Royal Aberdeen Selected To Host 2011 Walker Cup Match


May 8, 2006
E-mail address: mediarelations@usga.org

St. Andrews, Scotland - The 2011 Walker Cup Match has been awarded to Royal Aberdeen Golf Club, the sixth oldest in the world.

In announcing the date and venue for the biennial match between Great Britain & Ireland and the United States, The Royal and Ancient Golf Club will be staging the contest at one of Scotland’s true and most historic links courses located on the outskirts of Aberdeen and overlooked by the North Sea.

David Hill, Director of Championships for The R&A said: "We are delighted to be staging the Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen which will provide a fitting showcase for amateur golf’s premier match between countries.

"Last year, the Senior British Open Championship was a huge success at Royal Aberdeen with the world’s top over-50’s players full of praise for the layout at Balgownie and with the condition of the course.

"I have no doubt that with the support of the knowledgeable golfing public in the North East, that the Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen will match that success."

Royal Aberdeen has been a venue over the years for championships at every level. It has hosted the Scottish Amateur Championship at regular intervals from 1924, the Scottish Stoke Play, the Scottish Boys, the Boys Amateur, the Scottish Ladies’ Amateur and most recently, in 2005, the Senior British Open Championship, one of the five senior majors.

For the first 35 years of existence, the club was known as The Society of Golfers at Aberdeen, but in 1815 it was reformed as The Aberdeen Golf Club. It moved to its present home in Balgownie in 1888.

The accolade of ‘Royal’ was conferred on the club by His Majesty King Edward VII in 1903.

In 2007 the Walker Cup will be played at Royal County Down, Newcastle, Northern Ireland and in 2009 at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa. The USA regained the Walker Cup in 2005 at Chicago Golf Club after GB&I had won the previous three Matches.