At Congaree Golf Club in South Carolina, Team International dominated Team USA 35-25 to win the Arnold Palmer Cup Saturday and snap a streak of two consecutive losses. The International squad won three of the four sessions, leading to the largest margin of victory since it won 40½-19½ in 2020.
Started in 1997, the Arnold Palmer Cup pits 24 of the best collegiate male and female golfers against each other in a Ryder Cup-style format. Prior to 2018, only men participated in the event. Since women started playing, the series is now tied at four apiece with the United States leading the all-time series, 15-13-1.
Headed into this year’s event, Team International boasted more Arnold Palmer Cup experience, with eight returning players compared with the United States’ seven. In addition, South Africa’s Caitlyn Macnab, Spain’s Carla Bernat Escuder and Malaysia’s Mirabel Ting had all participated in multiple Arnold Palmer Cups. No players on the United States’ roster had participated in more than one.
While Team International had more experience, Team USA had more winning experience. On the international side, only Spain’s Carolina Chacarra had a victory to her name as she played on the 2022 team. All seven returning players on the USA side were champions. Among them were the NCAA men’s individual champion Michael La Sasso and Mary Kelly Mulcahy. In 2024, Mulcahy went 4-0-0 in her matches. Jackson Koivun, who earned PGA Tour membership through PGA Tour University Accelerated last month, also added to a strong roster.
After mixed four-ball on Thursday, Team International led 6½-5½. The story of the day was comebacks. Team International won the first three matches before the United States won the next four. Unfortunately for the Americans, those four were their only wins of the day.
Team International came back to win three matches in which they were down. They also came back to tie all three halved matches of the day. Most notably, the team of Thailand’s Eila Galitsky and England’s Luke Poulter came back from a four-hole deficit to tie Preston Stout and Kelly Xu.
After the second day’s 24 matches, Team International extended their lead from one point to four.
They dominated Friday’s morning foursomes, winning eight of the 12 matches and halving another. Unlike the first day, they didn’t have to do a lot of chasing, only trailing in two of the matches they won. Notably, the team of Macnab and Colombia’s Maria Jose Mairin handed Mulcahy her first Arnold Palmer Cup loss, beating the team of Mulcahy and Farah O’Keefe, 4 and 2.
The United States team won its only session of the tournament during the Friday afternoon mixed foursomes, taking seven of the 12 available points. Jacob Modleski and Megha Ganne set the tone early, beating Ross Laird and Macnab, 6 and 5.
“Megha and I worked really well together,” Modleski said. “It’s always good to go out and have a match where you feel like you’re in control the whole time. We enjoyed ourselves and the competition, and it’s always good to end a match with a win early.”
Headed into Saturday’s singles matches, Team International led Team USA 20-16, needing 10.5 of the 24 available points to win.
They got that and more, winning 15 of the 24 matches. By beating Ganne, Chacarra finished the Arnold Palmer Cup undefeated, going 4-0-0 in her matches. Making his tournament debut, Justin Hastings of the Cayman Islands did the same thing by beating Ethan Fang, a member of the recent NCAA Championship-winning team at Oklahoma State. On the United States’ side, only USC’s Catherine Park won all her matches.
RESULTS
Everett Munez