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Heading into the 50th Walker Cup Match at Cypress Point Club, the United States team knew exactly the power it possessed in the world’s top-ranked amateur, Auburn junior Jackson Koivon, and the five other players who were among the top 10 in the WAGR.
As for Mason Howell? He is an 18-year-old high school senior ranked 143rd and was lightly on the radar of American captain Nathan Smith until Howell shocked a field of mostly college players to win the U.S. Amateur at The Olympic Club last month.
Howell was certainly the mystery player in the bunch, but he is no more. The third-youngest American to play in the Walker Cup happened to all but match Koivun in leading the U.S. to a 17-9 victory over Great Britain & Ireland on Sunday. The eight-point margin was the largest since a stacked American team filled with future PGA Tour pros won 19-7 in 2017 at Los Angeles Country Club.
With a tie against fellow 18-year-old Connor Graham, of Ireland, in the one of only three afternoon singles matches that reached the final hole, Howell posted the only unbeaten record among the Americans by going 2-0-1. Koivun, meantime, was the first player whom Smith sent out in every session, and he was a robust rabbit, earning a team-high three points, including the first on Sunday afternoon with a 3-and-2 victory over Tyler Weaver, GB&I’s highest-ranked player.
“I’m sad it’s already over,” Howell said on the 18th green after he’d taken time to pose for pictures with his cheerful family and friends.
Only one point separated the teams after they halved the four foursomes points on Sunday morning, but the Americans’ stronger pedigree showed itself in one-on-one play as they got 7½ points out of the first eight matches en route to going 8-1-1 in the singles. For the weekend, the U.S. dominated the head-to-head matches, notching 14 of the available 18 points.
Following Koivun’s victory, the U.S. got wins by Texas senior Tommy Morrison (3 and 2) and Oklahoma State junior Ethan Fang (5 and 4). When Howell got his half-point, it was left to the veteran of the squad, 34-year-old Stewart Hagestad, to secure the retention of the cup, and he did so in thrilling fashion by canning a long birdie putt at the 15th to win, 4 and 3.
Mason Howell (left) and Stewart Hagestad celebrate. Logan Whitton
Moments later, Oklahoma State junior Preston Stout guaranteed the Americans’ outright win with his 2-and-1 victory over Luke Poulter.
The victories happened in such bang-bang fashioned that the American had to wait to celebrate until they all ended up together on the tee at Cypress Point’s spectacular 16th.
“I’m just blown away,” said Smith, a first-time captain who won in two of his three appearances as a Walker Cup player. “They showed up all weekend, in both singles matches in the afternoon, and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a Walker Cup team bring it like they did this afternoon in singles.”
With the Cup decided, the late groups earnestly played out their final holes in thickening fog that rolled in during afternoon after a bright and sunny morning. Wrapping up the U.S. points were Virginia senior Ben James (1 up), the only other returner beyond Hagestad from 2023, Oklahoma senior Jase Summy (3 and 1) and Notre Dame junior Jacob Modleski (1 up).
Ireland’s Gavin Tiernan, who plays for East Tennessee State and entered the week as the lowest-ranked player at 465th in the world, got the only full point for GB&I in singles, winning 2 and 1 against No. 9-ranked Ole Miss senior Michael La Sasso.
This was a decisive win for a strong American team, but it likely will be remembered most for the figurative and literal leadership of Koivun and the precocious play of Howell.
Koivun, 21, has been one of the brightest young stars in the game the past two years—so much so that he became only the third golfer to secure his PGA Tour card through the PGA Tour’s University Accelerated program when he earned his 20th and final point by tying for fifth in the 2025 NCAA individual championships.
In 2024, Koivin led Auburn to the national team championship and swept the four major individual awards. And in a preview of his match-play prowess, he went 7-0 in the format that season.
Captains in team competition like to set the tone early, and Koivun did that beautifully for Smith at Cypress Point. He and Morrison did start Saturday with a 3-and-1 foursomes loss to Weaver and Graham, but pity the poor Weaver after that. The Englishman, who plays for Florida and ranks 10th in the world, drew Koivun three more times, and the American defeated him 4 and 3 in singles on Saturday, 1 up in Sunday foursomes alongside Morrison, and then 3 and 2 to start the afternoon surge.
“I love it. I love going out there, especially in singles and setting the pace,” Koivun said. “It just feels like I can set the tone for the team and after that go watch some golf cheer on the guys and hopefully come out on top.”
U.S. team Nathan Smith congratulates Jackson Koivun after he won his singles match on Sunday. Chris Keane
It was a long and draining week for Koivun, and the Bay Area native said he did his best to play “smart” golf and keep his emotions in check. “I tried to piece apart the golf course the best I could and hit a lot of really good shots,” he noted. “I’m just happy with it and the way I played today.”
In the winners’ press conference, Smith laughed when he recounted getting in a cart with Koivun on Sunday afternoon. “He jumped in and is going to drive the cart,” the captain said. “I said, ‘yeah, you drive; you’ve been driving us all week.’”
Smith also admitted he was on the verge of tears talking about what Koivun meant to the team. “When he closed out his match, I said thank you for playing,” he said. “It’s just an honour for me to have him on my team.”
Koivun likely will be a professional by the time next year’s Walker Cup is played at Lahinch in Ireland, while Howell could take his place as the leader.
A Thomasville, Ga., native who is a verbal commit to his home-state Georgia Bulldogs, Howell has been a strong junior player, and he warranted attention this summer when he qualified for the U.S. Open at Oakmont by shooting 63-63 in final qualifying. He was the medalist in the U.S. Junior, though lost in the first round of match play and went into the U.S. Amateur as still something of an outlier.
That didn’t change when Howell had to survive a 20-for-17 playoff to get into the match play, but he made an incredible run in beating one college player after another to reach the final. There, Howell stepped on the gas to rout Tennessee sophomore Jackson Herrington 7 and 6 to become the third-youngest winner of the Havemeyer Trophy.
Howell didn’t know until he reached the quarterfinals that an American winner of the U.S. Am automatically qualifies for the Walker Cup, but that obviously didn’t cause him any more nerves. And this 103-year-old international competition seemed not above his mental or physical ability. He started the week in a practice round making an albatross with a 6-iron on a par 5, and on Sunday holed out a pitching wedge for a walk-off eagle to win his foursomes match alongside Modleski.
“It was fun to play in front of a crowd and get ’em going, especially when they’re on your side,” Howell said. “It just goes back to that famous quote, ‘pressure’s a privilege.’ And um, I feel like I kind of, kind of took that in this week and tried, tried to use it to my advantage.”
Smith marvelled at seeing Howell’s game up close this week, saying he’d found his own “Superman.”
“Just an incredible young man, mature beyond his years,” Smith said. “I think we’re going to be treated to some incredible golf from him for decades.”
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Main Image: Chris Keane
