Golfers lose in Palmer Cup
By Christopher Gooley / Student Publications
Roberto Castro and the US team came up short against Europe in the Palmer Cup. Kevin Larsen also competed with Castro in the competition
Roberto Castro and Kevin Larsen of the Tech men's golf team represented themselves, their school, and their country this past weekend at the 2006 Palmer Cup.
Collegiate golfers from the U.S. face off against their counterparts from Europe. Castro was chosen to be on the team for a second-straight season.
The Europeans were the champions of this year's Palmer Cup in a big way. Europe defeated the U.S. 19.5 to 4.5, which was a new record margin for victory in this cup's history.
On the Friday of the competition, Castro was able to win one point for the US by defeating Richard Ramsey. Castro also faced off against Spain's Pablo Martin, who also plays at Oklahoma State. Castro was able to take the early lead in the match, but was unable to hold onto it as Martin birdied the 11th through 13th holes to go four-up for the match. Castro picked up a birdie on the 15th to make the round closer, but still was defeated three and two.
Larsen faced off against Joost Luiten of the Netherlands. Larsen started the match off by leading the first fourteen holes. He was ahead by as much as three holes on Luiten during the round. However, Luiten's stroke heated up as he birdied the 14th, 16th and 17th holes to bring the match to all square. On the 18th tee, Luiten placed his drive within inches of the hole, while Larsen wildly hit his shot out of bounds and was forced to concede the hole as well as the match to Luiten.
In the doubles matches of the day, Castro was paired up with Duke's Ryan Blaum. While the American pair got off to a good start at the first hole, it would be the last time they were ahead for the match. After a bogey on the 2nd hole, the match went to all square. From there, the European pair of Alejandro Canizares and Pablo Martin dominated the remainder of the round to win the match six and five.
Larsen was ironically paired with Chirs Kirk, a golfer from UGA. This pairing went up against Stephen Lewton and Rhys Davies and was playing the match from behind all day long. After the second hole, the closest that the Americans came to taking the lead in the match came was after a birdie at 11th hole brought the round to a two hole deficit. However, the European pair would birdie two more holes and put the match away.
