2026 Walker Cup: Is Lahinch the home-field advantage GB&I needs to win?

LAHINCH, Ireland — As well as featuring the best amateur golfers in the world, the Walker Cup has featured some of the best golf courses in the world in recent years. Royal County Down, Merion, Seminole, St. Andrews, Chicago Golf Club, Royal Liverpool and National Golf Links have all hosted the event this century. And don’t forget Cypress Point just last year.

However, this year’s course, Lahinch Golf Club in Ireland, could provide the home course advantage Dean Robertson and his Great Britain and Ireland team needs to stem the run of recent defeats.

“It's a unique links course in that it's so ingrained by the dunes, and the skill set that's required is so different from Cypress Point,” Robertson said in his first answer Thursday ahead of the two-day matches that begin Saturday. “We really targeted that, and we've had a bunch of camps to work on things.”

Preparation is key at Lahinch. Blind shots (even on a par 3!), strong winds, elevation changes, thick rough and deep bunkers present a challenge that could provide a considerable home-course advantage this weekend.

“It's very unique.” Robertson said, sitting with Stuart Grehan and Eliot Baker, returning players from last year’s GB&I squad. “It demands a lot of strategy, so it's not a golf course you can overpower.”

Not quite the narrative we’ve become used to with elite golf in 2026.

With wet weather arriving early and set to linger, along with winds gusting in up to 30 mph, it’s safe to say the home side is more familiar with this sort of challenge than the defending champions.

Cameras on Tuesday picked up Ryder Cowan, low amateur at this year’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock, saying to a teammate, “I’ve never played in a rain jacket before.”

No doubt, he’ll get plenty reps in this week.

On the other side, Grehan smiled when asked about how comfortable he is playing links golf in this kind of weather. “I've probably played 30, 40 times out here,” he said. “I don't have to practice as much around the greens as most of the guys. I kind of know the little subtle breaks.”

Grehan won the 2015 South of Ireland Championship, an annual amateur tournament held at Lahinch each summer. The 33-year-old teed it up in this year’s edition, alongside five of his Walker Cup teammates, as they looked to get some competitive reps on the course ahead of this week.

All six finished inside the top 20 in a field of 150 players, by the way. Scotland’s Connor Graham shot a 62 on the second day to card the lowest round of the week.

Baker, who paired with Grehan in the opening session at Cypress Point last year, was among that group that played the South of Ireland. “I hadn't been to this area before,” the Englishman said, “but when South of Ireland was on, we came over for a training camp. We got to know the place.”

It’s clear that preparation is a big part of the narrative for the GB&I team this time. Robertson touched on that and how that differs from how they came into the event just 12 months ago.

“Cypress Point was really difficult to prepare for,” he told the media. “The greens are so undulating and so fast, whereas links golf we are well familiar with. We've played it all our lives.

“The golf course is not really going to change that much between now and Sunday. The wind is up, and the course is relatively receptive, as opposed to when we got on-site at Cypress last year, we were there the weekend before. The greens were moderately receptive, then they became brick hard, and they became really baked out.”

Robertson later admitted that getting practice on greens that run 13 or 14 on the Stimpmeter, and slope like the greens at Cypress Point, is nearly impossible. However, that is not an issue this week.

“We've got confidence in our preparation,” Robertson said, using again that word. “And if we go out there and play well, we're going to make ourselves very difficult to beat.”

Time will tell if Lahinch will serve as the 11th man for the home side this weekend, but from what was heard Thursday, they like their chances.