Arnold Palmer Cup announces head coaches, assistants for 2024 competition at Lahinch

The competition heads to Lahinch in 2024.

LAS VEGAS — The head and assistant coaches for the American and International squads at the 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup were named Tuesday during the annual coaches convention at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.

LSU’s Garrett Runion and Arizona State’s Matt Thurmond will be Team USA co-head coaches, and Minnesota’s Rhyll Brinsmead and Ireland’s Barry Fennelly will guide the International team. Florida’s Dudley Hart and LSU’s Alexis Rather are the Team USA co-assistant coaches while Scotland’s Stew Burke and Ireland’s Aaron O’Callaghan will assist Team International.

The Ryder Cup-style competition, which features men’s and women’s collegiate golfers from the United States against their International counterparts, will be played July 5-7 at Lahinch in Ireland.

Runion, who has been a part of two national championships and earned multiple conference and regional coach of the year awards thus far during his collegiate coaching career, is in his sixth season as the LSU women’s golf head coach. The Tigers have 12 wins, including their first SEC Championship in 30 years in 2022, and made three straight NCAA Division I National Championship appearances with Runion at the helm.

Thurmond is in his eighth season as head men’s golf coach at Arizona State and has earned Pac-12 Coach of the Year three times, including in 2019. The Sun Devils have won 19 tournaments, including back-to-back NCAA Regionals, and have earned 18 PING All-American and three straight Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the Year honors during his tenure.

Hart is in his seventh season on Florida and coach J.C. Deacon’s coaching staff, and first as associate head coach. The Gators put together a historic season in 2022-23 that led to six tournament titles, including the program’s fifth NCAA Division I National Championship and 16th SEC Championship. Hart was named the 2023 Jan Strickland Outstanding Assistant Coach Award recipient, becoming the second Gator to receive the award, joining John Handrigan in 2015. During his tenure, the Gators have won 14 tournaments and earned nine PING All-America and 14 PING All-Southeast Region honors.

Rather is in her 14th season with the Tigers and her sixth working with Runion. She spent eight seasons under the tutelage of long-time LSU head coach Karen Bahnsen in addition to playing for Bahnsen in the purple and gold from 2003-08, where she recorded a program-record 125 rounds played and chipped in for the only birdie in a sudden death playoff for the eighth and final qualifying spot at the 2008 NCAA East Regional that advanced LSU to the NCAA Championship.

Brinsmead, who was a Team International assistant coach at the 2023 Palmer Cup, took the helm as the head women’s golf coach at Minnesota in January 2021. In her first two-plus seasons, she has led the Gophers to four top-fives, including in two of their four tournaments this fall, and 17 top-10 finishes. Seven of her players have earned WGCA All-American Scholar honors.

Fennelly is in his 13th season as head coach of both the men’s and women’s programs at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Under Fennelly’s direction, Maynooth has become the perennial leader in Ireland, having won two National club titles and numerous Irish, British, and European University titles.

Burke was named head coach at Kansas State on June 30 after holding the same position at Tulane the previous four seasons. The Wildcats recorded a 291.33 team stroke average this fall, which is their best fall stroke average since at least 2011. At the White Sands Invitational in October, which included individual winner Haley Vargas, Kansas State captured their first team victory in four years. Carla Bernat, 2023 Palmer Cup alumna, also won the Marilynn Smith Sunflower Invitational, marking the first time in six years that Kansas State had multiple individual winners.

O’Callaghan is in his seventh season as the Demon Deacons’ associate head coach, coming to Wake Forest in July 2018 after four seasons at Louisville. This fall, the Wake Forest men’s golf team won both the team and individual titles at the Highlands Invitational at the Chicago Highlands Club, with 2022 Palmer Cup alumnus Michael Brennan claiming his seventh career individual title, the fourth most in program history.

The Americans lead the all-time series 14-12-1.

2023 Masters: Ranking the top courses designed by famed architect Alister MacKenzie

All eyes are on Augusta National, but how does the Georgia stalwart stack up against Alister MacKenzie’s other layouts?

The golf world’s attention is focused on Augusta National Golf Club this weekend, bringing plenty of attention to famed golf course architect Alister MacKenzie. But the annual home of the Masters, as great as it is, isn’t even MacKenzie’s top-rated layout.

Golfweek’s Best ranks courses every year based on the input of more than 800 raters worldwide, and Augusta National in 2022 ranked No. 3 among all classic courses in the United States built before 1960. Golfweek’s raters judge each course on a scale of 1 to 10, with only the top handful of courses in the world surpassing an average rating of 9.

Augusta National – which has been heavily modified over the decades – comes in at 9.51 out of 10, so clearly MacKenzie and the architects who followed with renovations at Augusta National did great work on the old tree farm. Funny thing, though, it’s not even the best course in the U.S. designed by the Scottish surgeon.

Alister MacKenzie

That honor belongs to a club out west. Click through to see MacKenzie’s top courses in the world, as rated by Golfweek’s Best.

It’s worth noting, MacKenzie laid his hands and intellect on many courses. The ones below include tracks that were MacKenzie originals or received substantial MacKenzie input, often with help from other designers. Several clubs he worked on, such as California Golf Club, were not included in the following calculations because much of his work has been redone in subsequent renovations or he didn’t have the majority of the design input.

So here goes, MacKenzie’s top 10: