Why the 34-year-old Walker Cup giant boycotts the lure for professional competitions
Cobblestone Beach, California – If you have been focusing on amateur golf for the past decade or so, you know the tall and slim amateur golfer Stewart Hagestad and Trade’s treasurer from Southern California. By far, he is the oldest player playing in the Walker Cup at Cypress Point. He is 34 years old.
When Hagestad won No. 4 and Ireland’s Eliot Baker, 4 and 3 won his singles match on Sunday, he scored 13.5 points for the U.S., meaning at least, the winner of the 2023 Walker Cup, will at least win the Cup. The final statistics are us 17, GB&i 9.
The victory made Hagstad a five-time champion. He has played on five Walker Cup teams (2017, 2019, 2021, 2023 and this year), and the Americans have won all of these events.
The Fred and Hagestad played a lot of golf, and the couple spent part of the week around Cypress, chatting here and there in his unique way. “But I left Stewart alone,” the couple said. “He doesn’t need anything from me.”
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Hagestad competed in eight major championships, three Masters and five American games. He looks like a polished tour player. He is often asked why he never tried as a professional. His standard response told everything.
“I had about the same golf at the Masters in 2017, and I finished the T-36,” Hagestad said the other day. He was a low-level amateur that year. Sergio Garcia won the championship with 279.
Matt Kuchar is in Cypress with his son Cameron, freshman Cameron with Texas Christian Golf team. Senior Kuchar is heading to the tournament in Napa in Procore Championship. He participated in PGA tour restrictions in 2025 after his father Peter died unexpectedly earlier this year. Watching the drama from outside the ropes, he was asked whether it makes sense among the 20 Walker Cup players who have the chance to get a game in professional golf matches and who won’t. Elsewhere in the course, Fred Ridley and his wife Betsy are also at the Walker Cup. Ridley won the American amateur in 1975 and was the last winner to never turn professional. Kuchar won American amateurs in 1997.
“You can’t tell to watch a shot here or shoot there,” Kuchar said. “If you see them in range, you might have a lot more feeling. But if you can play with someone with 36 or 72 holes, you really know.”
What’s the difference? Some people have it. Some people have the ability to grind it, take various shots from 60 yards to the bottom of the hole, and have enough obsessive genes to do this and willing to sacrifice something else to get there. There is a gap between elite lifeguards and the world’s Joel Damans.
NBC Sports Golf Broadcasting Corporation (PGA Tour) has considered Hagestad’s words about his 2017 master experience over the years and said: “It sums up the whole thing.”
Hagestad missed six innings and played one in the seven Grand Slams after the 2017 Masters. But he will most likely become the Walker Cup captain one day. He will likely be playing next year’s Walker Cup team (Walker Cup even a few years) in Lahinch, Ireland. He did a great job.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments via michael.bamberger@golf.com.
