Britain and Ireland's amateurs regained the Walker Cup with an unexpected victory over hotly-fancied America at Royal Aberdeen.
Amateurs clinch victory over America in Scotland
Britain and Ireland's amateurs regained the Walker Cup with an unexpected 14-12 victory over hotly-fancied America at Royal Aberdeen on Sunday.
With Northern Ireland's Paul Cutler four up with four to play in the bottom singles, the win was guaranteed when 17-year-old Welshman Rhys Pugh - also unbeaten in the match - beat United States champion Kelly Kraft and then English champion Steven Brown halved with Blayne Barber.
It ended a run of three successive defeats for Britain and Ireland and was their biggest margin since the 15-9 victory in 2001, when the team included current world number one Luke Donald and last year's US Open champion Graeme McDowell.
What this team will go onto achieve remains to be seen, but they can be pretty sure they had got the better of some future stars - amateur world number one Patrick Cantlay has already had a 60 on the PGA Tour and Harris English has already won a 'second tier' Nationwide Tour title.
After taking a 7-5 overnight lead, the gap became five with another outstanding performance in the four morning foursomes.
Having dropped just one point in the opening session, Edwards's men did even better and would have completed a whitewash if only Tom Lewis and Michael Stewart had not halved from four up with six to play against Jordan Spieth and Patrick Rodgers.
Lewis, of course, is the 20-year-old from Welwyn Garden who created Open Championship history with his 65 at Sandwich in July.
Many thought he had to be in similar form for the home team to win, yet he lost both his singles and they still triumphed.
A mere three points were needed from the 10 concluding games, but when Lewis lost to Russell Henley and Andy Sullivan to teenager Jordan Spieth there was still work to be done.
Stewart, one of the two Scots, beat world number three Patrick Rodgers 3&2, then Lancashire's Jack Senior, who two weeks ago reached the semi-finals of the US Amateur, sank a 35-foot putt on the final green for a half with Nathan Smith.
Pugh, who beat Rodgers on the first day, added the scalp of American champion Kraft and the celebrations started when English champion Brown won his final hole for a half against Barber.
Pugh said later: "I could not have dreamt of better - I've never felt anything like this before."
