In dramatic fashion, the United States of America re-captured the Walker Cup narrowly defeating Great Britain and Ireland, 12.5-11.5, at Chicago Golf Club on Sunday. Former Wildcat John Holmes and the rest of the 10-man team won the event for the first time since 1997.

Jeff Overton’s 1-up win sealed the victory after GB&I amazingly halved two matches and won a third at the 18th hole to keep its chances alive. Oliver Fisher of GB&I holed an 18-foot birdie putt to get a halve with Michael Putnam. That was followed by Robert Dinwiddie’s chip-in birdie from 30 feet just in front of the green in the rough to get a half-point against Matt Every.

More dramatics followed with Lloyd Saltman of GB&I holing out a 20-footer for birdie to defeat Kyle Reifers, 1 up.

Overton, who lost the first three holes of his match with 37-year-old Nigel Edwards, rallied to take a 1-up lead at the turn, then took the lead for good at 14 before holding off the three-time GB&I Walker Cupper.

In singles play, Holmes fell to Matthew Richardson but the two teams tied with 3 ? points on the day.

Holmes teamed up with Nicholas Thompson to defeat GB&I?s Oliver Fisher and Matthew Richardson by a score of 2 and 1. Three birdies helped the USA duo who led by two strokes with three holes to play. A birdie on 15 and even par the rest of the way gave the Americans the win.