Sophomore Michael Thorbjornsen was selected by Team USA to the 2022 Arnold Palmer Cup on Tuesday. The event will be played July 1-3, 2022, at the Golf Club de Genève in Switzerland.
"The whole Stanford Golf community is proud of Michael for making such a prestigious team as The U.S. Palmer Cup Team," Knowles Family Director of Golf Conrad Ray said. "To represent the United States and Stanford on foreign soil is a great honor and especially a neat thing for a Stanford student-athlete. Michael's results have been great this year and he should be a valuable member of the team. His experience at high levels of amateur golf will serve him well. He joins a strong list of Stanford athletes that have been selected in the past to play on this prestigious squad that celebrates the amazing legacy of Mr. Arnold Palmer."
The annual Ryder-Cup style competition sees men and women from the United State playing side-by-side against their International counterparts on some of the world's top course. Thorbjornsen will play alongside fellow Stanford golfers Rachel Heck, Brooke Seay and Rose Zhang on Team USA, and against Aline Krauter who was picked for Team International.
International team ranking qualifiers included Alexandra Forsterling (Arizona State; Germany), Natasha Andrea Oon (San Jose State; Malaysia), Hannah Darling (South Carolina; Scotland), Aline Krauter (Stanford; Germany), Ashley Lau (Michigan; Malaysia), and Carolina Chacarra (Wake Forest; Spain) for the women and Fred Biondi (Florida; Brazil), Ludvig Åberg (Texas Tech; Sweden), Eugenio Chacarra (Oklahoma State; Spain), Adrien Dumont de Chassart (Illinois; Belgium), Albin Bergstrom (USF; Sweden), and Frederik Kjettrup (Florida State; Denmark) for the men.
International Team Committee selections were Archie Davies (East Tennessee State; Wales), Mateo Fernández de Oliveira (Arkansas; Argentina), Christo Lamprecht (Georgia Tech; South Africa), Julia Lopez Ramirez (Mississippi State; Spain), Hsin-Yu Lu (Oregon; Taiwan), Benedetta Moresco (Alabama; Italy), Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (Oklahoma State; Denmark), and Amelia Williamson (Florida State; England). David Kitt (Maynooth; Ireland) and Lorna McClymont (Stirling; Scotland) were the representatives from The R&A Student Tour Series. International Team Head Coach Phil Rowe selected James Leow (Arizona State; Singapore) for his coach's pick and Head Coach Diana Cantú selected Kajsa Arwefjäll (San Jose State; Sweden).
United States team ranking qualifiers included Rose Zhang (Stanford), Amari Avery (Southern California), Rachel Kuehn (Wake Forest), Gurleen Kaur (Baylor), Calynne Rosholt (Arizona State), and Antonia Malate (San Jose State) for the women and Sam Bennett (Texas A&M), Cole Sherwood (Vanderbilt), Johnny Keefer (Baylor), Gordon Sargent (Vanderbilt), Travis Vick (Texas), and Walker Lee (Texas A&M) for the men.
United States Team Committee selections were Michael Brennan (Wake Forest), Rachel Heck (Stanford), Palmer Jackson (Notre Dame), Dylan Menante (Pepperdine), Brooke Seay (Stanford), Erica Shepherd (Duke), Latanna Stone (LSU), and Michael Thorbjornsen (Stanford). Jake Doggett (Midwestern State) and Olivia Mitchell (Dallas Baptist) were the non-Division I selections. Head Coaches Kory Henkes and Jim Ott selected Julia Johnson (Ole Miss) and Nick Gabrelcik (North Florida) as their coach's picks, respectively.
Founded in 1922, Golf Club de Genève features a course designed in 1973 by Robert Trent Jones, Sr. and fully renovated by his son Robert Trent Jones, Jr. in 2018. A par 72 that plays to 6,821 yards, the course offers views of the city, Lake Geneva, the iconic Mont Blanc and the surrounding Alps. Since 1989 this inspiring setting has hosted the Challenge Tour's Rolex Trophy, a prize won by three Palmer Cup alumni: Alex Norén, Nacho Elvira, and Pedro Oriol. The Club also hosted the 1975 European Junior Championship, the 1982 Espirito Santo Trophy, and several Swiss International matches.
About Arnold Palmer Cup
The Palmer Cup was co-founded by Arnold Palmer and The Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA), and began in 1997 at the Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Fla. The event is a Ryder Cup-style tournament featuring the top men's and women's university/college golfers, with a team from the United States matching up against a team of International players. The Palmer Cup has been played at some of the world's greatest courses, including The Old Course; Royal County Down; Royal Portrush; Baltusrol; The Honors Course; and Cherry Hills. The 2018 event at Evian Resort Golf Club became the first major amateur American tournament to feature men and women playing side-by-side as partners.
Since its inception, over 125 former Arnold Palmer Cup alumni have gone on to earn cards on the PGA, European or LPGA Tours; 29 have represented Europe or the USA in the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, and more than 60 have claimed over 275 victories on the PGA or European Tours, including three major championships in 2020 and two in 2021. The United States leads the Palmer Cup series 13-11-1.