[caption id="attachment_66760" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Paul Cutler"]
Paul Cutler went undefeated in four outings to help Great Britain and Ireland defeat the United States, 14-12, in the Walker Cup, which was played this year at Royal Aberdeen in Scotland. The GB&I side was aided by two Northern Irish in the persons of Cutler and Alan Dunbar.
Cutler and Dunbar teamed for victories in Saturday and Sunday foursomes. The scores were 5 and 4, and 2 and 1, respectively. In singles action, Cutler was a 2 and 1 winner on Saturday, and then halved his Sunday match with Patrick Cantlay, the UCLA phenom who was prominent in this year's U.S. Open. Dunbar did not play in the Saturday singles matches, and lost his Sunday match by one hole.
The U.S. had won the last three stagings of this amateur event.
EUROPEAN TOUR
Rory McIlroy took a backseat to Irish Open champ Simon Dyson at the KLM Open at Hilversumsche Golf Club in Hilversumsche, Netherlands. Dyson was a 1-stroke winner here over David Lynn, with McIlroy another stroke back in third place.
Dyson, paired with McIlroy on Sunday, birdied four of his last seven holes to claim the title. McIlroy, who started off the final round having birdied just two holes on the Hilversumsche front nine in the previous three rounds, appeared poised to take off. He dismissed a bogey at the first hole on Sunday with birdies at the second, third and fourth holes. And then he went cold.
McIlroy played evenly over the next six holes before taking bogey at 11. He got that stroke back at 12, but handed it right back at 13. By this time, Dyson was on turbo charge and two closing birdies by McIlroy gave the impression that the finish was tighter than it actually was. McIlroy shot rounds of 70, 65, 68 and 67 for an aggregate 270.
"I should have made more of the fast start I got off to today," McIlroy said after Sunday's round. "The bogeys at 11 and 13 didn't do me any favors and that's where I lost the tournament."
Paul McGinley worked out his first top-10 finish of the season on the strength of a third-round 64 in which he picked up five birdies and an eagle on the back nine (he came in in 28). He tied for sixth place at 273 (70-68-64-71).
"What a round," McGinley said after Saturday's 64. "Just one of those days. Particularly on the greens. I read the greens great, so when I hit it I knew it was going in."
Shane Lowry was the only other Irish participant to make the cut. He tied for 64th place at 283 (70-68-73-72). Landing one stroke on the wrong side of the cut line at 141 were Gareth Maybin (69-72) and Michael Hoey (70-71). Behind them came Damien McGrane, 142 (73-69), and Peter Lawrie, 147 (73-74).
CHALLENGE TOUR
Simon Thornton had led the Kazakhstan Open at Nurtau Golf Club at the midway point and was still only two strokes behind Tommy Fleetwood as they teed off on Sunday. But Thornton's chances drowned with his opening tee shot, which found water. The only positive to the double bogey that ensued was that Fleetwood took bogey himself. But Fleetwood soon separated himself and had only Knut Borsheim to fend off for the title, which he did by two strokes.
Thornton didn't find a groove until the 12th hole on Sunday, when he carded the first of four backside birdies, but by then he was too late. His 276 (67-66-72-71) left a 3-shot gap between him and Fleetwood; Thornton settled for a slice of third place.
