Former UGA star Brown heads Georgia Golf Hall of Fame class
Newnan’s Louis Brown, an all-SEC player at the University of Georgia and the 2024 U.S. Senior Amateur champion, headlines the newest class of inductees for the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame.
Brown is joined in the Class of 2026 by adaptive golf pioneer Frank Culpepper of Valdosta, Hugh Royer III of Columbus, and Dave Van Horn, founder of U.S. Kids Golf.
Royer joins his father, Hugh Royer Jr., in the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame, to become the fourth father-son duo in the Hall of Fame. He joins Davis Love Jr. and Davis Love III, George Sargent, Harold Sargent and Jack Sargent, and P. Dan Yates Jr. and Danny Yates.
The four will be inducted at ceremonies to be held this spring at the Atlanta Athletic Club. Their inclusion will bring the total number of Georgia Golf Hall of Fame members to 143.
“I grew up in the Atlanta area and my first tournament was a GSGA Junior Sectional tournament in Carrollton when I was 10,” said Brown, 63. “This is an opportunity to reflect on all those years and appreciate that we can keep going when we get older. This is quite an honor.”
Brown was runner-up at the 1981 Georgia Junior and that summer reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Junior Am. He lettered four years at Georgia and was named All-SEC in 1983 and 1985, was honorable mention All-America in 1984 and team captain in 1985.
Brown won the Georgia Amateur Championship in 1985 after finishing second in 1982 and 1984.
He turned professional and competed around the world. He won the 1987 Georgia Open and the 1998 Atlanta Open. His best finish in nine PGA Tour events was ninth at the 1991 Buick Southern Open.
Brown regained his amateur status and went on to find success again as a senior. He teamed with Mark Strickland to win the 2008 Georgia Four-Ball Championship and won the 2020 Georgia Senior Championship.
In 2024, he won the U.S. Senior Amateur to become the fifth Georgian to hold the title. This summer, he reached match play at the U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship but lost in the first round to a competitor nearly 30 years younger.
Culpepper was a baseball star who lost the lower portion of his right arm to an accident at a paper mill when he was 22. He began playing golf in 1968 while on a missionary trip to New Zealand, where he developed his own prosthetic device to attach a golf club.
He won the Georgia State Amputee Golf Tournament nine times, the Southeastern Amputee Golf Association championship nine times and won 13 times on the National Amputee Golf Association circuit. At age 60, he qualified for the U.S. Senior Amateur Championship. Culpepper died in 2023.
Royer played two seasons at Mississippi State, where he won a tournament and led the team in stroke average, before transferring back home to Columbus State. He won the 1985 NCAA Division II national championship and was named to the All-America team.
Royer won the Georgia Amateur and Southeastern Amateur in 1986. He underwent open heart surgery in 1987 and recovered in time to win the Azalea Amateur and Western Amateur, as well as finish second at the Georgia Am.
Royer turned professional in 1987 and spent six years on the South African Tour. He returned home to play on the Nike Tour (now the Korn Ferry Tour) and won four times before earning his PGA Tour card. He had four top-10 finishes on the Tour from 1996 to 1998.
After his playing days were over, Royer turned to golf instruction, spending time at golf academies in Columbus, Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head.
Van Horn, a native of Tennessee, moved to Duluth in 1994. The following year, he designed a set of golf clubs specifically for juniors and founded U.S. Kids Golf in 1996. The company began distributing clubs in 1997 and has become the world’s leading provider of golf equipment and services for young golfers.
About the Author
Stan Awtrey has been covering sports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 1977. He currently writes about high school sports, Georgia State University athletics and golf.
