Yates named '99 Walker Cup captain

FAR HILLS, N.J. -- Danny Yates of Atlanta, Ga., who played on the U.S. Walker Cup team in 1989 and 1993, has been named as captain of the United States team for 1999. This year's Walker Cup Match is set for Sept. 11-12 at Nairn Golf Club in Nairn, Scotland.

The two Walker Cup teams on which Yates played had mixed results, losing in 1989 but winning in 1993.

Two teams of male amateur golfers, one from the U.S. and the other from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales contest the Walker Cup Match every two years, alternately in the United States and Great Britain/Ireland. The teams consist of not more than 10 players.

Peter McEvoy, 45, a two-time British Amateur champion (1977 and 1978) and five-time Walker Cup player was just named as captain of the Great Britain and Ireland team.

The 48-year-old Yates continues to be one of the best amateur golfers in the U.S. He won the 1992 U.S. Mid-Amateur championship and was runner-up in the 1988 U.S. Amateur. As a result of those finishes, he was invited to play in the 1989 and 1993 Masters Tournaments. In all, he has played in nearly 40 USGA championships, including one U.S. Open, in 1971, where he made the 36-hole cut. He has qualified for 16 U.S. Amateurs and 17 U.S. Mid-Amateurs.

An insurance agency executive, Yates learned to love the game of golf from his father, Dan, and uncle, Charlie, who won the 1938 British Amateur and played on the Walker Cup team in 1936 and 1938. All three are Georgia State Amateur champions. Danny won the Georgia Amateur in 1977, 1989 and 1996, becoming one of only two players to win the title in each of three decades.

His accomplishments haven't gone unnoticed. He has been the state's Player of the Year four times (1989, 1993, 1995 and 1996), and he's a member of the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame and the Southern Golf Association Hall of Fame.

Yates is a 1972 graduate of the University of Georgia. He is married to the former Lois Miner. They have two children: Maggie, 20, and Daniel, 19.

TRW