The University of Mississippi Athletics
Randolph Helps U.S. Claim Palmer Cup
6/29/2010 | Men's Golf
June 26, 2010
PORTRUSH, Ireland -
Ole Miss men's golfer Jonathan Randolph finished 3-1 this weekend to help the United States claim the Palmer Cup with a 13-11 win over Europe at the Royal Portrush Golf Club.
The victory was the Americans first since 2007 and their first in Europe since 2002 and gives the U.S. a 7-6-1 overall advantage in the Palmer Cup series.
Despite dropping his final singles match to Arkansas' David Lingmerth 2-up, Randolph was able to come away with three points for the U.S., which proved huge in the final outcome. He teamed with David Chung (Stanford) to win the four-ball and foursomes matches on Thursday, and then defeated James Byrne (Arizona State) 4 and 3 in his first singles match Friday.
Randolph, who enjoyed a whirlwind junior season earning first team All-America honors and finishing ranked No. 6 nationally, said he had a blast.
"It was a lot of fun this week playing with this group of guys and representing the USA," Randolph said. "We had a great time and brought home the trophy to the U.S."
Rebel head coach Ernest Ross kept up with all the action from Oxford, as he recently finished another year of golf camp.
"I am very proud of Jonathan for his play," Ross said. "He represented the U.S. very well, and I know he made a lifetime of memories. He is a special player."
Each side claimed four matches in final day singles action. Daniel Miernicki (Oregon) and Chung posted the first two victories of the day for the Americans when they defeated Byrne and Henrik Norlander (Sweden), respectively.
Europe would claim the next three matches. Pontus Widegren (UCLA) won Europe's first point of the day downing Corey Nagy (Charlotte) 6 and 5. Lingmerth's win over Randolph gave them their second point of the day and then Andrea Pavan (Texas A&M) claimed the third of the three-straight wins when he beat Tyson Alexander (Florida) 2 and 1.
Russell Henley (Georgia) gave the Americans their 12th point after beating Jesper Kennegard (Arizona State), 4 and 2.
With six matches in the clubhouse only John Chin UC Irvine) and Scott Langley (Illinois) remained on the course for the United States. While Chin and Patrick Spraggs (Stirling University) were in the fairway on No. 18, Langley clinched the match for America, ensuring at least a half when both he and Rhys Enoch (ETSU) parred No. 17. Chin would go on to drop his match, 1-down, while Langley would complete his 1-up victory.
"We decided to change the lineup a little bit," said USA head coach Chris Zambri. "We had a couple of guys who had a great week so far so we figured we'd put them out early and see what happens. Daniel (Miernicki) played unbelievably well. Our second match out was David (Chung) and David played unbelievably well. Jonathan (Randolph) gave them a real good fight but lost. In the end we thought we had eight real strong players and they obviously had eight also. Luckily we had a two-point lead coming into the day and the guys just played really well. We got the wins we needed with our buffer. It worked out really well. Russell (Henley) played great for us in the anchor match and Scott Langley played great. They were a couple of guys coming off a really great finish at the U.S. Open and we figured that they would come through for us and they did."
2010 PALMER CUP
Portrush, Ireland
Royal Portrush Golf Club
United States 13, Europe 11
Final Round Singles Results
Daniel Miernicki, United States def. James Byrne, Europe, 5 and 3
David Chung, United States def. Henrik Norlander, Europe, 4 and 2
David Lingmerth, Europe def. Jonathan Randolph, United States, 2-up
Pontus Widegren, Europe def. Corey Nagy, United States, 6 and 5
Patrick Spraggs, Europe def. John Chin, United States, 1-up
Scott Langley, United States def. Rhys Enoch, Europe, 1-up
Andrea Pavan, Europe def. Tyson Alexander, United States, 2 and 1
Russell Henley, United States def. Jesper Kennegard, Europe, 4 and 2