NORMAN, Okla. – For the second straight year, ETSU senior Adrian Meronk was selected to the European Palmer Cup Team as the squads were announced Friday morning on Golf Channel’s Morning Drive.
The annual Ryder Cup-style competition will be played June 24-26 at Formby Golf Club in Formby, England.
Both teams are made up of nine golfers – six of whom are chosen based off the Arnold Palmer Cup Rankings. Meronk earned his spot on the team by finishing in the top six of the Palmer Rankings. Using Golfstat’s NCAA Player Ranking as a base, the Arnold Palmer Cup Ranking awards bonus points for wins and high finishes and a negative bonus for poor finishes. The ranking also contains a strength-of-schedule component.
This season, Meronk has eight top-10 finishes and earned a win at the 2015 Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate, becoming just the second Buccaneer golfer to win the tournament. The Wroclaw, Poland, native has also earned a pair of runner-up honors (Seminole Intercollegiate and Greenbrier Invitational), while receiving Southern Conference Golfer of the Month honors in March. Meronk is currently ranked No. 21 via Golfstat and leads the team with a 71.00 scoring average. Meronk has also posted 10 rounds in the 60s and 20 of his 33 rounds played have been of par or better.
The other five golfers to earn a spot on the European Team via the ranking were Sam Horsfield of Florida (England), Vanderbilt’s Matthias Schwab (Austria), Lars van Meijel of Memphis (Netherlands), Augusta’s Robin Petersson (Sweden) and David Boote of Stanford (Wales). Committee selections were Maynooth’s Stuart Grehan and Antoine Rozner of UMKC. Mathias Eggenberger of Stirling (Switzerland) qualified for Team Europe by winning The R&A Foundation Scholars Tournament. Robin Sciot-Siegrist of Louisville was Janice Moodie’s coach’s pick.
Meronk made his Palmer Cup debut a year ago and won three of his matches – including a win over Stanford’s Maverick McNealy in singles play. McNealy was named Golfer of the Year last season.
Meronk is one of three golfers from Team Europe returning from last year’s squad that fell to the United States, 18-12.
Charlie Danielson of Illinois, LSU’s Zach Wright, Rico Hoey of Southern California, Auburn’s Michael Johnson, Nahum Mendoza III of San Diego State and McNealy were the six United States players selected by the Arnold Palmer Cup Ranking. Derek Bard of Virginia, Chico State’s Alistair Docherty and Will Zalatoris of Wake Forest were committee selections. Docherty was the designated non-Division I player. Will Gordon of Vanderbilt was Mike Cook’s coach’s pick.
Meronk is the sixth ETSU golfer to play in the Palmer Cup and it’s the 12th time the Buccaneers will be represented in the tournament. The other five ETSU golfers to have been in the Palmer Cup are Keith Nolan (1997), Chris Wisler (2000-01), Rhys Davies (2004-07), Gareth Shaw (2007-08) and Rhys Enoch (2010).