Team Europe Wins Palmer Cup

CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, Colo. – Europe stymied a late American rally to claim a 13-11 win at the 2009 Palmer Cup presented by Fisher Capital Partners at Cherry Hills Country Club in Cherry Hills Village, Colo. The victory was the Euros second in a row and second on American soil. The win evened the all-time series, 6-6-1.

After splitting the morning’s foursomes matches - which left Europe needing only 2.5 points to retain the Palmer Cup, Europe roared out to big leads in each of the first three singles matches. Team USA briefly cut into Europe’s lead when Mike Van Sickle when he posted the largest singles victory in Palmer Cup history with an 8 and 7 win. The Euros quickly responded with a 5 and 4 victory by Stephan Gross and Jorge Campillo downing Bud Cauley, 2 and 1.

Tim Sluiter looked poised to close out the matches after building a four-hole lead through four holes against Morgan Hoffmann and leading by the same margin after No. 12. Hoffmann claimed four of the next five holes to move the match to all square after 17 with the Americans leading or all square in the remaining matches. However, Hoffmann’s tee shot on No. 18 went into the water to the left of the fairway and Sluiter made par to give Europe the team victory.
 
Cameron Tringale (1-up), Trent Leon (2 and 1) and Adam Mitchell (3 and 2) would claim wins for the U.S. while Italy’s Andrea Pavan and Erik Flores halved the final match for a final team score of 13-11.

“Our team played extremely well this week and had a tough fight today against the U.S.,” said Europe Head Coach Dean Robertson. “It was a privilege  to play at a course with the history of Cherry Hills and have Arnold Palmer in attendance all week.”