Two Stanford women's golfers were selected to the 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup, as announced on Tuesday. The event will be played July 5-7, 2024, at Lahinch Golf Club in Ireland.
This Ryder-Cup style competition sees men and women form the United States playing side-by-side against their international counterparts. The event began in 1997 and runs every summer. Megha Ganne and Paula Martin Sampedro have been selected, with Ganne playing for Team USA and Martin Sampedro playing for the International team.
This is the first selection to the Arnold Palmer Cup for both Ganne and Martin Sampedro, who have shined all season long. Ganne is actively second in the ongoing Pac-12 Championship and has a tournament win and four top-10 finishes. Martin Sampedro has not finished outside of the top-10 in a tournament in her first collegiate season.
International team selections include Bastien Amat (New Mexico; France), Josele Ballester (Arizona State; Spain), Carla Bernat (Kansas State; Spain), Emma Bunch (New Mexico State; Denmark), Adela Cernousek (Texas A&M; France), Hannah Darling (South Carolina; Scotland), Santiago de la Fuente (Houston; Mexico), Wenyi Ding (Arizona State; China), Maria José Marin (Arkansas; Colombia), Max Kennedy (Louisville; Ireland), Julia Lopez Ramirez (Mississippi State; Spain), Caitlyn Macnab (Ole Miss; South Africa), Paula Martín Sampedro (Stanford; Spain), Omar Morales (UCLA, Mexico), Jacob Skov Olesen (Arkansas; Denmark), Louise Rydqvist (South Carolina; Sweden), Calum Scott (Texas Tech; Scotland), Mirabel Ting (Florida State; Malaysia), Ben van Wyk (Georgia; South Africa), and Sampson Zheng (California; China). Ryan Griffin (Maynooth; Ireland) and Kate Lanigan (Maynooth; Ireland) were selected as representatives of The R&A's Student Tour Series. Head Coaches Rhyll Brinsmead and Barry Fennelly selected Sara Byrne (Miami; Ireland) and Filip Jakubcik (Arizona; Czech Republic), respectively, as their coach's picks.
United States team selections were Zoe Campos (UCLA), Luke Clanton (Florida State), Maisie Filler (Florida), David Ford (North Carolina), Megha Ganne (Stanford), Ian Gilligan (Florida), Melanie Green (USF), Ben James (Virginia), Jackson Koivun (Auburn), Rachel Kuehn (Wake Forest), Michael La Sasso (Ole Miss), Jack Lundin (Missouri), Anna Morgan (Furman), Farah O'Keefe (Texas), Catherine Park (Southern California), Kiara Romero (Oregon), Amanda Sambach (Virginia), Gordon Sargent (Vanderbilt), Preston Summerhays (Arizona State), and Brendan Valdes (Auburn). Mary Kelly Mulcahy (Findlay) and Jackson Klutznick (Emory) were the non-Division I selections. Head Coaches Matt Thurmond and Garrett Runion selected Jackson Van Paris (Vanderbilt) and Latanna Stone (LSU), respectively, as their coach's picks.
Adding two more to the total, seven other Cardinal have played in the Arnold Palmer Cup: Rachel Heck, Aline Krauter, Brooke Seay, and Rose Zhang in 2022; Angelina Ye in 2020; and Andrea Lee and Albane Valenzuela in 2018.
The Arnold Palmer Cup was co-founded by Arnold Palmer and the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) and began at the Bay Hill Club & Lodge, Orlando, Fla., in 1997. The event is a Ryder Cup-style tournament featuring the top men's and women's university/college golfers matching the United States against a team of International players. The Palmer Cup has been played at some of the world's greatest courses, including The Old Course at St. Andrews, The Royal County Down, Royal Portrush, Baltusrol, The Honors Course, and Cherry Hills. Beginning with the 2018 matches at Evian Resort Golf Club, the Palmer Cup is the only major tournament that features men and women playing side-by-side as partners.
Since its inception, over 245 former Arnold Palmer Cup alumni have gone on to earn cards on the PGA, DP World, or LPGA Tours; 44 have represented Europe or the USA in the Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup, or Solheim Cup and more than 90 have claimed over 415 victories on the PGA, DP World, or LPGA Tours, including 2023 major champions Jon Rahm (Masters Tournament), Lilia Vu (The Chevron Championship & AIG Women's Open), Wyndham Clark (U.S. Open), Allisen Corpuz (U.S. Women's Open), and Brian Harman (The Open), as well as 2023 FedEx Cup champion Viktor Hovland. The United States leads the Palmer Cup series 14-12-1.