Americans Win Palmer Cup

The United States edged Europe 13-11 to win the Palmer Cup at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland on Saturday. This year's match was the Americans' first win on European soil since 2002 in the annual eight-man team competition named after Arnold Palmer. The event pits American college golfers against their European counterparts.

The victory gave the USA a 7-6-1 advantage in the series, which originated in 1997. Each team won four singles matches on the final day. David Chung starred for the Americans, running his record to 4-0. Scott Langley, the reigning NCAA champion from Illinois who made the cut at the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, secured the clinching point for Team USA.

"I actually didn't know at the time that I clinched it," Langley said. "I knew it was going to be close. That's what the coaches said all day. I knew we had a couple of close wins . . . that was key. I knew that the other matches were close but I was confident that the other guys could pull it out."

"We decided to change the lineup a little bit," Team USA coach Chris Zambri said in a press release by the Golf Coaches Association of America. "We had a couple of guys who had a great week so far, so we figured we'd put them out early and see what happens.

"In the end we thought we had eight real strong players and they obviously had eight also. Luckily we had a two-point lead coming into the day and the guys just played really well. We got the wins we needed with our buffer. It worked out really well.

"Russell (Henley) played great for us in the anchor match and Scott Langley played great. They were a couple of guys coming off a really great finish at the U.S. Open, and we figured that they would come through for us and they did."

For the complete match results, visit www.palmercup.org.

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