Bud Cauley Wins Singles Match 2 & 1
9/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Sept. 12, 2009
ARDMORE, Pa. - Bud Cauley jumped out to an early lead and staved off a late charge from Great Britain and Ireland's Niall Kearney to win 2 & 1 in the Saturday afternoon singles matches at the 42nd Walker Cup at the Merion Golf Club.
It was Cauley's second point of the day for the Americans after he and Rickie Fowler won their foursomes 6 & 5 this morning. The United States goes into Sunday with an 8-4 lead on the GB&I team. Cauley was one of four USA wins in singles matches in the afternoon, while the American's halved three other matches and lost only one.
Cauley, a sophomore at Alabama and a Jacksonville, Fla. native, opened up a 3-up lead after a par on the sixth hole. He had the chance to go 4-up with a birdie on No. 8, but the putt skirted the left side and Kearney found a second wind.
The Ireland native strung together three straight birdies on holes 9-11 to square the match. Cauley retook a 1-up lead with a par on No. 12, but a Kearney birdie on No. 14 squared the match again. Both players birdied No. 15 before Cauley took charge on the 16th and 17th holes.
From the middle of the fairway, Cauley hit his approach shot stiff and made the birdie putt to take the 1-up lead. He followed that with an iron below the hole on the 246-yard, par-3 17th and Kearney found the bunker short and right. Kearney blasted out long and Cauley two-putted for the win.
The U.S. also got wins in singles play from Rickie Fowler (7 & 6), Peter Uihlein (2 & 1) and Drew Weaver while Brian Harman, Cameron Tringale and Morgan Hoffman halved their matches.
American's Cauley, Fowler and Uihlein, along with GB&I's Stiggy Hodgson were the only three players to win both matches on Saturday.
Sunday foursomes begin at 6:30 a.m. (CDT) with the final 10 singles matches slated to begin at 12 p.m.
SATURDAY MORNING FOURSOMES
Cauley and Fowler were the third of four groups of foursomes to tee off Saturday morning at the 42nd Walker Cup at the Merion Golf Club, but they were the first off the course after a commanding 6 & 5 win over Great Britain and Ireland's pairing of Luke Goddard and Dale Whitnell.
The U.S. pairing combined for five birdies over 13 holes with just one bogey on the par-3 ninth, which gave the GB&I team its lone hole win.
Cauley sank a 20-foot birdie putt on the second hole to give the U.S. pairing a 1-up lead and they never looked back. Along with Fowler, the world's No. 1 amateur, the Americans won four straight holes to take a 4-up lead after No. 5.
The next two holes were halved before the USA went 5-up with a birdie on the eighth hole. After dropping the ninth hole, the Cauley and Fowler pairing came right back with a birdie to win the 10th hole.
The two teams halved holes No. 11 and No. 12 with Cauley hitting a miraculous shot out of the deep rough on a steep side hill lie to save the U.S. team on the 12th.
Cauley then followed with an iron shot to 3-feet on the 120-yard, par-3 13th hole that all but won the match for the Americans. Fowler tapped in the short birdie to give the United States its first point of the 2009 Walker Cup.
After the morning foursomes, the United States leads Great Britain and Ireland 3 to 1. Along with Cauley and Fowler's point, the USA also got a 2 & 1 win from Brian Harman and Morgan Hoffman and a thrilling come-from-behind win from Peter Uihlein and Nathan Smith.
Uihlein and Smith came to the 17th hole 1-down to GB&I's Gavin Dear and Matt Haines. But the Americans won the 17th with a birdie and then Uihlein sank an 18-foot putt on No. 18 for par to win the hole and the match.
Great Britain and Ireland's only point in the morning foursomes came from a 3 & 1 win from Stiggy Hodgson and Niall Kearney over the U.S. paring of Cameron Tringale and Adam Mitchell.
Players Mentioned
