Americans rally in singles to build 1-point lead in Walker Cup

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. (AP) — U.S. Amateur champion Mason Howell birdied both par 3s along the ocean at Cypress Point to close out his match and Jace Summy won twice Saturday as the Americans rallied in singles to build a 6 1/2-5 1/2 lead over Great Britain & Ireland after the opening day of the Walker Cup.

Howell earned his spot on the U.S. team when the 18-year-old high school senior in Georgia won the U.S. Amateur last month up the coast at the Olympic Club.

He sat during the morning foursomes session, when GB&I built a 3-1 lead, and felt the nerves in the afternoon singles, but only briefly.

Howell was 1 up over Luke Poulter, the Florida junior and son of Ryder Cup stalwart Ian Poulter, when he birdied the short 15th along the ocean, and then holed a 45-foot birdie putt on the iconic 16th hole that requires a tee shot over the ocean to close out the match.

“I would be lying if I said I wasn't super nervous on the first tee,” Howell said. “But no, what a day. What a beautiful day out here. It's been awesome.”

The notorious marine layer over the Monterey Peninsula lifted after the morning session, providing majestic views of Cypress Point, among the most picturesque courses in golf.

And the stars were out for this Walker Cup, returning to Cypress for the first time since 1981. Hal Sutton, who played in those ‘81 matches, was on the course. So was Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Kuchar and Juli Inkster, a three-time U.S. Women’s Amateur champion.

It was quite the opening day, with GB&I renewing hopes of winning on U.S. soil for the first time in 24 years, winning three of the four alternate-shot matches.

Connor Graham teamed Tyler Weaver to win three straight holes on the back nine as they knocked off top-ranked amateur Jackson Koivun and Tommy Morrison on the 17th hole. Graham also won two matches for GB&I, taking down Ben James in singles.

Stuart Grehan and Eliot Baker held on to win on the 18th against Preston Stout and Ethan Fang. But those same two players for GB&I came within a fraction on inch of staving off the American rally in singles.

Grehan had a 6-foot birdie putt on the 18th against Ethan Fang, only for the putt to graze the right edge of the cup as they settled for a halve.

In the final match, Baker was all square with Summy and in trouble left off the tee and left of the green. He chipped to 12 feet, and had to make that when Summy two-putted for par. His par putt looked good all the way until turning off at the last turn.

“We just knew we had to have a good session and they delivered,” U.S. captain Nathan Smith said of his teams winning five of the eight singles matches and halving another.

The Americans have won the last four times — it was at St. Andrews in 2023 — and have dominated the series since it began in 1924. The last GB&I victory away from home was at Ocean Forest on the Georgia coast in 2001.

Niall Shiels Donegan, the Scot who grew up in San Francisco, had another cheering section as he beat Jacob Modleski for the second time — he also beat Modleski in 19 holes in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur.

Shiels Donegan glanced over at a leaderboard early on the back nine and saw it filled with American blowouts. Koivun took down Weaver, 4 and 3. Stewart Hagestad and Preston Stout both closed out their matches on the 13th hole.

Shiels Donegan and Graham did their part in winning points and keeping GB&I close.

“I saw the board left of 11 as I was walking down and saw we weren’t performing the best in singles,” Shiels Donegan said. “I think for me in that situation I got a bit more like I have to do my job, let’s really focus on getting my job done, get any point for the team and see what we can do for the rest of the week.”

Sunday's final session has four foursomes matches in the morning followed by all 10 players competing in singles.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

The USA team players watch from the 17th green as they play the Great Britain and Ireland team during Walker Cup golf matches at Cypress Point Club, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, in Pebble Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Thien-An Truong)

American professional golfer Bryson DeChambeau is seen after the USA team plays the Great Britain and Ireland team during Walker Cup golf matches at Cypress Point Club, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, in Pebble Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Thien-An Truong)

The Great Britain and Ireland team's Connor Graham hits from the 13th tee during Walker Cup golf matches against the USA team at Cypress Point Club on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, in Pebble Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Thien-An Truong)

The Great Britain and Ireland team's Connor Graham, right, shakes hands with Tyler Weaver after sinking a putt on the 14th green during Walker Cup golf matches against the USA team at Cypress Point Club on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, in Pebble Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Thien-An Truong)

The USA team's Tommy Morrison hits from the 16th tee during Walker Cup golf matches against the Great Britain and Ireland team at Cypress Point Club on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, in Pebble Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Thien-An Truong)

The Great Britain and Ireland team's Tyler Weaver hits from the 15th tee during Walker Cup golf matches against the USA team at Cypress Point Club on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, in Pebble Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Thien-An Truong)

The 15th green is shown as The USA team plays the Great Britain and Ireland team during Walker Cup golf matches at Cypress Point Club on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, in Pebble Beach, Calif. (AP Photo/Thien-An Truong)

ATLANTA (AP) — Donald Trump would not be the first president to invoke the Insurrection Act, as he has threatened, so that he can send U.S. military forces to Minnesota.

But he'd be the only commander in chief to use the 19th-century law to send troops to quell protests that started because of federal officers the president already has sent to the area — one of whom shot and killed a U.S. citizen.

The law, which allows presidents to use the military domestically, has been invoked on more than two dozen occasions — but rarely since the 20th Century's Civil Rights Movement.

