Easterbrook’s Walker Cup journey sets the stage for Purdue men’s golf

Sam Easterbrook made history in early September.

The senior Purdue golfer was the first Boilermaker in 43 years to compete in the prestigious Walker Cup, the world’s top team amateur golf event. The competition pits the top United States amateur golfers against the best players from Great Britain and Ireland (GB&I).

And from all accounts, Easterbrook made the most of the experience. It will likely pay dividends in 2026-27 for the Boilermakers, a team that has continued to climb the ladder on the national stage of men’s golf.

Walker Cup team captain Dean Robertson, a 56-year-old Scotsman, had his eyes on Easterbrook for a while, tracking his rise in UK golf since his days as a junior player from the small town of Tamworth, England.

And for Easterbrook, his game had improved enough to make the team, and he appreciated Robertson’s matter-of-fact approach when he called to tell him he had been selected.

“It would have been really tough if I hadn’t got picked because I felt like I’d done enough,” Easterbrook says. “And when Dean called and told me I was in, we immediately turned the conversation to how we were going to prepare and what the plan was.”

The plan was straightforward: Find a way to beat the United States in the event, something that hadn’t happened since 2015.

“Sam was the consummate teammate,” Robertson says. “I chose him because he has the talent, but maybe more importantly, he was the perfect complement to the team with his sense of humor and maturity that is beyond his years.

“We needed him to win.”

And while Easterbrook wasn’t successful in the three matches (two team and one individual), his skill level made an impression on Robertson.

“I wanted to involve everyone on the team, and we asked Sam to do some heavy lifting when it comes to the opposition he faced at the Walker Cup,” Robertson says. “It was important that Sam experience the unique feeling of an event like this, but he did more than that. He played great; it was just that the other competitors played better.”

But there is the essence of Easterbrook, according to Robertson. A few months before the Walker Cup, Easterbrook faced a similar situation in a qualifying round. Robertson observed Easterbrook play a strong round, only to be beaten by someone who also played better.

“It is such a razor-thin line in golf between going from being a top amateur to being a professional,” Robertson says. “To get to where Sam wants to be in golf, he will have to first learn to win in his peer group in college, and he is well on his way to doing that. He has the skill and the mindset to make a living at this, but he knows he has to keep progressing. He showed me that he has the desire and mindset to do so, so that is a great place for him to start, and he definitely used this platform of the Walker Cup to grow his game.”

Speaking of mindset, Easterbrook had played in front of big crowds prior to the Walker Cup, having appeared in top amateur events in Scotland and the UK. But this was a step up, to put it mildly. He used the experience to sharpen his mental saw. Taking a mature approach, he worked with a sports psychologist to stay focused despite the media attention surrounding the event.

“The psychologist said just be the same person you are now at the weekend, and I got on the first tee and I was just chatting away to everyone,” says Easterbrook. “I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I’d be. I was more excited, and you learn to look for the opportunity and enjoy it.”

But make no mistake, ending the Walker Cup drought for GB&I was an emotional experience for Easterbrook and his teammates.

“It meant a lot; players, captains and coaches were crying tears of joy after we won,” Easterbrook says. “It was unbelievable happiness and gratefulness to be part of it.”

Big goals for the Boilermakers

Now in his fourth year in West Lafayette, Easterbrook embraces his role as an elder statesman and team leader. His name is in several spots in the Purdue record book, but he hopes to raise his and his teammates’ play in 2026-27. He knows the key to team success is continued improvement from himself, as well as from the younger players on the roster.

“The biggest jump was freshman year to sophomore year because you’ve seen all those places and the competition, and it becomes much easier to feel comfortable,” says Easterbrook, who has recorded six consecutive top-20 performances in tournaments, dating to last year.

“You have to be level-headed, and we constantly pound on the young guys about having a good attitude and mindset. It is up to me to lead by example in the way that when it comes to golf, I strive for such a high level, and that’s how they see me and can ask me questions.”

In the play-five, count-four scoring format used in most college tournaments, Easterbrook’s charge is straightforward.

“For us to achieve our team goals, my score has to count in every event I play in — it is that simple,” Easterbrook says.

But there is more to it than being an ace ball-striker or putter. His teammates gravitate to Easterbrook because of his dry sense of humor and because he doesn’t take the serious game of golf too seriously. He is known on the squad for being the most fun and personable member — a good spot for a team’s top player.

“I’m a bit of a joker on the team. I say what comes to the top of my head, and people don’t expect it, but I don’t pick on the guys,” says Easterbrook, who has played in three straight NCAA tournaments for a Purdue team that might be nationally ranked when the spring season commences. “We’re all so close on our team that there’s a level of trust, and I feel like I could say anything to anyone and they wouldn’t take it the wrong way.”

Third-year Purdue men’s golf coach Andrew Sapp, an accomplished Senior Tour-level golfer in his own right, knows the Walker Cup experience and Easterbrook’s brush with elite play at Purdue will mean much this season.

“He has a great voice for our team,” says Sapp, a University of North Carolina graduate who had an earlier stint at Purdue (1998-2002) as an assistant when Devon Brouse, a former Tar Heel coach, ran the Purdue program. “But it goes beyond performance for Sam. He is an effective communicator, and he is practical in his advice to his teammates. He is like a coach on the golf course for us.”

And Sapp knows a coach when he sees one, having had head coaching stops at Michigan, North Carolina and East Carolina. Sapp’s abundance of high-level college coaching experience is a perfect complement to Easterbrook’s mettle and maturity.

It promises to be an interesting year for Purdue men’s golf — a proud program that has a national championship (1961) on its list of accomplishments. Easterbrook has loved his Purdue experience beyond golf. Yes, he relishes the fact that the Boilermaker golf facilities are as good as it gets anywhere in the college game, but he has also taken his academic experience in the Daniels School of Business very seriously.

“There are a lot of college programs where academics are not emphasized, but not here,” says Easterbrook, who also has taken a liking (who hasn’t?) to Purdue men’s basketball and coach Matt Painter. “My degree is important to me as I see my training for being a business consultant as key to my long-term future.

“My mum dropped me off when I was a freshman and was so comfortable with me being here that she just let me be after one day of seeing this place. The school prides itself on giving all of us athletes two paths. I can use the great degree with the network of people I’ve met through the school and through golf when I enter the working world.

“I’m getting a concentration in consulting because I like solving problems, and in golf, you have to do that all the time.”

And for Easterbrook, solving the puzzle of getting Purdue to the next level might have started with his experience this summer in Ireland. Never afraid of challenges, don’t be surprised if the Boilermakers post their highest NCAA finish in years in 2027.

Written by Alan Karpick (BPE, Mgmt ‘83), publisher of GoldandBlack.com