David Yates

Managing Director – Golf Octagon

David is Managing Director of Octagon’s golf division and brings over 35 years of experience in sales, sales management and business development to the agency. He joined APG’s Global Advisory Board in 2016.

David personally managed the careers of some of professional golf’s top players as Senior Vice-President at Gaylord Sports Management (GSM) for 13 years. Prior to joining GSM, Yates also spent 15 years as Vice President at IMG. Serving on the late Mark McCormack’s Executive Advisory Committee, David was the recruiting coordinator for IMG Golf globally and managed the careers of Major winners Mark Calcavecchia, Bernhard Langer, Nick Price, Hal Sutton and Ian Baker-Finch, among others.

Yates was an accomplished baseball player and was a First Team Division I Baseball All-American at the University of Delaware. He was selected in the 10th round of the Major League Baseball (MLB) draft by the Philadelphia Phillies.
He earned a Bachelor of Science in Business from Delaware in 1971 and a Master of Science in Physical Education in 1974.