At least Buddy followed his own words when he said that the western half of the US was important in the golf world. Four of the 10 US golfers are from the western US.
From an article during last year's Pacific Coast Amateur:
Despite the fact that just six of the 60 golfers who have comprised the last six U.S. Walker Cup teams have come from western states, Marucci pledged to look carefully at golfers from the west when making his selections for next year’s team. The 2007 Walker Cup matches, with the 10-man U.S. team competing against a team from Great Britain & Ireland, will take place September 8-9 at Royal County Down Golf Club in Northern Ireland.
“The western part of the country is very important to the USGA,” said Marucci, “and the Pacific Coast Amateur is the premiere championship in this part of the nation.”