Team International Wins Tightest Arnold Palmer Cup in Decades

In the past 25 years, no Arnold Palmer Cup has finished with a margin of victory less than two full points. Since the tournament adopted its current format in 2018, the closest contest was still a four-point victory. That is, until this past weekend. The 2026 Arnold Palmer Cup at Tralee Golf Club in Ireland saw three of its four sessions tied between Team International and Team USA, and the eventual champions beat the American amateurs by just one point–the slimmest margin possible.

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The race was close from the first tee-balls. The opening session–mixed four-ball–finished in a tie at six points apiece. Saturday’s two sessions of foursomes were not much different. Team International managed to take a one-point lead into the afternoon, and another tied session saw the same margin carry into Sunday’s 24 singles matches.

Surely with 24 matches occurring in one day, the final session couldn’t have ended in a tie as well, right? I would be inclined to agree with you, but then we’d both be wrong. Despite a late American rally, Team International held on to their slim lead with another split session and claimed their second Arnold Palmer Cup win in a row, 30½ - 29½.

Texas A&M’s Vanessa Borovilos managed to hold a one-up lead over Team USA’s Mackenzie Lee into the 18th hole of their match, guaranteeing Team International the half-point they needed to clinch the win.

The winners were led by Cayetana Fernández García-Poggio and Patience Rhodes, both of whom managed 3-0-1 records and contributed 3½ points to their team's efforts. Max Herendeen was the lone undefeated golfer on Team USA’s side, also tallying a 3-0-1 record and sealing his tournament with a decisive victory over Scottish standout (and star of the 2025 U.S. Amateur) Niall Sheils Donegan.

Right behind those leaders on Team International was Duke’s Rianne Malixi, who provided perhaps the biggest fireworks of Sunday’s singles session when she rolled in a long eagle putt on her final hole to beat Jasmine Koo and secure a crucial point for her side.

Kiara Romero, rising senior at Oregon and the top-ranked female amateur in the world, managed to contribute two points to Team USA’s efforts, including a Sunday win against Augusta National Women’s Amateur (ANWA) winner and Arkansas standout Maria Jose Marin.

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Árni Sveinsson, among the amateurs who made their way into the 2026 U.S. Open through Final Qualifying, rebounded from a tough showing at Shinnecock Hills with 2 points of his own, emphasized by one of Sunday’s most dominant wins in a 6&5 defeat of Arizona State’s Connor Williams.

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In a vote held among contestants, Team International’s Luke Poulter and Lauren Kim were selected to receive exemptions into the 2027 Arnold Palmer Invitational and the 2026 Amundi Evian Championship, respectively. While Poulter will have some time to prepare for his first start on the PGA TOUR, Kim will be teeing it up in France at the LPGA Tour’s fourth major of the year on Thursday.

Poulter, along with Team USA’s Kihei Akina, also received the Michael Carter “Junior” Memorial Award, given to the players at the Arnold Palmer Cup who best embody the qualities that Michael Carter–the Penn State golfer who died in a car accident in 2002 at just 19 years old–brought to the game.

The next generation of stars were out in full force at Tralee Golf Club, and with the U.S. Amateur and countless other events still to come on the 2026 golf calendar, the Arnold Palmer Cup certainly will not be the last we see of these collegiate golfers. Some will likely return in 2027, when the Cup returns to the United States at Cherry Hills Country Club in Colorado and Team USA looks for their first win since 2024.

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