Walker Cup 2011 guide

Over the following pages we'll be giving you a guide to the 2011 Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen in Scotland. We'll have pictures of the 2011 GB&I team to face the United States, player profiles and pictures of Balgownie Links at Royal Aberdeen where the 2011 Walker Cup is being played. Don't forget to play our Walker Cup quiz at the end and you could win some fantastic prizes.

What is the Walker Cup?

The Walker Cup Match has a long history and began after World War I on the back of two international matches between the United States and Canada, in 1919 and 1920. Not long after the USGA Executive Committee had been invited to Great Britain to meet with The R&A Golf Club of St Andrews Rules Committe, international team matches were discussed.

At that meeting was a certain George Herbert Walker who was so taken with the idea that he offered to donate a trophy. He was a keen golfer and the 'Walker Cup' name stuck. In 1921, the USGA invited nations to send teams to compete for the Walker Cup, but no country was able to accept that year. At Hoylake, the Americans beat a British team 9 to 3 in an informal match the day before the British Amateur. In 1922 only Great Britain accepted America's invite. The American team won the first Walker Cup Match, 8 to 4 and the contest was off and running.

Members of the Great Britain Walker Cup team of 1923 [Getty Images]