In 2017, a group of promising American amateur golfers joined forces to create what might have been the “best ever” Walker Cup team in history, at least according to GOLF’s Subpar co-host Colt Knost.
The biennial Walker Cup is a Ryder Cup-style event pitting the best American amateurs against the top ams from Great Britain and Ireland. And many of the game’s greatest pros played in the long-running event during their rise in the game.
But the 2017 team was absolutely loaded, featuring a full roster of sticks, most of whom would go on to star on the PGA Tour. At least so far, none of their careers have panned out quite as well as World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who was a member of the team.
He was joined by current Tour pros Will Zalatoris, Maverick McNealy, Cameron Champ, Doug Ghim and Norman Xiong, to name a few. That year’s team trounced the competition at Los Angeles Country Club with a final score of 19-7.
It also featured a player who just earned his PGA Tour card this year: Braden Thornberry. Thornberry won this year’s Korn Ferry Tour Championship to earn a promotion to the big leagues in 2025.
Not long after his win, Thornberry joined GOLF’s Subpar for a wide-ranging interview with co-hosts Knost and Drew Stoltz.
Naturally, the 2017 Walker Cup came up during their conversation, and Thornberry provided a revealing perspective on the star-studded team. Knost couldn’t help but ask the newly-minted Tour pro which Walker Cup teammate seemed to have the brightest future at the time.
“Who did you think would have the best career off of the team?” Knost asked.
Surprisingly, Scheffler was not the man on Thornberry’s mind. Instead, it was another multiple major champion who he thought would make the biggest waves in the pro ranks: Collin Morikawa.
“That’s a tough question. Probably Morikawa,” Thornberry replied. “He was another interesting one in college too, because he didn’t win as much as how good he was. But he finished top 5 in every big tournament you could imagine, and just obviously a beautiful golf swing, everything was just very sound. He looked like a PGA Tour player when he went out there. So that was probably the can’t-miss person.”
While Morikawa hasn’t quite had the career that Scheffler has, he’s still one of the most successful young pros in history. At age 27, Morikawa already has two major titles on his resume and six total PGA Tour wins. For the record, Scheffler also has two majors, but he beats Morikawa on the PGA Tour win count with 13.
You can watch Thornberry talking Walker Cup above, or you can watch Thornberry’s entire hour-long Subpar interview on YouTube here.
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