SPIDER MILLER NAMED USA WALKER CUP CAPTAIN FOR 2015 AT ROYAL LYTHAM

FROM THE GOLFWEEK WEBSITE
By RON BALICKI
For more than a dozen years, the name John “Spider” Miller has been absent within the national amateur circles.
After winning his second U.S. Mid-Amateur title in 1998, Miller pretty much dropped out of sight, focussing his time on his family and his beer distributor business in Bloomington, Indiana.
That is about to change. Miller will soon be back in the limelight of amateur golf in America and will stay there for a while.
Even though the 2013 Walker Cup is still two months away -- September 7-8 at National Golf Links of America in Southampton, N.Y. -- and the 10-man U.S. team has yet to be named, the 2015 captaincy of the U.S. Walker Cup team is now in place.
Miller has been selected to follow current captain Jim Holtgrieve and lead the American side against Great Britain and Ireland when the 2015 matches take place September12-13 at Royal Lytham and St. Annes Golf Club, Lancashire.
“I’m as excited as I can be,” Miller, 63, said of his appointment. “For an amateur golfer, being Walker Cup captain is the ultimate. It’s one of the highest honours and I’m very humbled. This is something you always hope for, but you never really know if it will ever happen.
“I know I have a lot of work in front of me, but I’m really looking forward to it,” Miller said. “These next few years are going to be an exciting time in my life.”
Miller, who attended the 2011 Walker Cup in Ireland and plans to be present at this year’s matches as well, said he will keep a pretty low profile until this year’s competition is finished, but he’ll start talking to, and picking the brains, of some former U.S. captains.
“I’m pretty good friends with Downing (Gray, captain 1995 and ‘97), Bob (Lewis, 2003 and '05), Buddy (Marucci, 2007 and ‘09) and Jim (Holtgrieve (2011 and ‘13) so I’ll definitely be reaching out to them,” Miller said. “Hopefully they’ll tell me what worked for them and what didn’t work and help give me a blueprint for getting started.”
Miller was a member of the 1999 U.S. Walker Cup team and posted a 2-0 foursomes and 0-1 singles record in a 15-9 loss to GBandI at Nairn  Golf Club.
Miller won his first U.S. Mid-Amateur title in 1996, defeating Randy Lewis, 3 and 2, at Hartford Golf Club in West Hartford, Conn. When he defeated Chip Holcombe, 1-up, in 1998 at the NCR Club in Dayton, Ohio, he became (at the time) the oldest U.S. Mid-Am champ at 48.