Americans Win Palmer Cup

After being down a point entering the final round of the three-day Palmer Cup, the Americans needed a big day in the singles matches. And they did, as the U.S. won five of the eight singles bouts to beat the Europeans 13-11.

In overcoming a 8½ to 7½ deficit, the U.S. got victories from Patrick Cantlay who beat Nick MacAndrew 3 and 1; Bank Vongvanij, who routed Jeff Karlsson 6 and 5; Chris Williams, who defeated Henrik Norlander 3 and 2; Daniel Miernicki, who edged Robert Karlsson 5 and 3; and Andrew Yun, who earned the deciding point by beating UCLA teammate Pontus Widegren 1-up.

The European winners were Nils Floren over Alex Carpenter 4 and 2, and Sebastian Cappelen, who got past Russell Henley 1-up. Blayne Barber of the USA halved his match with Ignacio Elvira.

With his victory against Widegren, Yun became just the 13th competitor in the history of the Palmer Cup - which is comprised of top college players from the U.S. and Europe - to post a perfect 4-0 record in the matches, which the Americans now lead 8-6-1.

It was tough for Yun to play against a fellow Bruin; both are juniors-to-be. "I've known him for a while," Yun said. "Pontus is a great golfer, and a great guy, but with our ties, this was a little personal."

Tim Poe, the coach at Central Missouri who became the first Division II coach to lead the U.S. side, was pleased with how the matches turned out. "I can't say enough for how these guys finished," Poe said. "Starting off, things were pretty tight but in the middle of the round they seemed to start pouring it on. But in the end, the way they finished things off when the pressure was on, that impressed me the most."

He was also happy that a guy from Division II was put in his position. "It's tough to put into words, really," he said. "For a Division II coach to be able to do this, I told all my colleagues that I was going to try to represent them as best I could. But this was incredible."

For complete scoring details, visit http://www.palmercup.org.

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