Pebble Beach, California – If you have followed amateur golf in the past decade, you know the name Stewart Hagestad, Tall and Slender Amateur golfer from South California and Financial Executive per trade. He was by far the oldest player, who played in the Walker Cup, here on Cypress Point. He is 34.
And when Hagestad won his singles match about Eliot Baker from the Groot -Britain and Ireland team, 4 and 3, he assured point number 13.5 for the US, which meant that the Americans of the Walker Cup 2023, at least the cup would secure. The last count was US 17, GB & I 9.
This victory made Van Hagestad a five -time winner. He played in five Walker Cup teams – 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023 and this year – and the Americans have won all those events.
Fred couples plays a lot of Golf with Hagestad, and couples was a part of the week around Cypress and chat players here and there in his inimitable way. “But I leave Stewart alone,” said couples. “He doesn’t need anything from me.”
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Hagestad has played in eight large championships, three masters and five US OpenS. He looks like a polished tour player. He is often asked why he never tried to play as a professional. His standard reaction tells everything.
“At the Masters 2017 my golf was about as good as it could be, and I ended with T-36,” Hagestad said recently. He was the low amateur that year. Sergio Garcia won, at 279. Hagestad shot 294. “So where am I going to end if I don’t play my best?”
Matt Kuchar was in Cypress with his son, Cameron, a first -year student in the Texas Christian Golf team. The Senior Kuchar was on the way to the tour event that was played in Napa this week, the Procore Championship. He played a limited PGA Tour schedule in 2025 after the unexpected death of his father, Peter, earlier this year. Looking at the game from outside the ropes, he was asked if he had a feeling, of the 20 Walker Cup players, who would have the chance to make it in professional wave – and who would not. Elsewhere on the track were Fred Ridley and his wife, Betsy, also at the Walker Cup. Ridley won the American amateur in 1975 and is the last winner who never becomes Pro. Kuchar won the American amateur in 1997.
“You can’t say to see a shot here or a shot there,” said Kuchar. “If you see them on the reach, you might have a feeling more. But if you can play with a man of more than 36 or 72 holes, you really know.”
And what is the difference? Some guys have it. Some boys have the opportunity to grind it, play all the shot from 60 meters to the bottom of the hole, have had enough of an obsessive gene to get it, willing to sacrifice other things in their attempt to get there. There is a gorge between the Elite Lifer Amateurs and the Joel Dahmens of the World.
Roger Maltbie, the veteran NBC Sports Golf -broadcaster who played the PGA Tour for years, considered what Hagestad said about his Masters experience 2017 and said, “That summarizes the whole thing.”
In his seven Majors after the Masters 2017, where he was the low amateur, Hagestad missed six cuts and made one. But he is once a Walker Cup captain once. He will most likely play in the Walker Cup team of next year (the Walker Cup is even going for years) in Lahinch in Ireland. He’s doing fine.
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