Nathan Smith honored to Captain U.S. Walker Cup Team, represent West Penn Golf
By Josh Rowntree, Director of Communications • August 28, 2025
Nathan Smith is immensely experienced with the Walker Cup. But his next venture into the prestigious international amateur competition will be a bit different than what he’s done in the past.
Smith, the Western Pennsylvania amateur legend who has not only achieved record-breaking success at the local level but also nationally and internationally, will captain the United States’ Walker Cup team next week at the picturesque Cypress Point Club in Pebble Beach, California.
“They talked to me about seven or eight years ago, and asked if I’d like to be a captain,” said Smith, a Brookville native. “Of course, I said yes. But I wanted to do it maybe when I'm a little younger, when my parents are around, or I'm even around. So that was the beginning of the discussion.
“When I got the call to be asked, it just blew me away. I mean, it’s the biggest honor of your life. And then you find it's Cypress Point, the greatest, most iconic, most beautiful course in the world. It's just unbelievable. Words really can't describe it.”
Smith being tabbed for the role didn’t happen by chance. He’s one of the most successful amateur players of all-time, particularly at the mid-amateur level, where he has won the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship a record four times.
One of the most decorated amateur athletes to come out of Western Pennsylvania, Smith’s Western Pennsylvania Golf Hall of Fame resumé is outstanding:
He has won five WPGA major championships, including four-straight West Penn Amateur titles from 2007 to 2010 and the West Penn Open in 2008. He is one of only four men (Eben M. Byers, William C. Fownes and Jim Masserio) to win both the Amateur and Open Championships in the same year.
• He won the WPGA Mid-Amateur Championship four times — second only to Sean Knapp — with his most recent victory coming in 2019.
• Of the 32 WPGA Spring Stroke Play Championships that have been played, Smith has claimed victory in a mind boggling nine of them.
• He and Knapp have teamed up to win the Fred Brand Foursomes Championship six times and he combined with Scott Phillis to win the WPGA Four-Ball Championship in 2006.
• As a junior, Smith won the 1994 WPGA Boys Championship and the 1995 C.R. Miller Match Play Championship.
• Smith has also been victorious in the Pennsylvania Amateur twice, the 2011 Sunnehanna Amateur and various other local and state-wide competitions.
Now, he transitions into a different role, not as a player, but as a captain, coach and sounding board for American amateur players as they battle a team from the United Kingdom and Ireland in the event which features 18 singles matches and eight foursomes matches.
“When I got (the captain’s role), I tried to get out there and get to know the guys,” Smith said. “I tried to be on the scene and learn the guys. There was a lot of turnover from the 2023 team, so I wanted to get to know the guys who were in it or who had a chance, and that net was kind of big.
“The last couple of years, I’ve been traveling around, watching guys play, getting to know the parents, the teachers and the college coaches just to show that I'm there and getting to know them and trying to learn their games... It’s been a journey, but it’s been a lot of fun.”
Smith represented the United States – something he thinks of as the biggest honor a player can achieve in their life – in the Walker Cup in 2009, 2011 and 2013, winning twice. Now, as a captain, he admits it’s been a different experience that has included numerous phone calls, committee meetings and work behind the scenes to select the most representative team.
“Sometimes it’s easier to just go out and play,” he said with a laugh. “You’re on two or three phone calls a day. You realize how hard the USGA and everybody on the committee selecting these guys works and how much they care.”
Smith and the USGA selection committee chose a ten-player team that features Jackson Koivun, Ben James, Michael La Sasso, Ethan Fang, Preston Stout, Stewart Hagestad, Jacob Modleski, Tommy Morrison and 2025 U.S. Amateur champion Mason Howell.
He hopes that his knowledge as a former player in the event translates smoothly into his leadership of the team.
“You at least know how the week flows,” he said. “You know how everything's going to go — even from a rest standpoint, a lot of obligations, a lot of dinners. You know what's coming through the week, which is very helpful. And we have some guys that have played on Walker Cups before, which will be helpful to us.”
Smith is particularly excited about the backdrop for the event. He has studied and familiarized himself greatly with the intricacies of Cypress Point, a course expertly crafted atop the wave-beaten cliffs of the Californian coast.
“It’s going to be an incredible match play course,” Smith added. “There are a lot of risk/reward holes that are exciting. There are some fun green complexes, there's some backstops.
“It’s going to be so fun and exciting to watch. And then you get the most incredible stretch of golf with (holes) 15, 16 and 17. I can't even imagine how it's going to come across in person or on TV. It's literally going to be incredible."
Smith is particularly excited to welcome Frank Fuhrer III back to Cypress Point. Fuhrer, another Western Pennsylvania amateur golf legend, played for a victorious U.S. team in 1981— the last time Cyrpress Point hosted the Walker Cup. Fuhrer plans to travel out to California for the event, and he and Smith have exchanged messages about the experience ahead.
A member of his hometown Pinecrest County Club, as well as Wildwood Golf Club and Sewickley Heights Golf Club, Smith heads into another national event as a representative of Western Pennsylvania, ready to, once again, bring a national or international title back to the region. And that’s a part of his story that is far from lost on him.
“I’m not sure if I would have been able to do this without the West Penn Golf Association or the players that are in Pennsylvania,” he said. “Being a kid from Brookville, PA, a small town, who looked up to people like Carol Semple Thompson, Frankie Fuhrer, Sean Knapp, obviously Arnold Palmer's from this region, people that were iconic in amateur golf — really what the West Penn does is incredible.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without the players that have come before me that I've learned so much off of, or the West Penn Golf events where I can learn. To be a small part of the tradition in Western Pennsylvania is an incredible honor.”
For any media inquiries, please contact WPGA Director of Communications Josh Rowntree.
About the WPGA
Founded in 1899, the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association is the steward of amateur golf in the region. Started by five Member Clubs, the association now has nearly 200 Member Clubs and nearly 37,000 members. The WPGA conducts 14 individual competitions and 10 team events, and administers the WPGA Scholarship Fund and Western Pennsylvania Golf Hall of Fame.