What a weekend for team golf.

There are weeks when professional golf produces the biggest story, and then there are weeks when the amateur game reminds us why match play, national pride and playing for something other than prize money can be so compelling.

This was emphatically one of those weeks.

Walker Cup — what a victory for Great Britain & Ireland

Great Britain & Ireland's 131⁄2–121⁄2 victory over the United States at Lahinch was extraordinary — a first Walker Cup win since 2015 and achieved after a Sunday that seemed, for a long time, to be heading firmly America's way.

The USA swept the Sunday morning foursomes 4–0. At that point GB&I were 10–6 behind and needed something exceptional in the singles. They produced it.

GB&I won 71⁄2 points from the ten Sunday singles, their best Sunday singles performance in Walker Cup history. Josh Hill's birdie at the 18th to defeat Tyler Watts was one of the crucial moments, before Stuart Grehan defeated Jackson Koivun to secure the point that completed the comeback.

This is exactly why I love team golf.

No prize cheque. No FedExCup points. No individual world-ranking narrative dominating the conversation. Just ten players trying to win for one another, their captain and the badge on the shirt.

The atmosphere at Lahinch appeared magnificent, but it was the pressure that fascinated me most. Amateur golf is sometimes discussed as though the absence of prize money somehow reduces the stakes. Watch the closing holes of a Walker Cup and try making that argument.

For coaches and young players there is a lesson here too. Match play asks different questions. You have to respond to an opponent, momentum can change incredibly quickly and one poor hole doesn't have to destroy a round. The ability to stay present — especially when a match appears to be slipping away — is enormously valuable.

After five consecutive American victories, this was a wonderful result for GB&I amateur golf. And what a way to win it.

DP World Tour — Lawrence and Casey produce a classic at Crans

The professional highlight came at the Omega European Masters, where Thriston Lawrence defeated Paul Casey after a dramatic four-hole play-off at Crans-sur-Sierre.

Lawrence closed with a superb bogey-free 62, reaching 18-under, but Casey kept coming. What followed was exactly the sort of Sunday theatre the DP World Tour does so well.

Lawrence eventually holed the decisive birdie putt on the fourth play-off hole to become a three-time Omega European Masters champion, joining Seve Ballesteros in achieving that distinction.

Casey will inevitably look back at opportunities on the greens, but the contest was gripping and Lawrence's finish under pressure was exceptional.

Crans remains one of the most visually distinctive stops in professional golf and once again it produced a tournament worthy of the setting.

PGA Tour — a pause after the FedExCup

There was no regular PGA Tour event this weekend following the Tour Championship, where Scottie Scheffler completed another remarkable season by winning at East Lake.

That gap perhaps helped the Walker Cup receive the attention it deserved.

The conversation on the men's professional side is already moving towards the Presidents Cup at Medinah, with the teams now taking shape, but this weekend belonged to the amateurs.

LPGA and LET — all roads lead to Bernardus

The leading women's tours have effectively arrived at Solheim Cup week.

The LPGA's most recent event saw Ruoning Yin win the FM Championship at TPC Boston for her sixth LPGA Tour title, while attention since then has shifted almost entirely towards Europe against the USA.

And rightly so.

LIV Golf — uncertainty rather than tournament golf

There was no LIV event this weekend and the bigger story remains what happens next.

The 2026 season ended earlier than originally expected, with the planned Michigan Team Championship cancelled, while reports around funding, staffing reductions and the future structure of the league continue.

I've said throughout that I don't object to an alternative tour. More opportunities, different formats and a genuinely global schedule can be healthy for professional golf.

But any tour ultimately has to build something sustainable that people care about beyond the size of the contracts and prize funds.

That question is now becoming more important than ever for LIV.

This week: The Solheim Cup

And now we move from one wonderful team contest straight into another.

The 2026 Solheim Cup takes place from Friday 11 to Sunday 13 September at Bernardus Golf in the Netherlands, the first time the competition has been staged in the country.

Anna Nordqvist captains Europe, while Angela Stanford leads the United States.

The Americans arrive as holders after their 151⁄2–121⁄2 victory in 2024, ending Europe's run of three consecutive Cups retained or won. So Europe have something to regain.

Why I'm excited about this one

Women's golf continues to grow in strength and depth, and the Solheim Cup has become one of golf's great sporting occasions.

For me, it works because the competition feels authentic.

The players care enormously. The crowds understand match play. Partnerships matter. Captaincy matters. Momentum matters.

And unlike a normal 72-hole tournament, we get to see personality.

A player who might appear relatively quiet during a regular LPGA or LET event can look completely different when she holes a putt for Europe or the USA with eleven teammates standing beside the green. That emotion is part of sport.

Europe's team includes established Solheim Cup performers alongside a new generation, with players such as Charley Hull, Esther Henseleit, Lottie Woad, Maja Stark, Céline Boutier and Carlota Ciganda among the automatic qualifiers.

The USA will again have tremendous strength and depth and will arrive believing they can win on European soil. But home crowds matter in this competition.

Bernardus should provide a fantastic setting and I expect the atmosphere to build rapidly from Friday morning.

What I'll be watching

The opening foursomes will tell us plenty about the captains' thinking.

Who are the trusted combinations? Which rookies are sent out immediately? Who is protected until the fourballs? And which players become the emotional heartbeat of each team?

I'll also be watching how the captains manage players who aren't playing well.

In stroke play you have four days to find something. In the Solheim Cup a captain has to decide whether loyalty to a player and partnership outweighs the evidence in front of them.

Those decisions can decide Cups.

And then, of course, Sunday singles strips everything back.

Twelve individual matches. Twelve points. No hiding place.

After what we witnessed at Lahinch, I wouldn't make too many predictions about what a scoreboard means going into the final day!

A brilliant fortnight for match play

Perhaps that's the biggest thought I'm taking from this week.

At a time when so much discussion around professional golf revolves around money, contracts, world-ranking points and competing organisations, the Walker Cup reminded us how powerful golf can be when players are representing a team rather than playing for a cheque.

The Solheim Cup now gives us another three days of exactly that.

If it's anything like the Walker Cup, we're in for a terrific weekend.

I'll be watching — and I'll have a full review next week.

Andy

PGA Professional | AndyTaylorGolf Lab