NORMAN, Okla. – ACU sophomore
Alex Carpenter will represent the United States against a European team this summer after he was named Wednesday to the 2011 Palmer Cup team.
Carpenter is the only non-Division I player on the U.S. team, which also includes Blayne Barber of Auburn, Patrick Cantlay of UCLA, Russell Henley of Georgia, Daniel Miernicki of Oregon, Bank Vongvanij of Florida, Chris Williams of Washington and Andrew Yun of Stanford.
Henley and Miernicki were part of last year's victories 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.
Representing 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. 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. 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.
The United States leads the Palmer Cup series 7-6-1.
