By: By: KSU Sports Information
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KENNESAW, Ga. - Kennesaw State's Jeff Karlsson, who was recently named a PING All-Region Honoree will tee off in the first round of the Palmer Cup Thursday with partner Nils Floren against reigning Jack Nicklaus Award winners [ Player of the Year in NCAA Division I and II golf] Patrick Cantlay and Alex Carpenter. The foursome will tee off early Thursday morning at 7:44 a.m. (ET) at The Stanwich Club outside of Greenwich, Conn.
The 15th annual Palmer Cup, a Ryder Cup-style tournament, hosts the top amateur players in the United States against those from Europe. The tournament will be played June 9-11 with the United States leading the Cup series 7-6-1 heading into this seasons tournament.
In 1997 the Golf Coaches Association of America approached Arnold Palmer regarding lending his name to an international collegiate event between the United States and Great Britain and Ireland. The event would use a Ryder Cup-style format and bring together the top eight collegiate players in the United States against their counterparts from GB&I. Palmer, a former collegiate player himself, has been called America’s greatest Ambassador for the game of golf. With his blessing and the support of the Arnold Palmer Golf Company, the inaugural event was played at his own Bay Hill Club in Florida in June 1997.
Joining Karlsson and representing Team Europe will be Arkansas’ Sebastian Cappelen, Ignacio Elvira of Texas A&M, Texas Tech’s Floren, Liberty’s Robert Karlsson, Nick MacAndrew of Aberdeen, Augusta State’s Henrik Norlander and UCLA’s Pontus Widegren.
Widegren went 3-1 at 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 both Jeff and Robert Karlsson hail from Sweden while Cappelen is a native of Denmark, Elvira is from Spain and MacAndrew is Scottish.
Team USA will consist of Blayne Barber of Auburn, UCLA’s Cantlay, Abilene Christian’s Carpenter, Russell Henley of Georgia, Oregon’s Daniel Miernicki, Bank Vongvanij of Florida, Washington’s Chris Williams and Stanford’s Andrew Yun.
Both Henley and Miernicki were part of last year’s victorious American squad at Royal Portrush with Henley posting a 3-1 record and Miernicki a 2-2 mark. The United States team will be lead by head coach Tim Poe of Central Missouri and assistant coach Michael Burcin of South Carolina.
Rickard Lindberg of the Swedish Golf Federation will serve as head coach of the European team and Northwestern’s David Inglis will serve as 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 2003.
First round four ball pairing begin Thursday a.m. at 7:30 a.m. (ET) with Head-to-Head Match Pairings beginning in the afternoon. For complete updates on the 2011 Palmer Cup and all KSU men's golf news, visit www.ksuowls.com.