Federal forces typically are called to quell widespread violence that has broken out on the local level — before Washington's involvement and when local authorities ask for help. When presidents acted without local requests, it was usually to enforce the rights of individuals who were being threatened or not protected by state and local governments. A third scenario is an outright insurrection — like the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Experts in constitutional and military law say none of that clearly applies in Minneapolis.

“This would be a flagrant abuse of the Insurrection Act in a way that we've never seen,” said Joseph Nunn, an attorney at the Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty and National Security Program. “None of the criteria have been met.”

William Banks, a Syracuse University professor emeritus who has written extensively on the domestic use of the military, said the situation is “a historical outlier” because the violence Trump wants to end “is being created by the federal civilian officers” he sent there.

But he also cautioned Minnesota officials would have “a tough argument to win” in court, because the judiciary is hesitant to challenge “because the courts are typically going to defer to the president” on his military decisions.

Here is a look at the law, how it's been used and comparisons to Minneapolis.

George Washington signed the first version in 1792, authorizing him to mobilize state militias — National Guard forerunners — when “laws of the United States shall be opposed, or the execution thereof obstructed.”

He and John Adams used it to quash citizen uprisings against taxes, including liquor levies and property taxes that were deemed essential to the young republic's survival.

Congress expanded the law in 1807, restating presidential authority to counter “insurrection or obstruction” of laws. Nunn said the early statutes recognized a fundamental “Anglo-American tradition against military intervention in civilian affairs” except “as a tool of last resort.”

The president argues Minnesota officials and citizens are impeding U.S. law by protesting his agenda and the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Customs and Border Protection officers. Yet early statutes also defined circumstances for the law as unrest “too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course” of law enforcement.

There are between 2,000 and 3,000 federal authorities in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, compared to Minneapolis, which has fewer than 600 police officers. Protesters' and bystanders' video, meanwhile, has shown violence initiated by federal officers, with the interactions growing more frequent since Renee Good was shot three times and killed.

“ICE has the legal authority to enforce federal immigration laws,” Nunn said. “But what they're doing is a sort of lawless, violent behavior” that goes beyond their legal function and “foments the situation” Trump wants to suppress.

“They can't intentionally create a crisis, then turn around to do a crackdown,” he said, adding that the Constitutional requirement for a president to “faithfully execute the laws” means Trump must wield his power, on immigration and the Insurrection Act, “in good faith.”

Courts have blocked some of Trump's efforts to deploy the National Guard, but he'd argue with the Insurrection Act that he does not need a state's permission to send troops.

That traces to President Abraham Lincoln, who held in 1861 that Southern states could not legitimately secede. So, he convinced Congress to give him express power to deploy U.S. troops, without asking, into Confederate states he contended were still in the Union. Quite literally, Lincoln used the act as a legal basis to fight the Civil War.

Nunn said situations beyond such a clear insurrection as the Confederacy still require a local request or another trigger that Congress added after the Civil War: protecting individual rights. Ulysses S. Grant used that provision to send troops to counter the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists who ignored the 14th and 15th amendments and civil rights statutes.

During post-war industrialization, violence erupted around strikes and expanding immigration — and governors sought help.

President Rutherford B. Hayes granted state requests during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 after striking workers, state forces and local police clashed, leading to dozens of deaths. Grover Cleveland granted a Washington state governor's request — at that time it was a U.S. territory — to help protect Chinese citizens who were being attacked by white rioters. President Woodrow Wilson sent troops to Colorado in 1914 amid a coal strike after workers were killed.

Federal troops helped diffuse each situation.

Banks stressed that the law then and now presumes that federal resources are needed only when state and local authorities are overwhelmed — and Minnesota leaders say their cities would be stable and safe if Trump's feds left.

As Grant had done, mid-20th century presidents used the act to counter white supremacists.

Franklin Roosevelt dispatched 6,000 troops to Detroit — more than double the U.S. forces in Minneapolis — after race riots that started with whites attacking Black residents. State officials asked for FDR's aid after riots escalated, in part, Nunn said, because white local law enforcement joined in violence against Black residents. Federal troops calmed the city after dozens of deaths, including 17 Black residents killed by local police.

Once the Civil Rights Movement began, presidents sent authorities to Southern states without requests or permission, because local authorities defied U.S. civil rights law and fomented violence themselves.

Dwight Eisenhower enforced integration at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas; John F. Kennedy sent troops to the University of Mississippi after riots over James Meredith's admission and then pre-emptively to ensure no violence upon George Wallace's “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door” to protest the University of Alabama's integration.

“There could have been significant loss of life from the rioters” in Mississippi, Nunn said.

Lyndon Johnson protected the 1965 Voting Rights March from Selma to Montgomery after Wallace's troopers attacked marchers' on their first peaceful attempt.

Johnson also sent troops to multiple U.S. cities in 1967 and 1968 after clashes between residents and police escalated. The same thing happened in Los Angeles in 1992, the last time the Insurrection Act was invoked.

Riots erupted after a jury failed to convict four white police officers of excessive use of force despite video showing them beating a Rodney King, a Black man. California Gov. Pete Wilson asked President George H.W. Bush for support.

Bush authorized about 4,000 troops — but after he had publicly expressed displeasure over the trial verdict. He promised to “restore order” yet directed the Justice Department to open a civil rights investigation, and two of the L.A. officers were later convicted in federal court.

President Donald Trump answers questions after signing a bill that returns whole milk to school cafeterias across the country, in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)