Nick Clinard (Auburn Athletics Photo)

Head coaches have been named for the 2025 Arnold Palmer Cup at Congaree Golf Club. Kalen Anderson of South Carolina and Nick Clinard of Auburn will be Team USA co-head coaches, while Scotland’s Stew Burke and Ireland’s Aaron O’Callaghan will lead Team International. The Ryder Cup-style competition, which features men’s and women’s collegiate golfers from the United States versus their International counterparts, will be played June 5-7. USA leads the all-time series 15-12-1.

Hired as head coach in January 2008, Anderson has transformed South Carolina into a national powerhouse, earning four consecutive No. 1 NCAA Regional seeds, winning five NCAA Regional titles since 2010, and qualifying for the NCAA Championship in 12 of the past 14 seasons. The Gamecocks have won 28 tournaments under Anderson, including the ANNIKA Intercollegiate this fall, and have earned 48 WGCA All-America honors by 15 different players.

The 2024 Southeastern Conference (SEC) Coach of the Year, Anderson’s 2023-24 team set the program record for an 18-hole single-season scoring average (286.73), with 2024 Palmer Cup alumnae Hannah Darling and Louise Rydqvist earning WGCA Honorable Mention and First Team All-America honors, respectively.

Rydqvist was also named SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year and became the first South Carolina golfer to receive the WGCA’s Edith Cummings Munson Golf Award, an annual honor given to the top student-athlete on and off the course in NCAA Division I women’s golf.

With 105 SEC Honor Roll recognitions, 70 WGCA All-American Scholars, 29 All-SEC selections, and four SEC Scholar Athletes of the Year, Anderson has been named SEC Coach of the Year four times (2015, 2021-22, 2024) and was the 2022 WGCA Golf Pride South Region Coach of the Year. Darling (2024), Rydqvist (2024), Ana Peláez Triviño (2021), Pauline Roussin-Bouchard (2020-21), Lois Kaye Go (2019), and Ainhoa Olarra (2018) have made Palmer Cup appearances under Anderson at South Carolina.

An Edina, Minn., native, Anderson joined the staff of Duke’s Hall of Fame head coach Dan Brooks in the spring of 2006 and helped the Blue Devils to their second-straight national title. Duke went on to add a third title in 2007 and claimed back-to-back Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Championships in her time on staff. Anderson saw four Blue Devils earn All-America status in 2006, including three first-team selections.

Earning 1998 ACC co-Rookie of the Year honors and recording 16 career top-10 finishes playing at Duke, Anderson helped the Blue Devils to their first national title in 1999. She was a three-time All-ACC selection and 2000 second-team All-American before graduating with a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a certificate in markets and management in 2001.

Clinard is in his 16th season as head coach at Auburn, where his Tigers finished inside the top three in all five tournaments this fall and won the East Lake Cup. The Gastonia, N.C., native orchestrated one of the best seasons in men’s college golf history in 2023-24, winning their final seven tournaments and 10 of their 13 total.

Led by 2024 Palmer Cup alumni and PING First-Team All-Americans Jackson Koivun and Brendan Valdes, the Tigers captured their first national championship and fifth SEC title while Koivun became the only golfer to win the Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, and Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Awards in the same season.

Clinard earned SEC Coach of the Year and Dave Williams National Coach of the Year honors while assistant (now associate head) coach and Chris Williams, a 2011 and 2012 Palmer Cup alumnus, was named Jan Strickland Outstanding Assistant Coach.

Since he was hired in 2009, Clinard has accumulated a program-record 55 tournament wins, 18 All-Americans, 26 GCAA All-America Scholars, 45 All-SEC selections, and 11 NCAA Championship appearances. Koivun (2024), Valdes (2024), Jovan Rebula (2018), Michael Johnson (2016), and Blayne Barber (2011-12) made Palmer Cup appearances while playing for Clinard at Auburn. Clinard spent eight seasons as head coach at UCF (2001-09), winning 11 tournaments. His Knights won four times in 2008-09, including the program’s first Conference USA Championship and the 2009 NCAA Southeast Regional.

Clinard was named 2009 Conference USA Coach of the Year and 2009 Eaton/Golf Pride Southeast Region Coach of the Year. His 66 career tournament victories are the second-most by an active Division I men’s coach behind 2003 and 2015 Palmer Cup head coach Bruce Heppler. Clinard graduated from Wake Forest University in 1995 with a bachelor's degree in speech communication.

