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Normally we watch golf tournaments to marvel at the talent of the players, especially generational stars like Tiger, Rory and Scottie.
This week, the course will be the star, and that's no disrespect to a talent lot of top amateurs competing at the 2025 Walker Cup.
Casual golf fans who tune in to the 2025 Walker Cup probably won't recognize the names of anybody playing. They won't know the faces. They'll likely be tuning in for a scenic peek of the legendary venue: the Cypress Point Club, which will be revealed to a national TV and streaming audience for the first time in more than three decades.
We've all seen short glimpses of Cypress Point on social media, but no one has seen some of the best players in the world take on the famed Alister MacKenzie course on the California coast since the 1990 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. After being part of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am rotation from 1947-90, the club has generally avoided the spotlight until this moment, the 50th playing of the Walker Cup.
Why now?
“All of us felt the special obligation to share the beauty, history and tradition of Cypress Point, with friends, family and the world,” said Cypress Point Club president George Still.
The TV schedule for the 2025 Walker Cup will be split between Peacock and Golf Channel. Remember: if you're a GolfPass+ member, you have access to Peacock with your membership. If you would like to join, click here. All times are Eastern:
Saturday, Sept. 6:
12:30 pm - 3:30 pm: Peacock
7:00 pm - 10:00 pm: Golf Channel
Sunday, Sept. 7:
12:30 pm - 3:30 pm: Peacock
7:00 pm - 10:00 pm: Golf Channel
What is the Walker Cup?
If you're unfamiliar with the Walker Cup, it's amateur golf's version of the Ryder Cup, pitting the 10 best amateurs from America against their counterparts from Great Britain and Ireland in a two-day competition. Some of the players could be the next Xander or Bryson after they turn pro. When I covered my first Walker Cup at Royal County Down in Northern Ireland in 2007, little did I know just how many future stars (Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Webb Simpson and Billy Horschel) and other solid pros (Colt Knost, Chris Kirk and Kyle Stanley) were competing.
The Walker Cup involves 18 singles matches and eight foursomes (alternate-shot) matches. Cypress Point Club previously hosted the 1981 Walker Cup, when the USA defeated GB&I, 15-9. The Americans have captured five Walker Cups in a row; the GB&I haven't won since 2015.
If you're a golf course architecture fan, I'd argue the Walker Cup might be more appointment viewing than most of the majors. Check out this schedule of the future Walker Cups venues announced thus far. Only one of them (Oakmont) is part of any major championship rotation, so watching the Walker Cup now and in the years to come will be your only glimpse inside the gates of a few legendary clubs. The venues alternate between the U.S. and GB&I, similar to the Ryder Cup, which has included continental Europe since 1997.
2026 Walker Cup: Lahinch Golf Club - Lahinch, Ireland
2028 Walker Cup: Bandon Dunes Golf Resort - Bandon, Ore.
2030 Walker Cup: Princes Golf Club - Sandwich Bay, England
2032 Walker Cup: Oakmont Country Club - Oakmont, Penn.
2036 Walker Cup: Chicago Golf Club - Wheaton, Ill.
2044 Walker Cup: Pine Valley Golf Club - Clementon, New Jersey
“The selection of Cypress Point Club as Walker Cup host was emblematic of what George Herbert Walker intended when he envisioned the first Match,” said John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s chief competitions officer. “To have one of the country’s greatest courses as host site will not only produce memorable competition but will reinforce the stature of amateur golf in his country.”
Inside the Cypress Point Club
Cypress Point, designed by MacKenzie and built in 1928, will play as a 6,620-yard, par 70 for the matches. The beauty of MacKenzie's routing is the journey it reveals to walking golfers. The course weaves in and out of the Del Monte Forest and natural sand dunes before reaching a climax with three holes, nos. 15-17, directly on the ocean cliffs. How well players putt the mostly Poa greens, which average a modest 4,500 square feet in size, will probably have the greatest impact on the outcome.
Players tee off on an elevated perch just steps from the pro shop. The first fairway sweeps down and right, setting up an approach to a multi-tiered elevated green that provides the first glimpse at just how special a setting this 157-acre plot of land really is. Players can spin in a circle, breathlessly taking in the dunes, ocean and 17 Mile Drive all at once.
The first six holes at Cypress Point holes explore enchanting forest environs. The cypress trees on the course occupy one of only two natural ranges of Monterey cypress in the entire United States.
Elevated tees to maximize the views and raised greens to maximize the challenge are themes throughout. The fifth, which climbs to a tumultuous green sitting at the highest point on property, will play as a 486-yard par 4 instead of its traditional par-5 status. The 170-yard seventh introduces a magnificent three-hole maze through the dunes.
After a fierce dogleg right at no. 8, the risk-reward 9th will tempt players to drive the green, just 289 yards away. Double-bogeys are nearly as likely as birdies depending on the lies of shots that miss in the sand. It's a perfect match-play hole.
There are 104 bunkers scattered throughout Cypress Point, many guiding golfers through the stretch of six consecutive inland par 4s from holes 8 to 14 (the 10th normally plays as a par 5 for members). This is where the meat of the matches will swing one way or another, setting up dramatic finishes on the Pacific Ocean.
The walk to the 137-yard 15th hole couldn't be more epic. It feels like the waves are crashing at your feet on the green, the lowest point on property. The putting surface's undulations are just as unpredictable as the surrounding surf.
But that wedge shot is a mere tune-up for what's next: the famous 233-yard 16th. MacKenzie envisioned a par 4 until World Golf Hall of Famer Marion Hollins, who had hired him to build Cypress Point and Pasatiempo, proved it was playable as a par 3.
“Miss Hollins said she did not think it was an impossible carry,” MacKenzie wrote in his book,The Spirit of St. Andrews. “She then teed up a ball and drove to the middle of the site for the suggested green.”
Nearly a century later, the carry over the coastal chasm is more manageable with modern equipment and balls. It's no less daunting, though, when the pressure's cranked up high.
No. 17 is a classic Cape hole that doglegs right along the ocean, forcing players to pick an appropriate line off the tee. A grove of trees splits the fairway and will block errant tee shots.
The 345-yard 18th, which snakes through the trees back uphill toward the clubhouse, has been criticized over the years as an anti-climatic finisher. Whoever wins a match at this green won't care one bit. Making a winning putt will be a monumental achievement to secure critical points for your team on arguably the world's most inspiring course.
Would you rather play Cypress Point or Augusta National? Let us know your preference in the comments below.
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