Palmer Cup Rosters Announced


The teams for the United States and Europe have been announced for the 2011 Palmer Cup. The annual Ryder Cup-style competition will be played June 9-11 at The Stanwich Club near Greenwich, Conn. The United States leads the series by the slim margin of 7-6-1.

The roster for Team USA includes: Blayne Barber of Auburn, UCLA's Patrick Cantlay, Abilene Christian's Alex Carpenter, Russell Henley of Georgia, Oregon's Daniel Miernicki, Bank Vongvanij of Florida, Washington's Chris Williams and Stanford's Andrew Yun. The American squad will be led by head coach Tim Poe of Central Missouri and assistant coach Michael Burcin of South Carolina.

Henley and Miernicki were part of last year's victorious American squad at Royal Portrush, where Henley had a 3-1 record and Miernicki went 2-2.

Representing Team Europe will be Arkansas' Sebastian Cappelen, Ignacio Elvira of Texas A&M, Texas Tech's Nils Floren, Jeff Karlsson of Kennesaw State, Liberty's Robert Karlsson, Nick MacAndrew of Aberdeen, Augusta State's Henrik Norlander and UCLA's Pontus Widegren.

The Europeans also have players experienced in the amateur team competition. Widegren went 3-1 in the 2010 Palmer Cup while Norlander was 2-2. Norlander also posted a 2-2 mark at the 2009 Palmer Cup at Cherry Hills and helped lead Europe to victory.

Floren, Norlander, Widegren and Jeff and Robert Karlsson are from Sweden, while Cappelen is Danish, Elvira a Spaniard and MacAndrew from Scotland. Rickard Lindberg of the Swedish Golf Federation is Europe's head coach and Northwestern's David Inglis will be his assistant. Inglis is the first former Palmer Cup player to serve as a coach in the event after representing Scotland in both 2001 and '03.

The event was originated in 1997 when the Golf Coaches Association of America approached Arnold Palmer to lend his name to the competition. For more information and live scoring during the competition, visit http://www.palmercup.org.