Stone Rallies Her USA Duo For Half Point In Arnold Palmer Cup

SUGAR GROVE, Illinois – LSU golfer Latanna Stone and Georgia golfer Trent Phillips birdied four-of-the-final-eight holes in their mixed four ball match Friday to earn the United States team a half point as part of the opening day of play in the 2021 Arnold Palmer Cup at Rich Harvest Farms, outside Chicago. 

After one day of play, the teams are tied at 6 wins apiece.

Stone and Phillips halved the match with Puwit Anupansuebsai of South Dakota State and Maryland’s Virunpat Olankitkuncha. 

The Arnold Palmer Cup, with a Ryder Cup format, began in 1997, but is in its third year with both men and women competing. The event features the top college amateur golfers and it will take 30 ½ points to win the Cup.

The Stone-Phillips duo was down in the four-ball match in which each player plays their own ball with low score taking the hole by four holes after the International duo birdied the par 4 10th hole. To that point, the Americans had not won a hole in the match. 

But then Stone and Phillips caught fire and posted back-to-back birdies on the par 5 11th and the par 4 12th to cut the margin in half. 

Still 2 down in the match, the USA pairing birdied the par 3 16th and par 4 17th to get the match all square. Both teams parred 18 to leave the match all square and a half point for each side. 

Also playing on the opening day that featured two weather stoppages, was LSU’s Ingrid Lindblad of Sweden. She was teamed with fellow Swede Pontus Nyholm of Campbell. They met the USA pair of William Moll of Vanderbilt and Kate Smith of Nebraska. 

Moll and Smith picked up a point for the US team with a 1 UP win over Lindblad and Nyholm. Three times the Swedish pair came from 1 Down to get the match all square with birdies but a USA birdie on the 16th hole was the difference in the match as the last two holes were halved with pars. 

Two sessions are scheduled for Saturday with foursome plays among the men and the women’s teams in the morning before an afternoon session of mixed foursomes. In foursomes, also known as alternate shot, has golfers competing in teams of two, using only one ball per team, and taking alternate shots until the hole is completed. 

The event concludes with 24 singles matches on Sunday. Live scoring is available at Golfstat.com.