Sunday, August 14, 2005

WHEATON, Ill. (August 14, 2005) - East Tennessee State rising junior Rhys Davies (Bridgend, Wales) ended the 40^th Walker Cup having provided two and a half of a possible four points for his Great Britain and Ireland team. However, his individual success was not enough, as the United States broke a string of three straight losses in this biennial international event, defeating GB&I 12½ to 11½  Sunday at the Chicago Golf Club.

In the morning foursomes, Davies and teammate Nigel Edwards took a 2-and-1 victory over the American team of Matt Every and Lee Williams. That left Davies entering his afternoon singles match with a chance to go undefeated for the weekend, but American Brian Harman birdied the first hole of the that match en route to a 6-and-5 victory. Harmon, the youngest player in USA Walker Cup history at 18 years of age, was the 2003 U.S. Junior Amateur champion.  

The opportunity to play in the Walker Cup only helps Davies continue to build an impressive amateur resume, and comes after a sophomore season at ETSU in which he was ranked in the Top 3 nationally throughout much of the season and enjoyed arguably the most successful individual season in ETSU golf history. Davies set Buccaneer records for individual championships (five), single-round score (63), and three-round score (199), while helping lead the Bucs to their 17^th Southern Conference men's golf championship and finishing second on the individual leaderboard at the NCAA East Regional.