This past weekend, the United States put its third consecutive walloping on Great Britain & Ireland in the 42nd Walker Cup at Merion.  The Walker Cup - predecessor to the Ryder Cup - is a rare bird.  It features ten player teams of amateur golfers in a modest two day competition.  The event features no fourball format, only alternate shot and singles matches.  The crowds are small because the names are, too. 

Despite the lack of star power, which would be ironic given the nature of the competition, the Walker Cup is a wonderful event.  The USGA has committed to hosting the event on some of the nation's best and most historic golf courses. 

Merion is no exception.  Rob Matre's photo gallery from Merion clearly displays the natural beauty of a course lost on the minds of many modern golfers.  Its superintendent declared earlier in the week that he is committed to watering Merion as little as possible, despite knowing that many superintendents care more about the green on the TV screen than how the course plays.

Having been passed by due to technology, Merion is fortunate to host the 2013 US Open.  It may well be for the last time.  The USGA is expecting around 100,000 specatators for the week.  Compared to modern Opens that require vast infrastructure to host a quarter-million people, Merion may well not be sustainable given the USGA's revenue targets. 

Effectively, a class of American golf cathedrals like Merion will be relegated to hosting Walker Cups and other USGA championships - not the Open.  But, that is a great alternative for clubs that would still appreciate hosting these kinds of smaller competitions because they still are prestigious for the club.  They just do much less wear and tear on a golf course, which is a bargain that members are much more inclined to make.

This class of courses, though, will be hosting an event in the Walker Cup whose very face is changing.  As Tom Dunne notes at Out and Back, three of GB&I's best players turned pro in the weeks leading to Merion.  Chris Wood and Shane Lowry were among the defectors to the pros that took a lot of bite out of the US opposition.  Fortunately, Rickie Fowler waited to turn pro so that he could play in his second and final Walker Cup.

With the NCAA Championship returning to a match play style format, though, the Walker Cup is almost outshined by the collegiate final.  After all, the Walker Cup is essentially a competition among young, pseudo-professionals.  Most of the competitors in this Walker Cup will turn pro.  They may succeed.  They may fail.  But they won't be amateurs for much longer.

The amount of money available to these kids fresh out of college is just too large to pass up by remaining an amateur.  These kids rightfully cash in while their buzz is big in college, rather than wait additional time and play the amateur circuit pro bono.  Though returning for a final college hoorah is becoming increasingly popular among football's best prospective pro quarterbacks, that trend has not reached college golf.

That means that the faces of the Walker Cup are rarely consistent and, unlike collegiate football, cannot just be revived thanks to an existing allegiance.  The Walker Cup is almost anti-nationalistic in the same way that the Ryder Cup fawns over geographic lines.  This is just a really great, fun match.  No more, no less. 

This is not to say that the Walker Cup is in need of hospice care.  The Walker Cup suffers from public ADD because of a host of reasons that the USGA cannot control.  Rather, the Walker Cup should be appreciated for what it really is.  It is a great match played on a great golf course.  Powerful, enduring amateur golf may well be a dying notion - kind of like hosting a major championship at a course like Merion.  Maybe, then, there is a marriage there that the USGA has found that can preserve a lasting niche for each.