SUGAR GROVE, Ill. (June 13, 2021) – When Trevor Norby arrived sight-unseen at Oklahoma Christian in 2018, few could have imagined what he'd achieve over the next three years for OC golf – five individual tournament wins, two team conference championships and two (soon to be three) All-America honors being among his many accomplishments.

He capped his OC experience – and his time as an amateur golfer – on Sunday by making another outstanding memory, celebrating as part of the winning U.S. team in the Arnold Palmer Cup at Rich Harvest Farms.

The U.S. squad of elite collegiate players finished off a 33-27 win over an International team that also included the best of the best collegians from the rest of the world who attend U.S. universities. It was the first win for the U.S. team since 2019 and it gave the Americans a 13-11-1 lead in the annual event.

Norby contributed the first point toward the U.S. overall score on Friday before falling in three close matches the rest of the weekend, including a tough 2-and-1 loss to Pontus Nyholm of Campbell in a singles match on Sunday. But Norby, the only male NCAA Division II player on the U.S. roster, said he learned a lot about himself during the Palmer Cup – namely, that he belonged and could play at the high level necessary to be competitive during the event.

"This was so much fun," Norby said. "To come out and represent the United States of America and hit the golf shots that I hit and execute when I needed to – I proved to myself that I'm going to be good enough. The experience of playing in the Arnold Palmer Cup is something I'm going to remember for the rest of my life. I had so much fun this week!

"It's been a very, very long road. But to end it with this exclamation point is something I will remember forever. It's a foundation that I can leap off of going into the future."

The competition in the Palmer Cup is fierce, as Norby experienced first-hand. A day after facing the No. 18 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, David Puig of Arizona State, in a mixed fourball match, Norby on Sunday took on another of the world's outstanding amateurs, No. 75-ranked Nyholm, who's from Sweden and was the Big South Conference player of the year at Campbell.

Norby took the early lead with a par on the par-4 No. 2, after Nyholm hit into a greenside bunker. But Nyholm answered with a 25-foot birdie putt on the par-3 No. 3 to even the match, then went 1-up with a birdie on the par-3 No. 5.

Norby tied the match on the par-4 No. 6, hitting his tee shot into the left rough but recovering to save par, while Nyholm found a greenside bunker after his tee shot also went into the rough and made bogey. Norby's approach shot on the par-4 No. 9 landed four feet from the hole and he converted for birdie, but Nyholm answered with a 10-foot birdie putt of his own.

The match remained tied until the par-4 No. 12, when a risk by Nyholm paid off. He aimed his tee shot over a group of tall trees on the angled hole and ended up with a second shot from just feet off the green. That resulted in an easy birdie putt to put him ahead.

On the par-3 No. 13, both players hit into the same front greenside bunker. Nyholm, playing first, nearly holed out, hitting the pin with his chip and giving him an easy par putt, which Norby conceded before making a pressure-packed 5-foot par putt.

Nyholm yanked his tee shot on the par-4 No. 14 so badly it landed on the No. 13 tee box, but that proved fortuitous for him, as he had a perfect angle to the No. 14 green for his second shot. Norby missed a 25-foot birdie putt just inches to the right of the hole that would have tied the match.

Norby's tee shot on the par-3 No. 16 landed only six feet from the hole while Nyholm was 50 feet out and two-putted. Norby's birdie putt grazed the right edge of the hole and rolled away and he did well to save par.

Nyholm caught yet another break on the par-4 No. 17. His tee shot found a deep grassy area to the right of the fairway, but his ball's lie was good, allowing him to punch out, then hit an easy approach shot to the green and eventually recorded a bogey.

Norby, from the fairway, sailed his second shot over the green, under trees and in an area with wood chips. It took him two more shots to get onto the green, and even then, his chip sailed well past the hole and his long par putt was unsuccessful, giving him a double bogey. Nyholm made his four-foot bogey putt to close the match.

A pro golf career awaits for Norby, who will play in a qualifier for the Texas State Open on Tuesday in Flower Mound, Texas. He hopes to follow in the path of another OC golf legend, Rhein Gibson, who now is in his second stint on the PGA Tour. It's a different path than Norby imagined when he started his college career six years ago at San Diego State, but it's worked so far for him.

"It was a leap of faith to come to OC, that's for sure," he said. "I had a really, really good friend, Casey Rebmann, who was there and he talked you guys up. He was not lying at all. It's a great program and a great school and I'm proud to call myself an Eagle!"