US WALKER CUP TEAM FOR ABERDEEN WILL REMEMBER 9/11

INFORMATION FROM THE GOLFWEEK WEBSITE
This year's Walker Cup match over the Royal Aberdeen Golf Club links at Balgownie ends on September, September 11 - the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist-inspired tragedies in America. 
US team captain Jim Holtgrieve has talked with team manager Robbie Zalzneck about ways in which the anniversary can be recognised. 
“My intention is that we will do something,” Holtgrieve said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do, I don’t what the R and A is going to allow. If I have my way, absolutely, we’ll do it, whether we do it during the course of play, whether we do it during the closing ceremony. There will be a remembrance.”
Sixteen potential members of the United States team had a three-day practice session at Old Memorial Golf Club in Tampa, Florida last week.
To illustrate the Walker Cup’s importance, Holtgrieve had ex-President George H.Walker Bush (whose grandfather, George Herbert Walker was the USGA president in 1920 when the trophy came into being) addressed the American squad in a video.
“He re-emphasised the distinction of playing for your country and staying amateur and having an opportunity to play for the Walker Cup,” Holtgrieve said. “It was perfect.”
During a Walker Cup year, there are always questions about which players will turn pro before the competition. In 2009, Billy Horschel, Kyle Stanley and Jamie Lovemark were among the leading American amateurs who turned pro before the event at Merion (not that they were missed, as the US won 16.5-9.5). Holtgrieve is confident that the players who attended last week’s session will remain amateur until September.
“When we invited these 16 candidates to come down, we talked to them about turning pro,” Holtgrieve said. “ I just don’t think any one of these guys is going to turn pro before the announcement is made.”
When the US team arrives in Scotland, it won’t be seeing Royal Aberdeen for the first time. Holtgrieve went on a reconnaissance mission to the Walker Cup match venue last July, taking detailed notes of each hole. He showed potential team members a slideshow of the course last week.
Holtgrieve is compiling a book that’ll contain photos and yardages of each hole, and will give each team member a copy before departing for Scotland.
Not all the prospective candidates for selection to the team of 10 for the three-day contest.
Bank Vongvanij, the No 2 player in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings is of Thai descent and lived in Thailand before attending IMG Golf Academy in Bradenton, Florida, but he was born in Hawaii and is, therefore, a US citizen.
While the Walker Cup practice session was going on in Tampa, the New Year’s Invitational tournament was being held nearby at St Petersburg Country Club. Vongvanij finished runner-up in that event. He recently won the Isleworth Collegiate Invitational, one of the college season’s top events.