STEVE SCOTT, runner-up to Tiger Woods in an epic US Amateur final last year, is among eight players named yesterday on the American side for the Walker Cup matches at Quaker Ridge, New York, on August 9th and 10th. The remaining two members will be announced in July.
The 19-year-old from Coral Springs, Florida, will be joined by three USGA champions. Most familiar of them is Jerry Courville, who was beaten both by Padraig Harrington and Jody Fanagan in singles matches in 1995 at Royal Porthcawl. He was US Mid-Amateur champion in 1995. Another member of the defeated team at Porthcawl, John Harris, was US Amateur champion in 1993, while Chris Wollmann, the 1995 US Public Links champion, is a newcomer to the side. Other new caps are Duke Delcher (Hilton Head Island), Brad Elder (Overland Park), Joel Kribel (Pleasanton) and Randy Leen (Dayton).
Scott, now a student at the University of Florida, had an apparently unassailable five-hole lead at one stage of the 1996 US Amateur final. But Woods rallied brilliantly, eventually drawing level with birdies at the 35th and 36th, before capturing the title for a record third successive year with a par on the 38th.
Harris (45), played in the 1993 matches at Interlachen where he had singles victories over Bradley Dredge and Ian Pyman. Wollmann (22), qualified for this month's US Open at Congressional, while Delcher (41), was twice a quarter- finalist in the US Amateur.
Elder (20), received the Jack Nicklaus Award as the 1997 college Player of the Year; Kribel (20), won the Western Amateur last year, when he also reached the semi-finals of the US Amateur, and Leen (21), was the low amateur in the 1996 US Open at Oakland Hills.
