Swedish national among top six in collegiate international rankings, will compete on 12-man team July 1-3 in Switzerland
TAMPA, FLA., APRIL 19, 2022 – USF men’s golfer Albin Bergstrom (Falsterbo, Sweden) has finished among the top six international players in the Arnold Palmer Cup Rankings and was announced today as part of the 12-man International team that will take on the United States team at Golf Club De Geneve in Switzerland, July 1-3.
The Arnold Palmer Cup is an annual team golf competition for college/university golfers. From 2018 it has been contested between a United States team and an International team representing the rest of the world, with the teams consisting of 12 men and 12 women. The event is a Ryder Cup-style tournament and 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 in 2018, the Arnold Palmer Cup became the only major tournament which features men and women playing side-by-side as partners.
The United States won the 2021 event played in Illinois, 33-27, breaking a two-year winning streak for the International team. This will be the first year the event has been played in Europe since it being held in France in 2018. The United States won the inaugural event in 1997 held at Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando. The United State has won 13 of the 25 previous events, while the Internationals/Europeans have won 11 with one tie.
Previous Arnold Palmer Cup competitors include Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Kuchar, Graeme McDowell, Webb Simpson, Daniel Berger, Ben Curtis, Luke Donald and Rickie Fowler among numerous competitors who have gone on to major championship titles and competed on Ryder Cup and President’s Cup teams. Since its inception, over 125 former Arnold Palmer Cup alumni have gone on to earn cards on the PGA, European, or LPGA Tours; 32 have represented Europe or the USA in the Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup, or Solheim Cup and more than 65 have claimed over 285 victories on the PGA, European, or LPGA Tours, including three major champions in both 2020 and 2021.
Bergstrom is USF’s first participant in the Arnold Palmer Cup. He finished ranked fifth among international golfers playing in the United States. The top six in the rankings automatically make the team and a committee selects the final six for the 12-man team. The top six in the rankings feature players from Spain, Brazil, Sweden, Belgium and Denmark.
Bergstrom is the only non-Autonomy Five Conference player to finish in the top six of the International or United States Palmer Cup Rankings and one of three players from state of Florida universities to do so, joining the University of Florida’s Fred Biondi (Brazil) and Florida State’s Frederik Kjettrup (Denmark) on the International team.
USF will be represented among universities with players participating from Florida, Florida State, Illinois, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Stanford, Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt.
Bergstrom has been ranked as high as No. 4 in the nation this season and currently stands No. 21 with seven top 10 finishes on the year. He broke his own USF season record logging his 27th round of par or better on the season at last week’s Thunderbird Collegiate and increased to his USF career record to 83 such rounds.
His current 69.23 scoring average on the year is on pace to set another USF record as the defending American Athletic Conference Champion builds toward the conference tournament hosted at Southern Hills Plantation in Brooksville, Fla. this weekend.
AMERICAN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS RETURN TO TAMPA BAY
USF will once again host the American Athletic Conference Championship at Southern Hills Plantation April 22-24. The Bulls and Bergstrom are the defending team and individual champions and USF has won five AAC Championships since joining the conference in 2013.
NOTABLE
• Junior Albin Bergstrom currently has the Bulls’ best-ever career scoring average (70.26), more than a stroke better than Chase Koepka’s previous mark of 71.53.
• Bergstrom’s 69.23 season scoring average is on pace to break his own USF record of 70.00 set in 2018-19.
• Bergstrom reached as high as the No. 4 ranking in early March and currently sits at No. 21. Chase Koepka owns the USF record of a No. 11 final season national scorer rating.
• Bergstrom is the highest ranked player the American Athletic Conference and third in the state of Florida.
• Bergstrom has 27 par or better rounds on the year and 83 on his career, setting a USF career mark and season record.
• Bergstrom also owns USF career records for scoring average (70.45), tournament low round (63, 2019-20), tournament low round to par (-9, 2019-20), tournament low 36-hole total (133, -11, 2018-19), and is second in wins (3) and low 54-hole total (201, -11, 2018-19).
About USF Men’s Golf
USF men’s golf program has captured 17 conference titles, including in 2021, and have seen players earn 19 All-America honors. The Bulls have won five of the last six American Athletic Conference Tournament championships in wire-to-wire fashion, winning four-consecutive from 2015-18. The Bulls have had four individual conference champions, including Albin Bergstrom in 2021, and gone on to earn eight straight NCAA Regionals appearances, including a 6th place finish in NCAA Championship match-play in 2015. USF is led by Steve Bradley, who has been named American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year five times since taking over the program in 2014. The Bulls have posted 20 tournament wins under Bradley entering the 2021-22 season, by far the most under any coach in program history.
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