Flanagan Named to GB&I Walker Cup Practice Squad

National

Angus Flanagan, the University of Minnesota junior who won the State Open and Minnesota Golf Champions titles this year, is one of 15 players who have been named to the Great Britain & Ireland practice squad in preparation for the 2021 Walker Cup Matches, which will be played May 8-9 at Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla. 

The squad will eventually be trimmed to 10. 

"We have selected a talented group of players to work with in preparation for the matches against the United States next year," GB&I captain Stuart Wilson said last week in a press release. "We will be closely monitoring their form and results in a number of important events over the coming months. Meanwhile, other players still have time to play their way into contention before we finalize the team."

Several members of the GB&I preliminary squad are on the other side of the Atlantic, and they will have practice sessions in Spain. Others are, like Flanagan, going to college in the United States. They will have their practice sessions in Florida. (A U.S. practice squad has also been selected, and it, too, will hold workouts in Florida.)

If Flanagan were to make the GB&I team, he would become the second U of M player to compete in the Walker Cup Matches. John Harris, winner of the 1974 Big Ten championship and the 1993 U.S. Amateur -- and a nine-time MGA Player of the Year -- played on the U.S. team four times, in 1993, '95, '97 and 2001. (In 1974, Harris had quite a year, and in more than one sport. Besides winning the Big Ten individual crown, he won the first of his four State Amateur titles, and earlier that year, he had been the second-leading scorer on the Gophers' first NCAA championship hockey team, which was coached by Herb Brooks.) 

Flanagan won the Big Ten individual championship in 2019 as a sophomore. He didn't get the chance to repeat in 2020 because the Covid 19 pandemic cut the college golf season short. Nevertheless, when Flanagan did get the chance to compete this summer, he was very impressive. The State Open was played at The Royal Golf Club in Lake Elmo. (It was designed by Arnold Palmer and Annika Sorenstam and opened for play in 2017. The Royal turned out to be the last of the 300 courses that were designed by Palmer, who died in September of 2016.) Flanagan broke the course record by shooting an 8-under-par 64 on the final day, for a 54-hole total of 201 (15 under) and a two-stroke victory over Frankie Capan. 

A couple of weeks later, he earned medalist honors at the Western Amateur, one of the biggest national tournaments of the year, with a 72-hole total of 277 (11 under) at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind. (the course where John Daily won the 1991 PGA). The Gopher golf team didn't play any tournaments this fall, but in October, Flanagan came from behind on the final day once again to win another of the state's biggest golf championships. In this case, it was the Minnesota Golf Champions tournament. He closed with a 7-under 66 at Golden Valley G&CC, and that gave him another 54-hole total of double digits under par -- 207 (12 under) -- and another two-stroke victory.

Flanagan was in action again last week, in the Maridoe Amateur Championship at Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton, Texas. In temperatures that barely reached 50 degrees and wind velocities up to 30 mph, he tied for 37th in the medal-play qualifying, and although he made it to match play, he lost on the 19th hole in the first round. 

Capan, the current Minnesota State Amateur champ and 2020 MGA Player of the Year, was also at Maridoe and had a chance to be medalist, but struggled down the stretch in the third round of qualifying and tied for 11th. The Florida Gulf Coast sophomore -- he transferred from Alabama this fall -- made it through the first two rounds of match play but lost 1 up in the third round.