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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Randolph Helps U.S. Take Early Lead In Palmer Cup
6/24/2010 | Men's Golf
June 24, 2010
PORTRUSH, Ireland - Ole Miss All-American golfer Jonathan Randolph helped the United States take an early 6-2 lead against Europe in the Palmer Cup, winning both his morning and afternoon matches Thursday.
The competition was all square (2-2) after the morning four-ball matches at the Royal Portrush Golf Club, but the U.S. gained points from the first two matches out in the afternoon and ended up winning the final two for the 6-2 lead.
The Europeans got on the board first when they won the opening two matches of the morning.
Randolph teamed up with Stanford sophomore David Chung to score the first point for the United States in the competition after holding on for a 1-up victory against David Lingmerth (Arkansas) and Patrick Spraggs (Stirling University) in the morning. The Americans never trailed in their match and led by 3-up after 13 holes. Both teams posted par the next two holes to move the match to dormie. Lingmerth would birdie Nos. 16 and 17 for Europe to close the gap to 1-down on the 18th tee with Europe looking to deny the USA its first victory of the competition. Lingmerth missed his birdie attempt to win the hole and Europe conceded Chung's par putt after he left his birdie attempt a foot short.
In the afternoon matches, Randolph and Chung gave the Americans a 3-2 lead in the competition by downing Lingmerth and Spraggs 5 & 4. They birdied the first hole and never relinquished their lead.
The U.S. then won the No. 1 match 1-up to increase their lead to 4-2. Trailing 1-up with three holes to play in the third match, the Americans won the final three to take it 2-up. Europe led the final match 1-up after 13 holes, but the U.S. team of Tyson Alexander (Florida) and Russell Henley (Georgia) made birdie on No. 14 to square the match and then eagled the par-5 17th to go 1-up. Both teams made par on 18, giving the U.S. the win.
Play continues Friday with eight singles matches.
2010 PALMER CUP (DAY ONE RESULTS)
Four-Ball Matches
Henrik Norlander/Pontus Widegren (EUR) def. Scott Langley/Corey Nagy (USA) 4&3
Rhys Enoch/Andrea Pavan (EUR) def. John Chin/Daniel Miernicki (USA) 3&2
David Chung/Jonathan Randolph (USA) def. David Lingmerth/Patrick Spraggs (EUR) 1-up
Tyson Alexander/Russell Henley (USA) def. James Byrne/Jesper Kennegard (EUR) 3&1
Foursomes
Chin/Miernicki (USA) def. Pavan/Enoch (EUR) 1-up
Chung/Randolph (USA) def. Lingmerth/Spraggs (EUR) 5&4
Langley/Nagy (USA) def. Byrne/Widegren (EUR) 2-up
Alexander/Henley (USA) def. Kennegard/Norlander (EUR) 1-up
