By Gary Anderson

August 19 - England's Matt Fitzpatrick has been selected for the GB and I Walker Cup teamNewly crowned US Amateur champion Matt Fitzpatrick will be looking to continue his fantastic year so far as he leads his Great Britain and Ireland teammates into battle against the USA in the 44th Walker Cup taking place in Southampton, New York on September 7 and 8.

Fitzpatrick, 18, (pictured top) won the silver medal at this year's Open Championship in Muirfield as leading amateur before becoming the first Englishman in over a century to win the US Amateur Championship on Sunday (August 18) following his four-and-three victory over Australian Oliver Goss at the Brookline Country Club.

The man from Sheffield is one of seven English players on the GB and Ireland team that will be hoping to retain the trophy they won at Royal Aberdeen in 2011 while the Americans will be looking to keep their unbeaten run on home soil in the tournament which stretches back to 2001.

Garrick Porteous, who won the British Amateur Championship at Royal Cinque Ports in June, joins Fitzpatrick on the plane to the US along with recently crowned English Amateur champion Callum Shinkwin, who overcame Fitzpatrick at Frilford Heath adding to the South American Amateur Championship crown he won in January of this year.

British Amateur champion Garrick Porteous is one of seven Englishman on the GB and I Walker Cup teamBritish Amateur champion Garrick Porteous is one of seven Englishman on the GB and I Walker Cup team























Brookline quarter-finalist Neil Raymond from Hampshire joins European men's team Championship winners Max Orrin and Nathan Kimsey, who along with world number 17 Jordan Smith make up the English contingent on the Walker Cup team.

Welshman Rhys Pugh is the only member of the team to have played in the tournament before and his experience of winning two years ago is sure to be an asset to GB and Ireland as they tee-off at the National Golf Links of America next month.

Irish representation comes in the form of 18-year-old Gavin Moynihan who won the 2012 Irish Amateur Open Championship and became the youngest player to play in the Irish Open at Carton House in June.

Gavin Moynihan from Ireland will be on the plane to New York to take on the Americans next monthGavin Moynihan from Ireland will be on the plane to New York to take on the Americans next month













































He will be joined by 22-year-old Kevin Phelan from Waterford who represented Ireland in the recent Men's Home Internationals at Ganton Golf Club in Yorkshire.

English players Greg Eason and Ryan Evans have been selected as reserves.

"We believe we have selected a strong team which includes some of the best amateur players in the world," said GB and Ireland captain Nigel Edwards.

"The players have all competed at the highest levels of the amateur game and will relish the challenge of facing the Americans on their home soil.

"There will be some who are disappointed not to make the team but it is the job of the selectors to carefully consider the players available and select the strongest team they can."

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