Brand Ambassadors

Longtime Icon Ambassador Paul Stankowski was born and raised in Oxnard, CA. He first played golf on Easter Sunday in 1978 at the age of eight and went on to play collegiately at the University of Texas at El Paso. In 1991, Stankowski turned professional. He initially played on the Nike Tour. His first and only victory on the Nike Tour came at the 1996 Nike Louisiana Open. The following week, he played in the BellSouth Classic on the PGA Tour. Stankowski started the week as the sixth alternate, eventually getting into the field, where he would go on to win, becoming the only golfer in history to win a developmental tour event and a PGA Tour event in back-to-back weeks. That win got him into the Master the following week, and uncertain he would return to the Masters, he bought a souvenir glass, filled it with Augusta National sand and placed a tee and ball inside as remembrance of first visit to Augusta National in 1996. He would return in 1997, finishing in a tie for 5th and again in 1998. Stankowski made over 400 starts on the PGA Tour. Towards the end of his PGA Tour career, injuries and a desire to be closer to his family resulted in him focusing entrepreneurship and broadcasting for the Golf Channel, Sirius/XM radio and PGA Tour Live.

Paul turned 50 in 2019 and began to pursue a professional career on the PGA Tour Champions. During the 2022-23 season, he advanced to the Schwab Cup Finals, finishing inside the top 36 and earning full status for the following season.

Today, when not competing on the Champions Tour, Paul resides in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with his wife Regina and their two children, Joshua and Katelyn. Stanko loves being a part of the Icon family and traveling the world with our members. While his current schedule doesn’t allow him to make as many trips as he used to, he looks forward to fully retiring from the game of golf and re-engaging with Icon Golf fulltime. Paul and Icon President Jeff Goodsell became good friends in 2014, the same year Paul walked away from the Tour and Icon Golf was founded. Stanko played an integral role in helping shape the identity of our membership during the early years of our existence and travelled on almost every trip for the first 5-6 years.

Kenneth Bruce Gorelick, known professionally as Kenny G, is an American smooth jazz saxophonist, composer, and producer. Kenny G was born in Seattle, Washington and came into contact with the saxophone when he heard a performance on The Ed Sullivan Show. He started playing the saxophone in 1966 when he was 10 years old. When he entered high school he failed at his first attempt to get into the jazz band but auditioned again the following year and earned first chair. His Franklin High School classmate Robert Damper (piano, keyboards) still plays in his band.

Kenny G signed with Arista Records as a solo artist in 1982 and adopted Kenny G as his stage name because it “had a nice ring to it”. His debut studio album, Kenny G, was recorded in 1981. The album received warm reviews from critics and reached No. 10 on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart. In 1986, Kenny G entered the most commercially successful period of his career. His fourth solo album, Duotones, was released in September 1986 and features an original instrumental track, “Songbird”, inspired by his decision to move from Seattle to Los Angeles, which marked the start of a new life for him. His sixth studio album, Breathless, was released in 1992, and went on to become the best-selling instrumental album ever, with over 15 million copies sold worldwide, selling 12 million copies in the United States alone. His first holiday album, Miracles, sold over 13 million copies, making it the most successful Christmas album to date.

Kenny G earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1997 for playing the longest note ever recorded on a saxophone. Using circular breathing, Kenny G held an E-flat for 45 minutes and 47 seconds at J&R Music World in New York City.

Kenny G now lives in Malibu, California and is an avid golfer and has a plus handicap. He has participated in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am many times, teaming up with Phil Mickelson to share the pro-am title in 2001 with the team of Tiger Woods and Jerry Chang. He is a member of Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California. Kenny is also an avid aircraft pilot and has a De Havilland Beaver seaplane which he flies regularly. He is a personal friend of former Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz and was an early investor in the coffeehouse chain.

Kenny and Icon President Jeff Goodsell met at the Monte Carlo US Celebrity Golf Cup in the summer of 2018 and became friends. As a huge fan of the game, Kenny loves the concept of the Icon membership and is eager to help support in any way he can. Still actively engaged in touring the world with his saxophone, his time is limited, but we will continue to present unique opportunities to see Kenny perform on the stage and the links.