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Vince Gill, Amy Grant and daughter Corrina, Family Golf Month spokespeople, get in some afternoon practice at the Tennessee Golf House in Franklin, Tenn. Photo © 2007 PGA of America |
Vince Gill
Singer
A 2007 inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame who has sold more than 26 million albums, Vince Gill is one of country music’s brightest stars.
Gill began his professional music career as soon as he graduated from high school in 1975. In 1980 he achieved his first top 10 hit, “Let Me Love You Tonight.” Since then, the 51-year-old Gill has won 19 Grammy Awards — the most for any country singer — and 18 Country Music Association Awards, including Entertainer of the Year in 1993 and 1994. He has sung duets with the likes of Dolly Parton, Barbra Streisand, Patty Loveless, Bonnie Raitt and Gretchen Wilson, and he hosted the CMA Awards a record 12 consecutive years.
An avid golfer, Gill and his wife, singer Amy Grant, and their daughter, 7-year-old Corrina, serve as the official spokespeople of the PGA of America’s Family Golf Month, held in July. Gill also hosts the annual Vince Gill Pro-Celebrity Invitational to support junior golf programs in Tennessee. It is because of causes like these, as well as the hundreds of other charitable events he supports, that Gill is known as one of country music’s biggest humanitarians.
— Seth Jones, senior associate editor
"The first course I ever played, the greens were made of cotton seed hulls. It has a consistency like mulch. Wherever your ball hit, you take a string that’s tied to the flagstick, there’s a big rolling pin, you roll that area and you have this lane you can putt on. It somewhat rolled… Now, your expectation is 12 on the Stimpmeter, with absolutely no ball marks. It’s unbelievable. But golfers’ expectations have gone up so much. Superintendents are smarter than a whip, and they’re obviously people of the earth. Most guys do it because they love it, and that’s what you want to see — because when people are doing things because they love it, and not just for a paycheck, they do it better. They study agronomy because they love the earth. If you ask, nine out of 10 superintendents do their job because they love it." |