Alum golfer James Byrne to compete in 2011 Walker Cup

Men's golfer James Byrne, who competed for the past four years at Arizona State and earned his B.S. in marketing in May, has earned a spot on the 2011 Great Britain & Ireland squad for the 2011 Walker Cup.

Byrne reached the finals of last year's British Amateur Championship at Muirfield, losing 5&4 to Korea's Jin Jeong. He won the 2007 Scottish Boys Championship and was fourth best individual in the 2010 Eisenhower Trophy while representing Scotland.

The 10-man team will play at Royal Aberdeen Sept. 10-11 this fall. Byrne was actually born in Lowestoft, England, but claims Scottish nationality through father Paul.

Sun Devil Billy Mayfair won both his foursome match and both singles matches in 1987, while Phil Mickelson was 3-0-1 in singles matches. Todd Demsey also was undefeated, going 1-0 and 2-0 in 1993. Bill Loeffler was 2-0 and 0-1 in 1987 playing with Mayfair.

In the 1999 Walker Cup Paul Casey and NCAA champion Luke Donald teamed up for a pair of victories to lead the Great Britain and Ireland team to a victory over the United States, as crowds were restricted to 7,000 each day. Both Casey and Donald teamed up for a pair of victories in foursomes and won both of their singles matches in Nairn, Scotland, becoming the only GB & I players other than Andrew Oldcorn in 1983 to post 4-0 records, a span of 77 years. Casey won singles matches by 5 and 3 and 3 and 2 as GB & I won 10 of possible 12 points on final day to record a 15-9 win.

SUN DEVILS IN WALKER CUP
2011: James Byrne
2001: Jeff Quinney
1999: Paul Casey
1993: Todd Demsey
1991: Phil Mickelson
1989: Phil Mickelson
1987: Billy Mayfair, Bill Loeffler