Texas A&M golfers Chandler Phillips and Maddie Szeryk each won matches at the 2018 Arnold Palmer Cup Saturday, hosted at the Evian Resort Golf Club.
Phillips, a senior on the men’s golf team, earned 1.5 points for Team USA on Saturday. In the morning round, Phillips and Lilia Vu of UCLA halved their match against their Team International opposition of Hurly Long of Texas Tech and Patty Tavatanakit of UCLA. Phillips and Vu never led in the match, but won the Par 3 16th to even the match, then halved the final two holes to earn half a point for Team USA.
In the afternoon four-ball round, Phillips combined with Zach Bauchou of Oklahoma State to win 3&2 over Harry Hall of UNLV and Jovan Rebula of Auburn. Phillips and Bauchou combined for nine birdies and an eagle, including seven birdies in their last nine holes.
Szeryk, who just completed her senior season on the women’s golf team, and Olivia Mehaffey of Arizona State defeated Mariel Galdiano of UCLA and Andrea Lee of Stanford 1-Up in afternoon four-ball, earning a point for Team International. Szeryk and Mehaffey never led in the match until they birdied the Par 5 18th to win 1-Up.
Szeryk and Andy Zhang of Florida lost 5&3 in the morning alternate shot round to Dylan Kim of Arkansas and Justin Suh of USC.
After three rounds, Team USA leads Team International 20.5 to 15.5. Team USA needs 9.5 points in 24 matches Sunday to retain the cup. Team International needs 15 points in 24 matches to win the cup.
The Arnold Palmer Cup is a Ryder Cup-style tournament featuring the top men's and women's college golfers matching the United States against a team of International players. The team that wins the most matches over four rounds of play, wins the Arnold Palmer Cup. The 2018 matches at Evian Resort Golf Club will become the only major tournament which features men and women playing side-by-side as partners.
The tournament finishes with singles matches on Sunday. Phillips tees off at 12:40 a.m. CT against Lorenzo Scalise of Tennessee, and Szeryk tees off at 1:10 a.m. CT against Lilia Vu of UCLA.
