Kihei Akina left Lahinch with a 1-1-1 record in his Walker Cup debut. That tidy line misses the wild part.
The BYU sophomore and Jay Leng Jr. lost their opening foursomes match by one hole Saturday. Akina sat out that afternoon’s singles. On Sunday, the same American pair won 4 and 3, Akina halved his singles match with Niall Sheils Donegan, and Great Britain and Ireland still came back to beat the United States 13.5-12.5.
Akina supplied 1.5 points Sunday: one in foursomes and a half in singles. He also had a chance on the 18th green to turn that half into the point the Americans desperately needed. The putt stayed out.
That is a better developmental file than a ceremonial appearance. Akina played all three versions of elite match play in two days: a narrow loss, a comfortable alternate-shot win and an 18-hole draw that stayed unsettled through the final stroke.
Akina’s weekend changed direction fast
Akina and Leng fell behind Connor Graham and Tyler Weaver on the first hole Saturday morning. They pulled even at No. 7, and the match was still square after the sides traded Nos. 12 and 13. Graham and Weaver took No. 16, then protected the one-hole margin through the finish.
Akina did not play in Saturday singles. Great Britain and Ireland finished the day ahead 6.5-5.5.
U.S. captain Nathan Smith returned to the Akina-Leng pairing Sunday, this time against Luke Poulter and Sam Easterbrook. The Americans won Nos. 6 and 7 to go 2 up, added No. 10 and closed the match at No. 15 for a 4-and-3 victory.
The four U.S. pairs swept the morning session. Golfweek reported that it moved the Americans from one point down to three points up, needing 3.5 points from 10 singles matches to retain the Cup.
| Session | Akina’s assignment | Result | Match shape |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday foursomes | With Jay Leng Jr. vs. Connor Graham and Tyler Weaver | Lost, 1 down | Square after No. 13; GB&I won No. 16 |
| Saturday singles | Did not play | No result | Eight of 10 players competed for each team |
| Sunday foursomes | With Leng vs. Luke Poulter and Sam Easterbrook | Won, 4 and 3 | U.S. took Nos. 6, 7 and 10, then closed at 15 |
| Sunday singles | vs. Niall Sheils Donegan | Halved | All square after 18 holes |
Alternate shot makes the rebound more useful than a clean individual card would have been. Akina and Leng shared every consequence. A four-hole swing from Saturday’s 1-down loss to Sunday’s 4-and-3 win belongs to the pair, not one player, but Akina had to return to the same format with the same partner less than a day after they failed to close a square match.
They did not scrape out a second try. They ended it with three holes unused.
The singles half survived three resets
Akina won the third and fifth holes against Sheils Donegan and reached the turn 1 up after giving one back at No. 8. The match was square again after Sheils Donegan made eagle at No. 12. They exchanged Nos. 15 and 16, leaving two holes and no margin.
Neither player won the 17th or 18th. Akina’s final putt lipped out, according to BYU’s account, and each side received half a point.
The half can look small beside a team defeat decided by one. In the actual Sunday sequence, it was one of only four U.S. singles results that did not end in a loss. Sky Sports records American wins by Ryder Cowan and Josiah Gilbert plus halves from Akina and Miles Russell. Great Britain and Ireland won the other six matches.
Akina did not stop the comeback. He did make the home team earn its winning margin somewhere else.
That distinction keeps the result honest. The United States needed 13 points to retain the trophy and had several late chances across the course. Golfweek counted three separate putts that could have secured the Cup. Josh Hill eventually won the 18th against Tyler Watts in the last match to give Great Britain and Ireland the deciding point.
No single missed putt lost this event. Akina’s chance was part of a team finish in which multiple American matches were available late.
One weekend tested more than scoring average
Our selection analysis argued that Lahinch would ask different questions than a college stroke-play event. It did.
In stroke play, a golfer can follow a bad hole with a birdie and repair the total. In match play, losing by one stroke or five usually costs the same hole. Alternate shot adds a second player to every decision. The scoreboard also moves while other matches determine what a half point is worth to the team.
Akina encountered all of it.
He recovered from a Saturday loss with Leng. He waited through a singles session without an assignment. He helped produce a Sunday foursomes point during the United States’ first sweep of that session since 2007, according to BYU Athletics. Then he held a singles match level after losing an early advantage and watching an eagle erase another lead.
The Wyndham Championship gave BYU four rounds of stroke-play evidence against professionals. Akina made the cut, then slid on the weekend. Lahinch supplied a different pressure test. There was no score to protect over four days. Every hole could change a shared match or a live team total.
His 1-1-1 record is not dominant. It is solid, and the shape of it is more instructive than the arithmetic. Akina never played a match that ended before No. 15. He helped answer the opening loss emphatically and took his only singles assignment to the last green.
BYU gets the response, not the trophy
Great Britain and Ireland’s win ended a five-match U.S. streak and was its first Walker Cup victory since 2015. The loss should stay in Akina’s record. Team golf does not become an individual showcase because one Cougar played well Sunday.
BYU still gets something concrete from the trip. Its men’s golf roster now includes a sophomore who has played alternate shot under national-team pressure, returned with the same partner after a loss and faced an 18th-hole putt inside a one-point Walker Cup finish.
Coach Todd Miller told BYU Athletics that Akina handled the setting well and that the experience should prepare him for larger stages. The public results support the first half of that assessment. Predicting the second would go too far. One Walker Cup weekend cannot guarantee a better college closing round or a cleaner spring postseason.
It can make those moments less foreign.
Akina went to Ireland as BYU’s first Walker Cup selection in 35 years. He returns without the team trophy, but with a Sunday response that deserves more attention than either the narrow final score or the honor of selection alone.
Sources and further reading
- BYU Athletics, Sept. 6: Akina finishes 1-1-1 in his Walker Cup debut for his three assignments, hole-by-hole match details, player and coach comments, team score and series history.
- Golfweek, Sept. 6: 2026 Walker Cup Sunday scores and live account for the session math, Sunday foursomes sweep, live singles sequence and deciding finish.
- Sky Sports, Sept. 6: Great Britain and Ireland’s late comeback for the complete Sunday singles results, comeback context and final-match account.
- BYU Sport Nuts: men’s golf hub, Kihei Akina player page and men’s golf schedule.
