Dai Rees (31 March 1913 – 10 September 1983) was one of the Britain’s leading golfers either side of World War II.

Born in Fontygary, Wales, Rees is best remembered as the captain of the Great Britain team which defeated the United States to win the Ryder Cup at Lindrick Golf Club in Yorkshire, England in 1957. The score was a decisive 7.5-4.5. This was the only defeat which the U.S. suffered in the competition between 1933 and 1985, and the last achieved by Britain’s golfers without the assistance of the rest of Europe. Following this triumph he won Britain’s best known sports award, the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, for 1957. In 1958 he was made a CBE, a rare honour for a sportsman. Rees played in nine Ryder Cups in total, and was selected for the aborted 1939 Cup. He has a 7-9-1 win-loss-draw record, which was well above average for a British player in an era when the British team suffered many heavy defeats.

In individual events, Rees’ wins included four News of the World Match Plays (1936, 1938, 1949, 1950). He didn’t win a major, but he was runner-up in The Open Championship in 1953, 1954 and 1961. This is as well as any Welshman has yet finished in The Open. The European Tour was established in 1972 and Rees was a member for the first few seasons, but by then he was past his best. A keen Arsenal fan, he was involved in a car crash on his way back from watching his team play a match, and failed to recover from his injuries, dying some months later.

Ryder Cup appearances: 1937, 1947, 1949, 1951, 1953, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1961

Tournament wins

1936 News of the World Match Play
1938 News of the World Match Play
1947 Penfold Tournament (tie with Reg Whitcombe and Norman Von Nida)
1948 Irish Open
1949 News of the World Match Play
1950 News of the World Match Play, British Masters
1953 Daks Tournament
1954 Belgian Open
1956 Swiss Open
1958 South African PGA Championship
1959 British PGA Championship, Swiss Open
1962 British Masters, Daks Tournament (tie with Bob Charles)
1963 Swiss Open
1966 PGA Seniors Championship