Yorkshire golf: White Rose duo Dan Brown and James Walker named in initial Walker Cup squad

The eventual 12-man line-up will face the United States of America at Los Angeles Country Club over the weekend of September 9-10.

GB&I, under captain Craig Watson, will be looking to retain the trophy after a record 16½-9½ victory over the USA at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 2015.

Watson, who will captain the GB&I Walker Cup team for the first time, said, “We have identified a strong group of players who are all in contention for a place on the team and we will be monitoring their performance and results over the coming season.

“We will also pay close attention to the progress and form of players who have not been included in this current squad as they also have the opportunity to play their way into contention for the team selected to play the USA in September.”

Brown and the 2016 Amateur champion Scott Gregory (Corhampton) lead a strong English contingent, which also includes current Lytham Trophy champion Alfie Plant - runner-up to Sheffielder Joe Dean in the 2015 English amateur championship at Alwoodley - Walker, Bradley Moore (Kedleston Park) and Marco Penge (Golf at Goodwood).

Robert MacIntyre (Glencruitten), runner-up to Gregory in the final of the Amateur at Royal Porthcawl, joins Craig Howie (Peebles), Sandy Scott (Nairn) and Connor Syme (Drumoig), his team-mates in Scotland’s successful defence of the 2016 European Amateur Team Championship, in the squad alongside compatriots Barry Hume (Haggs Castle) and Craig Ross (Kirkhill). Hume is a reinstated amateur following a spell in the professional ranks.

Warrenpoint's Colm Campbell, the current Irish Amateur Open champion, is joined by Paul McBride (The Island, Dublin), Conor O’Rourke (Naas) and R&A Foundation scholars Alex Gleeson (Castle, Dublin) and Stuart Grehan (Tullamore) from Ireland.

Gleeson is the Irish Amateur Close champion, while O’Rourke triumphed in the St Andrews Links Trophy last season. Grehan and McBride were team-mates for Ireland at last year’s World Amateur Team Championships in Mexico and won a bronze medal in the Eisenhower Trophy.

Two Welshmen have been selected for the squad: David Boote (Walton Heath) and Owen Edwards (Llanwern). Stanford University graduate Boote excelled for GB&I against the Continent of Europe in the St Andrews Trophy and made significant contributions to the winning European teams in the Sir Michael Bonallack Trophy and the Arnold Palmer Cup.

English men's amateur champion Brown and Walker, the Selborne Salver holder, will also head to South Africa next month as part of a four-strong England squad where they will hope to follow in the footsteps of former Yorkshire team-mate Jamie Bower.

Brown, Walker, Josh Hilleard, from Farrington Park, Somerset, and Southport & Ainsdale's Sean Towndrow will play in four tournaments - the South African stroke play championship, at Kingswood Golf Estate (February 7-10), the Cape Province Open, at George GCand Oubaai GC, February 14-16, the South African Amateur, at Humewood Golf Club, Port Elizabeth, February 19-24, and the African Amateur stroke play championship, at Leopard Creek Golf Estate, from February 28 to March 3.

Last year Bower - who recently turned professional - won both the Southern Cape Open and Gauteng North Open while touring South Africa with the national squad, and went on to win the Brabazon Trophy, the English stroke play championship.