BASINGSTOKE’S Charlie Forster has been selected for the international team that will face America in next month’s Arnold Palmer Cup, the biggest team event in US college golf.
The in-form Long Beach State student is bidding to become the first Hampshire player to appear in the Walker Cup since Scott Gregory and Harry Ellis, who won Amateur Championships back-to-back in 2016 and 2017.
With two victories already this term Stateside, Forster is currently Great Britain and Ireland’s best-performing player on the world stage with the GB&I team set to face the USA in the Walker Cup in the Hampshire ace’s current adopted home in California in just over four months’ time.
Forster’s selection for June’s Arnold Palmer Cup is perfectly timed with that date at the iconic Cypress Point course on California’s Pacific coast in September firmly in his focus
The latest call-up is reward for the huge upward curve the 22-year-old Peter Symonds College graduate has been on since making his GB&I debut last summer in the St Andrews Trophy, followed a month later by his England debut in the Home Internationals, in August.
As well as a strong showing in the European Amateur Championship, Forster caught the GB&I selectors eye at June’s Amateur Championship, at Ireland’s famous Ballyliffin links, by knocking out Spain’s Joe Luis Ballester, who went on to be crowned US Amateur Champion last summer.
Charlie – who is currently 106th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings – is one of three top GB&I players selected for the match, who will be hoping to earn Walker Cup selection later this summer.
Forster made his debut in January’s Bonallack Trophy, when Europe lost narrowly to Asia, in the United Arab Emirates, becoming the firstHampshire golfer to appear in the biennial contest since Justin Rose appeared in the first back in 1997 – the year the North Hants junior became the youngest player ever selected for the Walker Cup.
The other Englishman in the International team is Suffolk’s Tyler Weaver, while Scotland’s Connor Graham is the only other member of last year’s St Andrews Trophy team that lost to Europe at Royal Porthcawl, selected to play at Congaree Golf Club in Ridgeland, South Carolina.
Florida State’s Lottie Woad, from Farnham, the No. 1 ranked woman in the amateur game, will also play for head coaches Stew Burke and Aaron O’Callaghan, who picked Graham for the team.
The legend of the game with the Arnold Palmer Cup named in his honour
The unique feature of the Arnold Palmer Cup is the top 12 female collegiate golfers will partner their male counterparts for both teams. Players representing a total of 14 countries make up the international team, while Forster becomes the first Long Beach State player to appear in the competition.
Unfortunately, the only downside to his Arnold Palmer Cup selection is that Forster will miss the St Andrews Links Trophy, at the Home of Golf, in early June, shortly after he is due back in the UK to compete in the final domestic tournaments that the Walker Cup selectors will be eyeing closely.
However, Forster, who moved to Long Beach in Los Angeles in 2023 after two years playing for Southeastern Louisiana, is his university’s first player to be called up for the Arnold Palmer Cup.
Charlie now joins Ellis and Brokenhurst Manor’s Martin Le Mesurier (1999) as the only other two Hampshires golfer to be selected to play in Arnie’s event, which was created while the legend of the game was still alive.
US stars who have played in the Arnold Palmer Cup include Bryson Dechambeau, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay, while the leading Europeans include US Open winners Jon Rahm and Graham McDowell, and European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald.
The first match between the US college team and their international counterparts who are studying in America, was played in 1997, at Bay Hill, the PGA Tour venue most closely associated with Arnie.
The United States leads the Palmer Cup series 15-12-1 – the 2025 tournament takes place at Congaree from June 5-7 – the week after the NCAA championship finals, which Long Beach will attempt to qualify for later this month, having been crowned Big West Conference Champions last week.
•You can see Harry Ellis interviewed by the Golf Channel in the build up to the 2017 Arnold Palmer Cup here.
Harry Ellis was selected for the 2017 Arnold Palmer Cup just a month before he played in The Open at Royal Birkdale, where he played a practice round with Justin Rose (right). Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES