Final Comment, John Peterson Debacle...

Just one final post on how the USGA's International Team Selection Committee sat down to make a horse and came up with a camel. Peterson, the NCAA Champion and world No. 7 amateur was bypassed for this year's Walker Cup team by the seven person committee, made up of these individuals:

Steve Smyers (Chair)
Tom O'Toole
Jim Williams
Dan Burton
Martha Kirouac
Brigid Shanley Lamb
Martha Lang

This committee picks the teams for the Walker Cup, Curtis Cup and the World Amateur Team Championships, but as you can imagine there are legitimate questions about how much some of these people actually see of the players they are selecting.

I have heard from three different people this week with strong USGA ties. The reactions have ranged from "a sad day for the USGA" to "no logical, rational reason" for excluding Peterson, to "ludicrous" to describe the omission from someone who knows the young man and spoke highly of him. Oh and it was mentioned that he's quite an amazing golfer too.

None of this gets Peterson on the team, but at the very least, the USGA Executive Committee needs to use this oversight to reconsider the structure of this committee to prevent a repeat of an episode that needlessly brings negative attention to the organization and as Ryan Herrington notes, will have an impact on future Walker Cup teams.