Castlewarden’s Lauren Walsh and Maynooth University’s Allan Hill will fly the flag for Ireland at today’s starting Arnold Palmer Cup, June 11-13, hosted by Rich Harvest Farms.
Walsh partners England’s Alex Fitzpatrick in their opening Mixed Four-ball match (5pm Irish) against the USA’s Walker Cup star Ricky Castillo, and Lauren Hartlage. Hill will hope to hit it off with Scotland’s Penny Brown in their opening match (2.45pm Irish) against Hannah Harrison and Trevor Norby.
Best of luck to Lauren Walsh and Allan Hill representing the International Team @ArnoldPalmerCup this weekend ☘️ #APCup #ALifeWellPlayed pic.twitter.com/tVk3Qh1LBb
— Golf Ireland (@GolfIreland_) June 11, 2021
In her sophomore season, Walsh played in the line-up for all six events to lead her Wake Forest team with a 71.73 stroke average. She earned All-ACC honours after recording five top-15 finishes in five stroke play events and contributed match wins in the Big Four Challenge. She opened the season with back-to-back second place finishes.
Hill joins a long line of Maynooth scholars earning caps at the Palmer Cup down the years with Caolan Rafferty part of the winning side at Bay Hill in December while Ronan Mullarney, Stuart Grehan and Gary Hurley have all experienced the amateur contest.
A total of 36 players were named, consisting of nine men and nine women per side. For 2021 only, all selections were committee picks, with the exception of the four coaches’ picks (one USA man, one USA woman, one International man, one International woman).
The United States team is led by a group of returners from the 2020 Palmer Cup in Julia Johnson (Ole Miss), Gina Kim (Duke), Emilia Migliaccio (Wake Forest), and Latanna Stone (LSU). Coaches pick Migliaccio will become the first American to play in four Palmer Cups.
They will be joined by Ricky Castillo (Florida), Pierceson Coody (Texas), Allisen Corpuz (Southern California), Rachel Kuehn (Wake Forest), Brooke Matthews (Arkansas), and Trent Phillips (Georgia) who were all selected on March 3.
Newcomers to the American side include Sam Bennett (Texas A&M), Jacob Bridgeman (Clemson), Nick Gabrelcik (North Florida), Ryan Hall (South Carolina), Hanna Harrison (Dallas Baptist), Lauren Hartlage (Louisville), Irene Kim (Northwestern), Dylan Menante (Pepperdine), William Moll (Vanderbilt), Trevor Norby (Oklahoma Christian), Brad Reeves (Arizona), Erica Shepherd (Duke), Benjamin Shipp (NC State), and Kate Smith (Nebraska).
Norby and Smith are the first representatives from their respective schools.
The International team is represented by 14 countries, including seven returners from last year’s victorious team in Puwit Anupansuebsai (San Diego State/Thailand), Alex Fitzpatrick (Wake Forest/England), Yuxin Lin (Florida/China), Ingrid Lindblad (LSU/Sweden), David Puig (Arizona State/Spain), Paulne Roussin-Bouchard (South Carolina/France), and Emma Spitz (UCLA/Austria). Agathe Laisne (Texas/France) also brings past Palmer Cup experience as she was part of the winning International side at The Alotian Club in 2019.
They will be joined by a group of newcomers that includes Penny Brown (Stirling/Scotland), Eugenio Chacarra (Oklahoma State/Spain), Adrien Dumont de Chassart (Illinois/Belgium), Isabella Fierro (Oklahoma State/Mexico), Karen Fredgaard (Houston/Sweden), Allan Hill (Maynooth/Ireland), Bo Jin (Oklahoma State/China), Pontus Nyholm (Campbell/Sweden), Virunpat Olankitkunchai (Maryland/Thailand), Joseph Pagdin (Florida/England), Ana Pelaez Trivino (South Carolina/Spain), Julian Perico (Arkansas/Spain), Emily Price (Kent State/England), Hugo Townsend (Boise State/Sweden), Beatrice Wallin (Florida State/Sweden), and Lauren Walsh (Wake Forest/Ireland).
Nyholm and Townsend will become the first representative from their respective schools while Perico will be the first representative from Peru.
More information on the Arnold Palmer Cup HERE
Leave a comment