Jacksonville Beach native Miles Russellseemingly has his singles match and possibly a U.S. draw in the Walker Cup in hand with two holes to play against Connor Graham of Scotland on Sept. 6, at the Lahinch Golf Club in Ireland.
Graham, a junior at Texas Tech and a first-team All-Big 12 player last year, had other ideas.
Graham birdied the last two holes while the 17-year-old Russell, playing in his first Walker Cup, went bogey-par. The ensuing halve opened the door for Josh Hill to beat Russell's doubles partner Tyler Watts 1-up with an up-and-down from a greenside bunker and clinch the Cup for Great Britain/Ireland,13.5-12.5 victory.
The victory ended a five-match winning streak for the Americans. GB/I won seven of the 10 singles matches to rally
from a three-point deficit after the Americans swept the morning foursomes.
Had Russell pulled out the victory, the U.S. would have at least retained the Walker Cup with a 13-13 tie. If Watts had won his match, the U.S. would have won outright.
Russell and Watts had a combined four putts that could have enabled the U.S. to at least regain the Cup.
Russell had winning record in first Walker Cup
Russell acquitted himself well in his first Walker Cup. He and Watts were 2-0 in doubles, beating Luke Poulter and Sam Easterbrook 1-up on Sept. 5 and Tyler Weaver and Connor Graham 3 and 2.
Russell lost to Poulter 2 and 1 in the Sept. 5 singles session.
Russell wasn't overconfident after he and Watts won their second doubles match.
"It was huge. Gave us maybe a little [wind] going into singles, but there is still a lot of matches this afternoon that can kind of go both ways," he said prophetically during his post-match interview.
However, Russell said the experience of playing in front of Irish golf fans was one that he would not forget.
"It's a great time," he said. "All the people, it's always fun to play in front of big crowds, so, yeah, it's been awesome."
U.S. captain Nathan Smith gave all the credit to GB/I.
"You've just got to tip their cap to them because they had a deep, incredible team," Smith said. "We knew what we were up against, and we never took our foot off the accelerator, but all the credit to them. They played incredibe this afternoon."
Walker Cup was U.S. college golf on display
The demographics of the Walker Cup are such that most of the matches were between U.S. and GBI players who are all active college players.
For example, Hill recently finished his career at Tennessee, where Watts is headed. Russell has verbally committed to Florida State, where Tyler Weaver of England was All-ACC three times.
Poulter is a senior at the University of Florida. Graham, a junior at Texas Tech, was All-Big 12. Easterbrook, a senior at Purdue, was All-Big Ten.
Russell went 0-1-1 in singles to two players, Poulter and Graham, who have a combined five years of college competition, 55 starts and three All-Conference selections. Russell is still a year away from college, planning to enter Florida State in 2027.
What's next for Miles Russell?
Russell will play on his second U.S. Junior Presidents Cup team on Sept. 19-20 at Medinah Nos. 1 and 2, a week before the U.S. meets the International team at Medinah No. 3. Matt Kuchar is the U.S. Junior team captain.
Russell went 1-2 for the U.S. in Montreal in 2024 but they beat the International team 15-9.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Beach's Miles Russell goes 2-1-1 in first Walker Cup
