By John Strege
U.S. Amateur champion Doc Redman and runner-up Doug Ghim both were named to the 10-man U.S. Walker Cup team that will face a Great Britain & Ireland team at Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course, Sept. 9-10.

USGA president Diana Murphy made the announcement in the immediate aftermath of Redman’s victory over Ghim on the 37th hole of the Amateur at Riviera Country Club.

RELATED: Doc Redman rallies to win ‘an incredible match’

Joining Redman and Ghim are Maverick McNealy, Stewart Hagestad, Braden Thornberry, Norman Xiong, Cameron Champ, Collin Morikawa, Scottie Scheffler and Will Zalatoris.

McNealy is No. 2 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and the only player on the U.S. roster with previous Walker Cup experience. Thornberry is No. 3 in the world after winning the NCAA individual title and the Sunnehanna Amateur this summer. Hagestad is the reigning U.S. Mid-Amateur champion who in April became the first Mid-Amateur champion to make the cut in the Masters.

The captain is Spider Miller.

“It’s a committee decision,” he said, “but the committee has always held a spot for our current U.S. Amateur champion. But Doc went out and earned that spot, and I’m very proud of him. I’m looking forward to a great competition. I have a wonderful team and I’m very excited.”

Missing from the U.S. team was a second mid-amateur representative, with Scott Harvey believed to be on the short list for the team. Also on the outside looking in was LSU’s Sam Burns, college golf’s Jack Nicklaus Player of the Year honoree in June who announced he would turn pro in September in hopes of still having a chance to play on the U.S. team; Oklahoma’s Brad Dalke, the 2016 U.S. Amateur runner-up, Illinois’ Dylan Meyer, who won the 2016 Western Amateur, was a semifinalist at 2016 U.S. Amateur and is currently ranked No. 4 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.

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Safely becoming the first 72-hole stroke-play medalist in the championship to earn the match-play title since Chris Williams in 2012, Xiong claimed he never once believed he actually had the victory over Redman locked away. On the contrary, the 18-year-old from Canyon Lake, Calif., admitted to becoming more nervous.

“After 16, I started to feel it,” said Xiong, who was named the national freshman of the year in 2017 after enrolling in Eugene only in January. “I got a little more nervous, a little more tense. Before that, I was loose. Doc and I had fun out there … before 16, it was a relaxing round. We tried to keep it light, even though it’s such a big stage.”

After making five birdies in the first 14 holes, Xiong dropped the 15th, 16th and 17th to Redman, the ACC freshman of the year at Clemson last spring. Redman then nearly pulled off the most amazing of comebacks when he lipped out a 20-foot birdie try that would have given him the title on the 18th hole. (He followed by conceding a four-foot par putt to Xiong to send them to extra holes, not wanting the match to end on a possible miss from his opponent.)

As it would turn out, the duo would go four extra holes, making it the longest final match in Western Amateur history. But only after Xiong lipped out a 15-foot birdie try to win on the 19th, the pair then halving the 20th with pars and 21st with birdies (Xiong’s from 15 feet after Redman two-putted).

On the 22nd hole, Xiong was 12 feet away for birdie while Redman was more than 100 feet. When Redman couldn’t two-putt for par, Xiong finally closed the match out, and 145 holes of golf in six days of competition.

Dubai-based Indian No.1 Rayhan Thomas missed the 36-hole cut by five strokes.

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