He played one year of collegiate golf at SMU before playing his final three years at Wake Forest from 1992-95, where the Demon Deacons were ranked in the top 10 in the nation all three seasons. Clinard played professional golf for five seasons on the NGA Hooters Tour as well as several Nike Tour and Canadian Tour events from 1996-2001 prior to becoming head coach of UCF.

A 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup Team International Assistant Coach, Burke is in his second season as Kansas State’s head coach. The Wildcats tallied four top-five finishes this fall, including a victory in the season-opening Powercat Invitational, and enter 2025 ranked 30th by Scoreboard powered by Clippd National Rankings.

Hired on June 30, 2023, Burke’s Wildcats surpassed their previous single-season team scoring average record by over six shots (290.25) in 2023-24, highlighted by their first tournament victory (White Sands Invitational) since 2019 and Kansas State’s highest finish in a conference championship (third at the 2024 Big 12 Championship). 2023 and 2024 Palmer Cup alumna Carla Bernat broke the single-season scoring average school record by almost two shots (70.90) en route to becoming Kansas State’s first All-American (WGCA Second Team).

Burke, the 2022 American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, previously spent four seasons as the head coach at Tulane. He improved the Green Waves’ national ranking by more than 50 spots from the time he took over. The Bridge of Weir, Scotland, native also led the Green Wave to the 2022 AAC Conference Championship, earning a berth into the NCAA Stillwater Regional. Before following Burke to Kansas State, Bernat earned AAC Women’s Golfer of the Year, First Team All-AAC, and Second Team All-America honors in 2023.

Burke originally joined K-State in the spring of 2014 and worked in Manhattan through the fall of 2016, helping the Wildcats post its top two stroke average marks in school history in consecutive seasons. He then served parts of three seasons as the associate head coach at USC before taking over the Tulane program in the fall of 2019, ​​helping guide the Trojans to 14 team victories, including the 2019 Pac-12 Championship and 2019 NCAA West Regional, and consecutive appearances in the NCAA Championship Semifinals (2017 and 2018).

Burke played collegiately at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri, where he graduated with a degree in sports management in 2007. He obtained a master’s degree in educational, school and counseling psychology with an emphasis in positive coaching from the University of Missouri in 2019, and he is working on another master’s degree in sports studies.

A 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup Team International Assistant Coach, O’Callaghan was named head coach at East Tennessee State on June 10, 2024. The Cork, Ireland, native guided the Buccaneers to top-15 finishes in all five fall tournaments and were led by two-time Southern Conference Golfer of the Week Kristian Bressum. O’Callaghan spent the last six seasons as the associate head coach at Wake Forest.

The Demon Deacons secured 15 tournament wins, appeared in all five NCAA Regionals (2020 was canceled due to COVID), and advanced to four NCAA Championships. Wake Forest won at least one tournament each season, including the 2022 NCAA New Haven Regional and 2022 ACC Championship. The Demon Deacons won five times in O’Callaghan’s first season, the most by a Wake Forest team since 1983-84.

Wake Forest was ranked in the top five nationally for the majority of the campaign, while the Demon Deacons advanced to match play at the NCAA Championship for the first time in program history. Wake Forest also broke the school record for top scoring average by over four shots per round. O’Callaghan saw seven Demon Deacons account for 11 All-American honors, while he also had 11 All-ACC selections and 14 ACC All-academic selections.

Prior to Wake Forest, O’Callaghan spent four years at Louisville as an assistant coach and associate head coach. O’Callaghan helped the Cardinals to four team victories, three NCAA Regional appearances, and a 14th-place finish at the 2016 NCAA Championship. Among the players he coached at UL was two-time ACC Champion and 2016 Palmer Cup alumnus Robin Sciot-Siegrist.

As a player, O’Callaghan was an elite junior player in his native Ireland. He won the 2004 Irish Boys U18 Championship and was the recipient of the 2003-04 Jacques Leglise Trophy and 2005 Ireland Junior Sports Star of the Year. He represented Ireland in European and international competitions between 2001-07, including on the Great Britain and Ireland boys team. O’Callaghan played collegiate golf at Southeastern Louisiana from 2005-09, winning twice and earning first-team All-Southland Conference accolades in 2007.

For more information about the Palmer Cup, visit arnoldpalmercup.com.