Team USA Makes It Three Straight At the Walker Cup
9/13/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Sept. 13, 2009
ARDMORE, Pa. - Brendan Gielow won his Sunday singles match against Dale Whitnell to help Team USA earn its third-straight victory over the Great Britain & Ireland squad at the 2009 Walker Cup.
The Americans held a commanding 11-6 lead heading into the afternoon singles matches at the Merion Country Club. Team USA would win five of the ten matches on Sunday afternoon to claim a 16.5 to 9.5 victory.
Gielow and Whitnell went out in the final match and the two found themselves all-square through nine. Gielow then won both the 10th and 11th with pars and extended his lead to 3-up with a birdie at the par-3 13th. Whitnell made another bogey at No. 14 to give Gielow a 4-up lead and the two would halve the 15th with birdies to give the Muskegon, Mich., native a 4 and 3 victory.
The point was the only point of the matches for Gielow as he also fell in Saturday's singles match to Stiggy Hodgson. On Sunday morning, Gielow teamed with fellow ACC player Drew Weaver from Virginia Tech in a foursomes match against Wallace Booth and Sam Hutsby. Gielow and Weaver lost the third hole to go 1-down and eventually went 5-down through nine. Despite a late rally, the American team fell 3 and 2.
Rickie Fowler was the star of the matches for the Americans, as he went a perfect 4-0.
This was the third-straight victory for the Americans over their counterparts from GB&I. This year also marked the fourth-straight time that Wake Forest had a representative on the Walker Cup team. Bill Haas went 2-2 in the American's loss in 2003 while Kyle Reifers (2005) and Webb Simpson (2007) were both part of the Team USA's victories in the last two Walker Cups. Gielow became the 15th different Demon Deacon to participate in the matches.
