West Penn Amateur and Pennsylvania Amateur champion Nathan Smith was one of eight players named to the U.S. Walker Cup team today, the first player from Western Pennsylvania to make the team since Frank Fuhrer III in 1981.

Smith, 30, who won the U.S. Mid-Amateur championship is 2005, was named to the team along with Oklahoma State standout Rickie Fowler, Bud Cauley, Brendan Gielow, Brian Harman, Morgan Hoffmann, Adam Mitchell and Drew Weaver.

Smith, a Brookeville, Pa. native and a member at Wildwood Country Club, won the Frank B Fuhrer Invitational at the Pittsburgh Field Club last month, several weeks before winning the state amateur title at Waynesborough (Pa.) Country Club. He will compete in the U.S. Amateur later this month.

Two more players will be chosen after the U.S. Amateur at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. The Walker Cup matches, the amateur equivalent of the Ryder Cup, pits an American team against a team representing Great Britain and Ireland.

The event will be Sept. 12-13 at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa.