Beginning this weekend, 256 of the best golfers age 25 and over will convene at Vinny Giles’ course just outside Richmond, Virginia – Kinloch Golf Club – for the U.S. Mid-Amateur. It would behoove any and all of them to grab a beverage and Kinloch’s specialty sandwich (fried peanut butter and jelly) and sit a spell to chat with the course’s co-designer and the last great career amateur champion.
Conversations with Marvin “Vinny” Giles III are always a treat and never filtered like his cigarettes. He is one of the game’s great characters and the last of his kind – a supremely gifted champion who opted to remain a lifelong amateur despite the undeniable talent and charisma that could have made him a tour star had he chosen that alternate route.
“After Georgia and having some success and playing well in a couple of U.S. Amateurs and finishing second in the NCAA against what was going to be the next crop of professionals, I thought I was pretty good,” Giles said. “I mean, I thought I could beat my peer group on the right week.”
A three-time all-American and 1966 NCAA runner-up at the University of Georgia, Giles could more than handle his peers – on the course and off. He considered the idea of turning pro, but as a young married man, he and his wife, Key, didn’t relish the idea of living out of motels and chasing the sun.
“I quite honestly wasn’t sure that I’d enjoy that life,” he said. “I just loved playing golf, and I didn’t want it to quit being fun. ... I wasn’t sure I was made out for it. My only regret is that I never proved to myself whether I was good enough to play at that level. Outside of that, I have no regrets at all.”
Giles went to law school at Virginia instead, and in 1973 fell into founding a sports management company, Pros Inc., with his partner Vernon Spratley representing friends through the years such as Lanny Wadkins, Gary Koch, Tom Kite, Davis Love III and later Ernie Els. Long retired himself, Giles still represents Koch and Wadkins in their broadcast deals.
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