June 19, 2008
LAS VEGAS - UNLV men's golf assistant coach Andy Bischel will help lead the United States' team during the 2008 Palmer Cup, which will be played June 26-27 at the Glasgow Golf Club's Gailes Links in Scotland.
Bischel, who just finished his 10th season on the Rebel men's golf staff, was named the recipient of the 2007 Jan Strickland Assistant Coach of the Year Award, which was presented by TaylorMade-adidas Golf and gave him the right to be the U.S. assistant coach on the 2008 Palmer Cup squad.
The Palmer Cup is an annual eight-man team golf competition between American and European college golfers and is named after Arnold Palmer. From 1997 to 2002 the U.S. played Great Britain and Ireland rather than the whole of Europe. The U.S. won last year's event and now leads 6-4 all-time with one tied match.
This year's site of Glasgow Golf Club is one of the 10 oldest golf clubs in the world. The format will be four ball with four groups in the morning matches and singles with eight groups in the afternoon.
The U.S. team will be represented by Rickie Fowler from Oklahoma State, Billy Horschel from Florida, Kevin Chappell from UCLA, Derek Fathauer from Louisville, Aaron Goldberg from San Diego State, Chesson Hadley from Georgia Tech, Adam Mitchell from Georgia and Michael Thompson from Alabama. The head coach is Stanford's Conrad Ray.
Fowler played in the 2007 Walker Cup, made the cut at the 2008 U.S. Open and was the 2008 NCAA Player of the Year. Horschel also competed in the 2007 Walker Cup, while Chappell was the 2008 NCAA Individual Champion and a member of the team champion. Fathauer also made the cut at the 2008 U.S. Open as did Thompson, who also was the low amateur finisher at the event in San Diego.
"It is a tremendous honor to represent our country and be associated with the group of golfers that we have on this team," Bischel said. "These players will be well-represented at the professional level very soon and I am looking forward to gaining this international experience through their play."
Bischel is the sixth person from UNLV to participate in a Palmer Cup. UNLV's head coach Dwaine Knight was the U.S.'s captain (head coach) during the inaugural competition in 1997. Ted Oh played on the team in 1997, Jeremy Anderson played in 1998 and 1999, Scott Lander was on the squad in 2001 and Ryan Moore played in 2003 and 2004.
