Great Britain & Ireland’s amateurs surged into a 3-1 lead during the opening session of foursomes in the Walker Cup at Royal Lytham this morning.
Nigel Edwards’s side harnessed the testing conditions to fine effect and struck an early blow in their bid to reclaim the trophy they lost to the USA two years ago.
Jack McDonald, the Barassie youngster and one of three Scots in the GB&I line-up, forged an impressive alliance with his former Stirling University room-mate, Cormac Sharvin, and the home duo eased to a 5&4 win over Robby Shelton and Jordan Niebrugge.
Watched by his grandfather Gordon Cosh, who represented GB&I in the Walker Cup 50 years ago, McDonald dovetailed superbly with Irishman Sharvin and the steady, assured pairing were always in command.
The American partnership of Niebruuge and Shelton, meanwhile, struggled to get to grips with the abundant challenges of the Lytham links and were nine-over for the 14 holes.
"We just kept going and building momentum and just did not really give them much," McDonald said.
In the top tie, the English duo of Ashley Chesters and Jimmy Mullen led from the front and beat Maverick McNealy and Hunter Stewart by a 3&2 margin while the Irish duo of Gavin Moynihan and Jack Hume chalked up a similar victory against Lee McCoy and his veteran namesake Mike McCoy.
The hard-pressed Americans made sure there would be no whitewash of the session, though, as Beau Hossler and Denny McCarthy edged out Paul Dunne and Gary Hurley 3&1 to reduce the deficit to two points heading into the afternoon’s eight singles matches.
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