Shaw shines in 'student Ryder Cup'
Gareth Shaw continued his collegiate golfing duties a little further into the summer last week when the Irish golfer represented Europe against the United States in the Palmer Cup, the student version of the Ryder Cup.
The annual event, which this year took place in Maryland, matches teams of collegians from both sides of the Atlantic but whereas the Americans cannot seem to win the real thing, their student brethren showed a clean pair of heels to the Europeans.
US dominance in the two singles sessions saw them complete an 18-6 rout at Caves Valley Golf Club, their sixth victory in the event, which has seen Europe win four and one tie.
Europe had begun the competition in flying fashion by winning three of the four fourball matches in the opening session with Lisburn golfer Shaw and his East Tennessee State University teammate Rhys Davies posting a tournament-record 9 & 7 victory over Luke List and Jamie Lovemark, the newly-crowned NCAA champion, in the first match of the day.
Shaw, like Davies on the provisional GB&I Walker Cup panel, carded nine birdies in total while Davies posted four but the European dominance was short-lived.
The USA team swept the afternoon singles matches to take a 9-3 lead, the first singles sweep in the 11-year history of the event.
Shaw led for nine of the first 15 holes of his rubber with Billy Horschel and was even 2-up after the 12th hole, but the American came from behind to win the final three holes and defeat the Irishman 2-up.
The second day saw the US hammer home their advantage, claiming three of the four foursomes matches to extend its lead to 12-4, with Davies and Shaw unable to repeat their heroics of the day before, losing the final match of the session 2 & 1 to Dustin Johnson and Chris Kirk.
That left the Americans needing just one-half point to clinch the matches in the afternoon, while Europe needed a sweep of the afternoon singles session to retain the cup. It was not to be, with the Americans taking six of the eight final session singles matches, Shaw losing out to Brian Harman 1-up.
