.S. Walker Cup team should one come this summer. Sigel's mission is to dismiss the bad taste left by his play in 1989, when the Berwyn native blew a 2-up lead with three holes to play and halved the final match of the competition against Jim Milligan of Scotland.

Drew Weaver has finished his education and golf career at Virginia Tech, but before he moves up to the pro ranks, he has one goal to achieve as an amateur - making the U.S. Walker Cup team. Weaver, 22, began his first U.S. Open yesterday with a 1-under-par 69, which was tied for the best score among the 78 players on the course Thursday when rain forced the suspension of play. Weaver made headlines when he won the 2007 British Amateur championship just two months after a gunman killed 32 people and wounded 25 at Virginia Tech.

Britain and Ireland regained the Walker Cup from the United States for the first time since 2003 on Sunday, holding off the Americans in the afternoon singles for a 14-12 victory in Aberdeen, Scotland. . . . Ray Thompson of Drexel Hill shot a 2-under 142 to finish in a tie for fourth in stroke play in the U.S. Senior Men's Amateur at Kinloch Golf Club in Manakin-Sabot, Va., reaching match play, which starts Monday. Merion's Buddy Marucci tied for 27th . . . Liz Haines of Gladwyne qualified for match play tied for 59th in the U.S. Senior Women's Amateur at the Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tenn., with a two-round total of 163. . . . Top-ranked Yani Tseng successfully defended her title in the LPGA Tour's NW Arkansas Championship, beating Amy Yang with a four-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff in Rogers, Ark. HORSE RACING: Betterthancheddar rallied to win the Cane Pace, beating Townslight Hanover by a neck at Pocono Downs on Saturday night in the first jewel of the pacing triple crown.

Officials at Merion Golf Club discovered two things during the 2005 U.S. Amateur, the more gratifying one being that the refurbished East course could indeed stand up to the long hitters of the modern game for a U.S. Open in 2013. The other item, not as publicized but nearly as significant, was that Merion's old maintenance facility was sadly outdated and needed to be replaced as soon as possible. Certainly, cost was a factor. But club officials were determined to design and construct a state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly area where workers at every level could be together and take part in a coordinated effort to keep the golf course thriving.

Even at 22, Rickie Fowler has become accustomed to playing in front of large crowds, training that started with his two appearances on the U.S. Walker Cup team, including the 2009 competition at Merion Golf Club. After shooting a 6-under-par 64 Saturday that moved him into a tie for the 54-hole lead with Nick Watney in the AT&T National, Fowler said he has said hello at Aronimink to three caddies who worked for the U.S. side at Merion, and appreciated the support he has received from people who saw him compete there.

AS THE SAYING goes, there's the known and then there's the unknown . . . That pretty much sums up the first-round leaderboard at the second and last AT & T National to be played at Newtown Square's Aronimink Golf Club. And that's the way it can sometimes be on the PGA Tour, especially at a stop where no player ranked among the top 14 on the planet shows up. They're still going to hand out a trophy come Sunday afternoon. The rest mostly gets filed away under details. So, in no particular order, these were some of the sightings you had yesterday on this Donald Ross masterpiece: Dean Wilson, not to be confused with Mark, who won twice earlier this season.

For Buddy Marucci, the year after captaining the U.S. team to the Walker Cup title at Merion, his home club, has been one of rest and relaxation, with an emphasis on social golf rather than tournament golf. His effort as captain was a success, but all the work he put in prior to the Walker Cup - including the scouting, the selection of the team, and the competition itself - took more out of him than he thought it would. "I think it was more emotional than physical," Marucci said Tuesday.

Rickie Fowler last visited the Philadelphia area in September, wearing the official uniform of the United States team that defeated Great Britain and Ireland thanks to a wonderful performance by the former Oklahoma State star. He showed up again in the area Wednesday for his Pro-Am round at the AT&T National wearing a white golf shirt with green and purple polka dots, a purple and white cap covering a mop of brown hair, and purple and green golf shoes. Yes, Fowler, 21, has created a style that makes him one of the most noticeable players on the PGA Tour.

Jay Haas took advantage of Tom Watson's uncharacteristic bogeys and passive play to steal the final Champions Tour major of the year. Haas charged past Watson to win the Senior Players Championship in Timonium, Md., by a stroke, birdieing the 18th hole yesterday to match the course record with a 6-under 64. "All day, I was right there," Haas said. "I missed some very makable putts on the front nine, and I was very disappointed in that. But I felt like I was going to get some more, the way I was hitting it and the way I felt today.

Rickie Fowler could have kicked off the next stage of his golf life months ago, but there was one goal remaining before he could conclude a brilliant amateur career. And he couldn't have done it any better, standing in the middle of the first fairway at Merion Golf Club with his teammates as the sun set behind the club's stately trees, and taking part in celebrating his second Walker Cup. With the 20-year-old Fowler going 4-0 in his matches, the United States dominated from Saturday morning to late yesterday afternoon and gained a 16 1/2-9 1/2 victory over Great Britain and Ireland in the 42d matches.

There was a point yesterday in the Walker Cup when the team representing the United States appeared determined to end the matches a little early, as in three rounds instead of four. The host squad was leading in seven of the eight matches, and all square in one. Perhaps by the time the day ended, it would have a mathematical shot to secure the Cup this morning, and play without pressure in the afternoon. But the members of the Great Britain and Ireland team didn't want to go out this way at Merion Golf Club, and they clawed their way back.

Merion Golf Club - normally a venerable bastion of the ruly, the kempt, the couth, and the sheveled - let down its hair yesterday for the 42d Walker Cup Match. Between 4,000 and 5,000 golf fans surged over the East Course on 126 socially prestigious Main Line acres to watch a team of 10 American amateurs battle a team of 10 players from Britain and Ireland. Fashion was in full retreat as the visiting spectators violated a host of club rules with their collarless shirts, cargo pants, and short shorts.