Walker Cup winner Connor Graham opens up on 'six best shots of my life'

The Blairgowrie player spent most of Monday - the day after Great Britain & Ireland had pulled off an astonishing fightback to beat the US 13.5-12.5 in the event’s 51st edition in County Clare - around 30,000 feet in the air as he took three flights to get from Ireland to Texas. After a “brutal” day that wasn’t helped by feeling a bit “rough”, he was back on campus in Lubbock at Texas Tech, where he has just started his senior year, on Tuesday morning.

Speaking to The Scotsman, Graham admitted it felt nice to be called a Walker Cup winner at the third attempt after tasting defeat at not just St Andrews in 2023 but also Cypress Point in California 12 months ago. “It sounds pretty good, to be fair,” he said and you could definitely sense that in the tone of his voice.

Graham, a former The R&A Junior Open winner, made his debut in the transatlantic tussle along with Nairn’s Calum Scott on home soil before having both Cameron Adam and Niall Shiels Donegan as team-mates last year. On both those occasions, the Americans were just too strong, especially in the singles.

Trailing by three points heading into the concluding session on this occasion after suffering a sore 4-0 whitewash in Sunday morning’s foursomes, it needed something special from a GB&I side captained by Dean Robertson and, boy, did they deliver it.

After wins from Stuart Grehan, Luke Poulter, Jack Whaley and Tyler Weaver at the top of the order then another one from Elliot Baker after Shiels Donegan had dug deep to secure a valuable half point, it had come down to Graham and Josh Hill in the final two matches out on the course.

“I checked the leaderboard on either the 15th or 16th hole and I saw there was a lot of blue on it,” admitted Graham, who arrived on the 17th tee standing two down against Miles Russell, the world No 5 and being tipped to follow in the footsteps of Jackson Koivun, who won on the PGA Tour in just his third start and is now gearing up to play in the Presidents Cup. “That made me think ‘if I could squeeze out a half point here, it could go a long way towards us achieving our ultimate goal’.

“At the 17th, I had 155 yards to a front left pin and the wind was pumping off the right. I hit a three-quarter 9-iron to get it up the right side and, thankfully, the wind brought it back in nicely and ended up about three feet away.”

Though that brilliant blow was captured by the TV cameras, Graham’s drive and second shot at the par-5 18th were not shown on the otherwise excellent Sky Sports coverage. “Yeah, I heard that,” said Graham laughing, and being very happy indeed to talk about them due to their huge significance.

“I hit a good tee shot up the left side and had 245 yards to a back pin,” he declared. “With the wind off the right, I was in between a 3 and a 4-iron. I was thinking that I needed to get something in close so went with a hold-up 3-iron. I hit an awesome shot in there as well to get it 25 feet or so past the pin in the fringe and that set me up nicely for a two-putt birdie.”

‘Best six shots of his life’

In a post on social media, his dad Stuart reckoned that Graham had “probably hit the best six shots of his life” over those two holes. “I think I would definitely have to agree,” admitted the man himself. “I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to win those holes with pars, so being able to pull those shots off was so important.”

As, of course, was Hill then producing one of the best bunker shots you’ll ever see to set up a match-winning birdie as he beat world No 2 Tyler Watts to secure GB&I’s first victory in the contest since 2015 at Royal Lytham.

“After the last two attempts, it feels pretty special to win it this time,” admitted Graham. “Obviously the first two you are a little bit deflated after losses. But, when Josh made that putt on Sunday to win it, it was just crazy and was definitely one of the best afternoons/nights of my life.”

Among those sharing it was Graham’s brother Archie, who was tossed into the air by all the GB&I players at one point and was absolutely loving it. “The whole family were out there and Archie was giving us some team talks as well,” said Graham, laughing. “I think everyone was super happy we managed to get it done.”

Graham is straight back into tournament mode at Texas Tech, where he had the aforementioned Scott for company in his first year but is now the sole Scot on the team. He’s due to be finished there before the 2028 Walker Cup at Bandon Dunes in Oregon comes around.

“It’s a possibility, but I’ve not really thought that far ahead yet,” he said of a potential fourth appearance in the event. “I’m in my senior year, so I would have to do a fifth year at college to stay an amateur for that. If not, I’ll be a pro by then. I’m still unsure, so we’ll see.”