Rosters of Palmer Cup Teams Announced


The 10-man rosters for the American and European Palmer Cup teams have been determined. The annual Ryder Cup-style competition consisting of top collegiate golfers will be played June 7-9 at Wilmington Country Club in Wilmington, Del.

The U.S. leads the overall series by the slimmest of margins, 8-7-1, with Europe winning last year at Royal County Down in Northern Ireland after they overcame a four-point deficit on the final day of singles matches to win 13½ to 10½.

The top-six American players earned a spot based on the points-based Palmer Cup Ranking. Named to the U.S. squad are via points are California's Michael Kim, North Florida's Sean Dale, Patrick Rodgers of Stanford, New Mexico's James Erkenbeck, Alabama's Cory Whitsett and Cal's Michael Weaver. Committee selections were Daniel Berger of Florida State, Abilene Christian's Alex Carpenter and Alabama's Justin Thomas. Alabama's Bobby Wyatt was the coach's pick by Jay Seawell.

All 10 European players attend American universities. The top six selections from the Palmer Cup Ranking include: Julien Brun of TCU (France), Iowa State's Scott Fernandez (Spain), Pedro Figueiredo (Portugal) and Pontus Widegren (Sweden) of UCLA, UCF's Greg Eason (England) and California's Joel Stalter (France). Kevin Phelan (Ireland) of North Florida and Nova Southeastern's Ben Taylor (England) were committee selections. Gary Hurley of NIU Maynooth (Ireland) qualified for Team Europe by winning the R&A Foundation Scholars' Tournament. Arkansas's Sebastian Cappelen was coach Andrew Coltart's pick.

Carpenter, Rodgers and Thomas previously represented the United States in the Palmer Cup. Widegren will become just the fourth golfer in history to play in four Palmer Cups, and European teammates Cappelen and Brun are competing in their third and second, respectively. Figueiredo is the first player from Portugal to play in the event, while Dale, Phelan, Eason and Fernandez are the first golfers from their schools selected.

For additional information about the Palmer Cup, and live scoring updates during the matches, visit http://palmercup.org.