Tigers tie record for same-year selections
AUBURN – The Arnold Palmer Cup matches in June will have a decided Auburn look.
Four Tigers – Anna Davis, Carson Bacha, Josiah Gilbert and Jackson Koivun – will represent Team USA in the 2025 Arnold Palmer Cup, the Palmer Foundation announced Tuesday. The 2025 Palmer Cup is set for June 5-7 at Congaree Golf Club in Ridgeland, South Carolina.
Men’s head coach Nick Clinard will lead the United States side as one of its two head coaches.
Auburn’s four invitees tie the record for most same-year selections to Team USA from a single school in Palmer Cup history. The feat had only been accomplished twice prior, first by Vanderbilt in 2019 and then by Stanford in 2022.
Sophomore Anna Davis receives an invitation for the second straight year. Her selection marks the sixth time an Auburn women’s golfer has been chosen to participate in the event. Davis won the Charles Schwab Women’s Collegiate Invitational in March with a 54-hole score of 201 (-9), which set the record for lowest in program history. She also claimed the individual title at the Illini Invitational at Medinah in October and has been named SEC Player of the Week three times this season.
Last season, the sophomore was named a WGCA All-American and All-Freshman. She also claimed medalist honors at the NCAA Auburn Regional. At the age of 16, Davis won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur prior to her time on the Plains.
Like Davis, Koivun will play for second consecutive summer. At the 2024 Palmer Cup, Koivun and Davis led the Americans to their first victory on European soil in six years. Following a vote from his peers, Koivun received an exemption into the 2025 Arnold Palmer Invitional at Bay Hill, where he made the cut and finished inside the top 50, shooting 72-72-75-75 (+6).
While representing the Tigers this season, the sophomore has earned nine top-20 finishes in 11 starts, including top-five finishes in four of his last five appearances. At the 2025 SEC Championship, Koivun became the first man in 49 years to repeat as medalist in back-to-back seasons. A 12-under final score solidified his place as the first men’s golfer in program history to capture the conference’s individual crown multiple times.
Fresh off a 9-under, third-place finish at the SEC Championship, Bacha earns his first selection to a Palmer Cup team. The senior from York, Pennsylvania has pieced together a masterful final run at Auburn, earning five top-three results and a career-best 70.09 scoring average.
Bacha is the only player on the Auburn roster to appear in all 12 team events this season. He was the squad’s low scorer at the Eastlake Cup, Amer Ari Invitational and Southern Highlands Collegiate.
Gilbert earns his first Palmer Cup Selection. The Queensland, Australia, native recently elected to play in the U.S. system for the remainder of his playing career. Prattville is his new designated hometown.
As a sophomore, Gilbert has been a steady force in the Tigers’ lineup all season. He began the year with his first career individual win at the Valero Texas Collegiate thanks to a 54-hole score of 12-under 204. Since the Valero, he’s rattled off six more top-20 performances, highlighted by a pair of third-place finishes at the Williams Cup and the General Hackler Championship.
At last week’s SEC Championship, Gilbert fired off rounds of 64-70-70 to finish 11th at 6-under-par.
The Arnold Palmer Cup was co-founded by Arnold Palmer and the Golf Coaches Association of America and began at the Bay Hill Club & Lodge, Orlando in 1997. The event is a Ryder Cup-style tournament featuring the top men’s and women’s college golfers matching the United States against a team of international players. The United States leads the Palmer Cup series 14-12-1.
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Featured image of Carson Bacha courtesy of Auburn Athletics
