Still All Square at the Irish

American and European teams go into day two tied 6-6.

Cal Smith

Haven, Wis. - As it turns out, the second round of the Palmer Cup presented by Monster served no other purpose than to make sure we get to have some drama tomorrow. After day one, we're no closer to finding a winner than we were two days ago when Coach Mayer was just trying to get the players into the right time zone. We could have just all slept in and NOT gotten rained on, but I suppose that wouldn't have been as much fun and not near as many pointless awards would have been handed out by distinguished web sites such as the one in which you are currently enthralled. When the day concluded, each team had grabbed two points in the four-ball competition and four more in the individual matches.

The first match set the afternoon off in great fashion as Rhys Davies of Europe and Spencer Levin halved their match after Rhys led going to 18. Spencer knocked down a pressure birdie putt to tie the match up after trailing for most of the afternoon. Matt Every broke into the winner's circle next for the Americans, defeating David Skinns for his first Palmer Cup victory in two years. John Holmes and Michael Putnam each also picked up a point for the Americans while Alex Norén, Alejandro Cañizares and Kalle Edberg did the same for the Europeans.

The remaining match gets the distinguished nod for Match of the Round. Jeff Overton represented the U.S. while his counterpart from Europe was Pablo Martin. Jeff took an early lead in the match, leading by two after eight holes. Pablo roared back to take a stroke lead in the middle of the back nine. Jeff brought the match back to all-squared only to be taken over once again on No. 16. After the back and forth battle, Jeff was able to birdie the last hole to the sheer jubilation of his teammates to tie the match and earn half a point for his team.

Cal 's bi-daily (Un)official Shot of the Round goes to the shot that closed the round in the afternoon. Apparently Kalle Edberg didn't feel like playing anymore. He stood on the 17th green eyeing a 30-foot birdie put that could end the day. The hump in between him and the hole made putt-putt look like, well…mini putt-putt. Kalle wasn't too worried about it as he stroked his putt perfectly and was rewarded with the bottom of the cup and the 18th hole off as that was all he needed to defeat Roberto Castro. In review of the shot, our committee unanimously decided he deserved more than that. This is Kalle's first (Un)official Award. Enjoy it my friend.

Finally we are on to our daily Most Valuable Golfers for both teams. We don't succumb to pressure to use traditional awards. We don't support MVPs around here. We're all about MVGs. These men exemplify what exactly it means to be a good golfer. They have low scores and…well…low scores. Day number one's MVG for the American team is John Holmes. Today he won both his four-ball match (with teammate Spencer Levin) and his individual match, accounting for a third of the U.S. point total. Europe 's MVG is the one and only Alejandro Cañizares. Alejandro set two records today as he is now the winningest Palmer Cup player in history, as well as the leader in career points earned at eight. Those feats plus his 2-0 record today makes him the obvious MVG today.

Okay, the last 24 hours in 24 seconds… John Holmes hits far, Spencer likes the beach (but only for a short time), Mike Mayer is the man, the only way Jeff and Pablo are going to find a winner is to settle it in the parking lot, I don't like to be wet, Alejandro is good, Kalle can putt, and my truck gets terrible gas mileage. Thank you and goodnight.