The summer season for high-stakes amateur golf ratchets up this weekend at the 19th annual Palmer Cup, a three-day Ryder Cup-style event matching the best college players from the U.S. and Europe. There is no delusion that this is an entirely laid-back competition.
“It really is the exact same thing as the Ryder Cup, only on a smaller scale,” European player Jon Rahm said. “There’s a lot of pressure, and you go hard at it.”
The annual event is on American soil this year, at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill. The course, opened in 1999, already has made a name for itself as host of several big-time events, including the Western Junior, NCAA regionals, the Solheim Cup, and, in the future, the Western Amateur and NCAA Championships.