As the wind blew a hooley to test the fabric of the madly waving flags attached to swaying poles, Dean Robertson – the non-playing captain of the Great Britain and Ireland (GB&I) team aiming to end the winning streak of a United States team targeting a sixth Walker Cup win in succession – allowed himself a wry grin.

“Am I happy about it? I’m very happy about it,” said the Scot, his wish for such windy conditions, in perhaps levelling out the examination to be played on the magnificent Old Course at Lahinch Golf Club, coming to pass and expected to stay around for the two-day match – morning foursomes followed by afternoon singles on each day – in this 51st edition of the Walker Cup.

The USA have won the past five matches, including last year’s one-sided affair at Cypress Point by 17-9, but Robertson’s due diligence in preparing his 10-man team, including one Irish player in Amateur champion Stuart Grehan, with advance visits to the links and using the wisdom of former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley should – especially with the wind – ensure a much closer affair.

While the USA feature seven players from the world amateur rankings’ top 10, among them world number one Preston Stout and number two Tyler Watts, to just two GB&I players, Tyler Weaver (3) and Luke Poulter (7), Robertson’s confidence in his men to use the pain of last year’s loss as a motivating factor has fuelled the team.

As Weaver put it: “It’s definitely fuel to the fire. I had a challenging week last year. Obviously playing against Jackson Koivun [who won the 3M Open on the PGA Tour on his third start as a professional] was hard. He’s obviously shown how great he is now on the other level.

“But like I said, it’s fuel to the fire. You learn so much from experiences like that. I think this year with the crowd being behind us, being on home soil, it’s just even more fuel. Everything is just kind of building up to this, and we’re so ready to go.”

Weaver has recovered from an oblique strain which limited his competitive golf through the summer.

The past few days have enabled players from both teams to become acquainted with the links and wind, to such an extent that players had an easier day of it on the final practice session before getting down to business for the actual match. For the GB&I players, much of the shortened time on the course was confined to short game matches with each other, adding a fun element before the serious business.

Can home advantage provide an edge? Only time will tell, with recent history and those world rankings weighed in favour of the Americans. Yet, familiarity – not least in Grehan’s case – as well as the wind could make for a closer match, certainly than last year, in GB&I’s quest to prevent a sixth straight USA win.

Grehan, unsurprisingly, has been selected to play alongside Eliot Baker in the opening morning foursomes. The logic of getting Grehan out early is understandable with an 8,000 sell-out crowd. Grehan and Baker have been pitched against Stout and last year’s Amateur champion Ethan Fang.

“I’ve played here a bunch of times, probably 30, 40 times out here, and I don’t have to practise as much around the greens as most of the guys,” said Grehan. “I kind of know the little subtle breaks. I’ve been trying to give my best advice to them, but look, they’re all really good players and we’ve done incredible prep, I feel like, over the last few days, and we’ll see how it goes. But I think we’re all very, very happy where we’re at.”

Several American players had suffered from “a bug”, as USA captain Nathan Smith described it, which led to him considering the possibility of drafting in a reserve. However, all have recovered and Smith – a former Walker Cup player – said all 10 were fit and ready to go.

“We feel good about our team. We’re a very tight team. I’ve got 10 guys that I’ve really gotten to know real well, and I think all the guys feel that way about each other. It’s a very close team, and we’ll need that this weekend to hang with them because they’re a really deep team, and the crowd is going to be rocking,” said Smith of the bond established in their quest to extend American dominance.

Robertson, too, has been impressed with his own team’s bonding. But he has also looked for the sell-out crowd to provide the “11th man” effect, knowing any little edge could make all the difference.

Saturday Foursomes tee times

GB&I v USA

8.30am: Stuart Grehan/Eliot Baker v Preston Stout/Ethan Fang

8.40am: Connor Graham/Tyler Weaver v Jay Leng Jnr/Kihei Akina

8.50am: Luke Poulter/Sam Easterbrook v Miles Russell/Tyler Watts

9.0am: Niall Sheils Donegan/Josh Hill v Josiah Gilbert/Ryder Cowan

Format

The Walker Cup has a long-established two-day format of foursomes and singles. Each of the two competition days features foursomes matches in the morning followed by singles matches in the afternoon. On Saturday, there are eight singles matches, while all 10 players from each side compete in singles on Sunday.

One full point is awarded for each victory, while a half-point is earned for matches that are all square after 18 holes. There are 26 points available. The USA needs 13 points to retain the Cup, while GB&I requires 13½ points to reclaim it. GB&I last won in 2015 at Royal Lytham and St Annes.