Coach Michael Beard of the Pepperdine men’s golf team has been named help lead Team USA in the 27th Arnold Palmer Cup next year at Laurel Valley Golf Club in Ligonier, Pa.
Beard will coach the U.S. team along with Derek Radley of Oregon, while Golda Borst of Sweden and Kentucky will lead the International team along with John Handrigan of Canada and Notre Dame.
“The selection to lead Team USA at the 2023 Arnold Palmer Cup is a well-deserved honor for Michael and our men’s golf program,” Pepperdine Athletics Director Steve Potts said. “Michael is one of the finest collegiate golf coaches in the country and I am confident he will serve with distinction in this prestigious international event.”
The Ryder Cup-style competition features top men’s and women’s college golfers from the United States against their International counterparts and will be played June 8-10, 2023. The Arnold Palmer Cup began as a men’s event in 1997 and women were added to the competition in 2018.
The USA leads the all-time series 13-12-1, but the Internationals claimed a 33-27 victory earlier this year at Golf Club de Genève in Vandoeuvres, Geneva, Switzerland.
Beard, who is in his 11th season as head coach of the Pepperdine’s men’s team, led the Waves to the 2021 NCAA Championship, their first since 1997, and was selected as the Dave Williams National Coach of the Year in 2020.
Since Beard became head coach of the Waves during the 2012-13 campaign, Pepperdine has won 19 tournaments and had 21 medalists, including five West Coast Conference team titles and had four WCC individual champions.
During that time, Beard has been named WCC Men’s Coach of the year six times and was chosen West Region Coach of the Year twice by the Golf Coaches Association of America.
Eight different Waves have been named All-Americans during that time, and Sahith Theegala, who now plays on the PGA Tour, was the unanimous National Player of the Year in 2020, winning the Fred Haskins, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus awards.
Beard is a native of Palm Desert who played at Pepperdine from 1999 and 2002, when he received PING All-American honorable mention twice, and earned four straight All-WCC first team honors while winning the 2000 NCAA West Regional and 2022 WCC Championship.
After graduating, Beard played professional golf for several years before retiring and becoming an assistant coach at Pepperdine in 2010-11.
