Thursday, June 07, 2007

OWINGS MILLS, MD. (June 7, 2007) - As Europe won three of four matches to take a 3-1 lead after the opening four-ball session at the Palmer Cup presented by Monster at Caves Valley Golf Club Thursday morning, it was ETSU's former standout Rhys Davies (Bridgend, Wales) and risng senior Gareth Shaw (Lisburn, Northern Ireland) that turned the most heads as they teamed up to take on American stars Luke List and Jamiie Lovemark.

Davies and Shaw combined to post a tournament record 9 and 7 victory in the first match of the day, setting the tone for a European dominated first round. However, the United States team battled back in the singles matches during the afternoon, sweeping all eight of those pairings to take a 9-3 team lead heading into tomorrow ‘s final day of play.

 "There were great matches this morning," said European Head Coach Chris van der Velde. "Rhys Davies is our strongest player and Gareth Shaw said to me after their match that after Rhys birdied the first two holes he didn't want to be left out of the match. Gareth went on to birdie three, four, five, six, seven and nine. Anytime you can start a match by winning 9 and 7, it sends a message to the rest of the team and lets them know they can go for it."

Teammates at East Tennessee State, Davies and Shaw used a barrage of birdies to take control of their match against List and Lovemark. The Europeans birdied the first seven holes to race to a 6-up lead and then birdied Nos. 9-11 for the record breaking victory - bettering the old mark of 8 and 6 posted twice by the Euros in 2004 at Ballybunion. Shaw posted nine birdies while Davies carded four.
        
            Third round play will begin Friday morning with foursome matches, followed by another round of singles matches in the fourth and final round. For more on the Palmer Cup, visit CollegiateGolf.com and click on the Palmer Cup banner.