Hokie ClubVirginia Tech associate head coach Brian Sharp will be the assistant coach on the 2010 Palmer Cup at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Portrush, Northern Ireland. The annual Ryder Cup-style competition will be played June 24-26.
The U.S. squad will be lead by head coach Chris Zambri of Southern California. Sharp earned this honor when he was named the recipient of the 2009 Jan Strickland Award Presented by TaylorMade-Adidas to the Assistant Coach of the Year, as selected by the Golf Coaches Association of America. The Strickland Award is given to the NCAA Division I, II, III or NAIA assistant coach that, among other things, has excelled in working with their student-athletes both on the course and in the classroom.
Representing the United States will be Florida’s Tyson Alexander, John Chin of Cal-Irvine, Stanford’s David Chung, Dustin Garza of Wichita State, Georgia’s Russell Henley, Daniel Miernicki of Oregon, Charlotte’s Corey Nagy and Jonathan Randolph of Mississippi. Although the United States team does not have a returning player, Alexander’s father, Buddy, coached the U.S. squad to victory at Whistling Straits in 2005.
The European team will consist of James Byrne and Jesper Kennegard of Arizona State, East Tennessee State’s Rhys Enoch, David Lingmerth of Arkansas, Augusta State’s Henrik Norlander, Andrea Pavan of Texas A&M, Stirling’s Patrick Spraggs and Pontus Widegren of UCLA. Italy’s Pavan and Norlander of Sweden will be competing in their second Palmer Cup after leading the Euros to victory last summer at Cherry Hills Country Club. Byrne hails from Scotland, Enoch and Spraggs from England and Kennegard, Lingmerth and Widegren from Sweden. Dean Robertson of Scotland and Sweden’s Walle Danewid will coach the European team for the second-straight year.
The all-time Palmer Cup series is tied 6-6-1.