PEBBLE BEACH — At a time when amateur golf is undoubtedly a young man’s game, Stewart Hagestad proudly serves as its Methuselah. Consider this: When the 34-year-old played in the first of his five Walker Cups back in 2017 at Los Angeles Country Club, current teammate, reigning U.S. Amateur champion and break out start of this Walker Cup, Mason Howell was just 10 years old.
Yet the Old Man did himself proud this week at Cypress Point Club, the lone mid-amateur on the U.S. side contributing a pair of singles wins in the Americans’ convincing 17-9 victory over Great Britain & Ireland.
When he holed a 20-foot birdie effort on the par-3 15th, the fog rolling in off the Pacific Ocean, to close out GB&I’s Eliot Baker, 4 and 3, Hagestad had grabbed the 13th point, guaranteeing that the Americans would retain the Cup.
“The timing of it worked out,” said Hagestad, who won the clinching point for the U.S. back in 2017. “I’m just so happy it went in. I hit that a little hard and everyone is a straight one if you hit it hard enough.”
Moreover, Hagestad bolstered a record that leaves him among the most accomplished players in Walker Cup history. By playing on the winning American side yet again, Hagestad became just the seventh golfer to play on five or more victorious Walker Cup teams.
And by beating Baker after winning his Saturday singles match, 7 and 5, over Gavin Tiernan, Hagestad improved his overall singles record in the biennial event to 7-1. That ties him with Bill Campbell for the second most Walker Cup singles victories, trailing only Jay Sigel, who claimed 11 wins in his record nine Walker Cup starts.
"I think in singles, you can kind of like, get obsessed in your own space and focus on like what you're doing," Hagestad said on Sunday. "Being an older guy you just have, maybe you value the team component of it so much more, and maybe it helps alleviate a little bit of the pressure from singles."
While the USGA traditionally leaves a spot for a mid-amateur at each Walker Cup, Hagestad has been far from a ceremonial golfer. He stands an impressive 6-foot-5 but his slender build and dry wit help him blend in with his younger teammates. Only his long-putter and day job as a broker for BDT & MSD Partners give away the fact his college career at USC ended back in 2013.
“I think Stew and I … we’ve had a great relationship for years,” said U.S. Walker Cup captain Nathan Smith. “I think with some of the things he’s done, with the Mid-Ams, playing in majors, I think that brought us together a little bit. He’s asked me questions and I think we’ve bonded a little bit. I love his game and respect his game. I really just couldn’t imagine being a captain on a Walker Cup team and him not being on my team. … I think just his level of play and what he’s done, winning so many Walker Cups, speaks for itself.”
Hagestad’s career accolades include three U.S. Mid-Amateur titles, eight starts in major championship (three Masters, five U.S. Opens) and low amateur honors at the 2017 Masters. “I’ve accomplished more than I ever thought possible in the amateur game,” Hagestad said back in 2022 after making the cut at the U.S. Open.
Suffice it to say, Hagestad is appreciative of the résumé he has developed, well aware that making the team once, let alone five times, is a challenge.
“They’re all special,” said Hagestad earlier in the week when asked about playing in his fifth. “I think at a different part of my life I’ll be able to see the forest from the trees so to speak.”
This roster in particular, though, was one that he greatly wanted to compete on, Cypress Point an inviting locale not to mention knowing that his window of opportunity to play in the event was starting to close. He also had to overcome some physical aliments. A right elbow injury, effectively tennis elbow, last summer slowed down his play and allowed Evan Beck to emerge as a potential mid-am selection for Cypress when Beck won the 2024 U.S. Mid-Am title plus the Coleman and Thomas inviationals. But Hagestad bounced back this summer, finishing T-8 at the Northeast Amateur and making the Sweet 16 at the Western Amateur while Beck struggled.
“I was hyper-focused on making this team,” he said. “Like there were a lot of sacrifices made personally, professionally, socially. You name it across the board the spectrum of your life. So when I got the call, I genuinely didn’t believe it.”
Stewart Hagestad was on his first winning Walker Cup team in 2017, playing at his home course of LACC.
Harry How
Hagestad, the oldest player on the American team that won in 2019 at Royal Liverpool, pals around with the youngest player in U.S. Walker Cup history, Akshay Bhatia.
Jan Kruger/R&A
Hagestad picked up his third straight Walker Cup title in 2021 at Seminole Golf Club.
Cliff Hawkins
Hagestad joins U.S. captain Mike McCoy, David Ford, Preston Summerhays, Nick Dunlap and Austin Greaser celebrating on the Swilcan Bridge after their Americans victory in 2023 at the Old Course.
Ross Parker/R&A
The question now is whether that’s the last call he’ll be getting? Through a twist of fate, the California native who now lives in Florida just might have another Walker Cup left in him as a player. The USGA and R&A have decided to move the matches back to even-number years so that they’re not played near the Ryder Cup, so the 51st edition of the event will take place next year at Lahinch Golf Club in Ireland.
If Hagestad doesn’t make that team, he’ll undoubtedly be at a future Walker Cup as a captain of the American team and have a chance to extend his success in the world’s premier amateur golf event.
Earlier in the week Hagestad joked: “The first thing people ask you is where you played your Walker Cups. The second thing is if you won.”
Hagestad can boast that he’s played them at some amazing locales, LACC, Royal Liverpool, Seminole, St. Andrews and now Cypress Point. Oh, and he hasn’t lost one yet.