LAHINCH, Ireland – Auburn golf's Anna Davis, Jackson Koivun and Brendan Valdes will represent the United States at the 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup, which will be played July 5-7 at Lahinch Golf Club in Lahinch, Ireland.
Auburn and Arizona State have the most players represented in the field with three.
The event 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 event will begin with mixed four-ball matches Friday starting at 2:30 a.m. CT followed by foursomes and mixed foursomes matches on Saturday starting at the same time.
The cup concludes with singles matches beginning at 1:30 a.m. CT Sunday. Live scoring of every match will be available online at Golfstat.com.
Each match played over the three days will be worth one point and the team with the most points at the conclusion of the four rounds will be declared Arnold Palmer Cup Champions. If the two sides tie, the United States will retain the cup as the reigning champion.
Davis became the fourth Auburn women’s golfer to receive the prestigious invitation to participate in the event when she was added to Team USA in June, joining Julie McCarthy (International - 2019), Kaleigh Telfer (International - 2020) and Megan Schofill (USA - 2020, 23). While 2024 will mark Davis’ first Palmer Cup selection, it is not her first time representing the United States in international competition as she has represented the Red, White and Blue in the World Amateur, the Junior Ryder Cup, the Pan American Games and the Junior Solheim Cup.
Davis, currently the 18th ranked amateur player in the world, finished the year with a 71.68 scoring average after playing in every team event since her arrival on The Plains in January. She was awarded second team All-American and All-Freshman team honors by the WGCA as well as second team All-SEC and SEC All-Freshman team nods from the conference this season.
Koivun received the nod to represent the United States in the Palmer Cup after a breakout freshman season in which he swept the three national player of the year awards — The Haskins, The Hogan and the Nicklaus, as well as the national freshman of the year award — The Mickelson.
This season, the PING First Team All-American became the first man in program history to finish the year with a sub-70 stroke average at 69.48. Koivun also smashed the Auburn single-season records for top-10 finishes (12), rounds below par (28) and birdies made (176). In 13 starts, he finished outside the top six just once.
After capturing the SEC individual title by six shots, Koivun was voted the SEC Freshman and Player of the Year, becoming the third man in conference history to earn both at the same time. The Chapel Hill, North Carolina native went on to finish runner up at his first NCAA Championship and went 3-0 in match play at the Omni La Costa Champions Course to lead Auburn to its first ever national championship.
During the 2023-24 season, Valdes was a crucial piece in both Auburn's SEC and NCAA Championship runs. Voted a PING First-Team All-American, he carded nine top-10 finishes, 24 rounds below par, 165 birdies and one win. Valdes was responsible for one of the Tigers' championship-clinching points in the NCAA final as he defeated Florida State's Frederik Kjettrup 4&3.
This will mark the first Arnold Palmer Cup appearance for both Koivun and Valdes. The Auburn men now have seven all-time representatives in the event under head coach Nick Clinard.
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, Florida, in 1997. 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.