​Team USA’s response to their Walker Cup collapse said something their golf couldn’tGetty ImagesAmerican captain Nathan Smith didn’t know it at the time, but he foretold what was to come on Sunday evening at the 51st Walker Cup. “This is one of the greatest sporting events in the world, and we’re going to find out why this afternoon,” Smith said after the Americans swept the morning foursomes session to take a 9.5-6.5 lead at Lahinch. Needing just 3.5 points to retain the cup and 4 to win, the Americans were on the verge of a sixth straight Walker Cup victory. After all, GB&I had only mounted two Sunday singles comebacks in Walker Cup history, and neither of those teams faced a mountain as large as the one the 2026 team faced. But the beauty of sports is that anything can happen. It’s one of the only truly unscripted things left in a world ruled by social media, influencers and a tidal wave of reality T.V. shows. So, as the 10 singles matches went out at Lahinch on Sunday evening, GB&I believed it could perform its own version of Team Europe’s Ryder Cup “Miracle at Medinah” comeback in 2012. They won the first four matches to take the lead, capture momentum and get the Irish crowd behind them. But after Ryder Cowan and Josiah Gilbert won their matches, GB&I needed everything to go its way to complete a historic comeback. If one domino didn’t fall, a sixth straight loss was certain.American Kihei Akina needed to miss a short birdie putt on 18. He did. Niall Sheils Donegan had to follow with a par putt of his own to halve the match. Check. Eliot Baker had to become just the second player ever to beat Stewart Hagestad in Walker Cup singles. He did that with a birdie on 18. They needed Miles Russell to three-putt from 50 feet on 17, miss a 15-foot par putt on 18 and have Connor Graham make a six-foot birdie putt on 18 to halve the match. Done and done. Even after all of that, GB&I still needed Josh Hill, the lowest-ranked player on either team, to beat World No. 2 amateur Tyler Watts on 18 to win the cup. Watts lost his tee shot left and had to gauge out. He left his third shot 20 feet from the cup for birdie. Hill put his second in the greenside bunker and played a magnificent, lengthy bunker shot to five feet for his third. When Watts’ birdie attempt missed, Hill put the exclamation point on a historic win by rolling in his birdie putt. News In GB&I’s historic Walker Cup comeback, 1 unexpected hero led the way By: Josh SchrockSmith was right, the Walker Cup is indeed one of the greatest sporting events in the world and, as my colleague Michael Bamberger wrote, has been making its case as the best team event in golf. All that was on display at Lahinch. The Walker Cup’s secret sauce is that it doesn’t bother with crowds and infrastructure and allows the event to go to places like Lahinch or, last year, Cypress Point. It’s a pure event for the diehard golf fans. One that’s steeped in the DNA of what gol