The Course were a dance music act from the United Kingdom and The Netherlands. It consisted of DJ/producer Vincent Hendriks and vocalists Dewi Lopulalan and Irma Derby. They achieved their biggest commercial success in 1997.

Hendriks and Lopulalan first met in 1990 at a DJ "mix championship" in the Netherlands. They met again in 1996, at the same venue, and the two decided to collaborate on some music.

The group released their first single, "Ready or Not", a dance cover of the 1996 song by The Fugees, in early 1997, with echoes of other contemporary hits Ultra Flava by Farley & Heller and Hold That Sucker Down by The OT Quartet. It reached #5 in the UK Singles Chart in April, giving the band their first hit. The follow-up, a cover of Chaka Khan and Rufus' "Ain't Nobody" also fared well, reaching #8 in July. However, their third single, "Best Love", only made it to #51 in December. Subsequent singles failed to see chart action, proving The Course to be a "two-hit wonder". They broke up in the late 1990s because of the lack of commercial success after the first two singles.

Joshua Paul "Josh" Davis (born June 29, 1972) better known as DJ Shadow is an American music producer, DJ and songwriter. He is considered a prominent figure in the development of instrumental hip hop and first gained notice with the release of his highly acclaimed debut album Endtroducing....., which was the first album to be recorded using only sampled sounds. He has an exceptionally large personal record collection, with over 60,000 records. He is the cousin of singer and guitarist Richie Kotzen.

DJ Shadow was experimenting with a four-track recorder while in high school in Davis, California, and began his music career as a disc jockey for the University of California, Davis campus radio station KDVS. During this period he was significant in developing the experimental hip hop style associated with the London-based Mo' Wax record label. His early singles, including "In/Flux" and "Lost and Found (S.F.L.)", were genre-bending works of art merging elements of funk, rock, hip hop, ambient, jazz, soul, and used-bin found records. Andy Pemberton, a music journalist writing for Mixmag, coined the term "trip hop" in June 1994 to describe Shadow's "In/Flux" single and similar tracks being spun in London clubs at the time. Though his music is hard to categorize, his early contributions were certainly important for alternative hip hop. He cited groups such as Kurtis Mantronik, Steinski, and Prince Paul as influences on his sample-based sound, further claiming that "lyrics (...) were confining, too specific". His music rarely features more than short clips of voices or vocal work.

Talib Kweli Greene (October 3, 1975), better known as Talib Kweli, is an American rapper. Kweli hails from Brooklyn, New York. His first name in Arabic means "student" or "seeker" (طالب); his middle name in Swahili means "true". Kweli first gained recognition through Black Star, a collaboration with fellow MC Mos Def.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Kweli grew up in a highly educated household in Park Slope. His mother, Brenda Greene, is an English professor at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York and his father an administrator at Adelphi University. His younger brother, Jamal Greene, is a professor of Constitutional Law at Columbia Law School, and former clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court. As a youth, he was drawn to Afrocentric rappers, such as De La Soul and other members of the Native Tongues Posse whom he had met in high school. Talib Kweli was a student at Cheshire Academy, a boarding school in Connecticut. He was also a student at Brooklyn Technical High School, before being academically dismissed. He later studied experimental theater at New York University.

Justin Peter Rose (born 30 July 1980) is a South African-born English professional golfer who plays most of his golf on the PGA Tour, while keeping his membership on the European Tour. He first came to prominence at the 1998 Open Championship where he holed a dramatic shot from the rough at the final hole to finish in a tie for fourth place. He won the 2007 Order of Merit on the European Tour and was ranked in the World top ten for 34 weeks between November 2007 and July 2008, with a highest ranking of six. In March 2012, Rose won his first World Golf Championship event at the WGC-Cadillac Championship. This was the biggest win of his career, and as a result he re-entered the World top ten at number seven.

Rose was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and moved to England at the age of five where he started to play golf seriously at Hartley Wintney GC, near his then Hampshire home. Rose broke 70 for the first time at the age of 11, and was a plus one handicap by 14. He played in the Walker Cup in 1997 as a 17-year-old. Shortly after that event, Rose burst to world-wide prominence at The Open Championship in 1998. He holed a dramatic shot from the rough from about 50 yards for birdie on the 18th hole, to finish in a tie for fourth. He won the silver medal for the low amateur. The following day he turned professional.

Graeme McDowell MBE (born 30 July 1979) is a Northern Irish professional golfer who plays on both the PGA Tour and European Tour. He is well known for winning the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach where he ended a 40 year drought for Europeans at the tournament. McDowell has won seven events on the European Tour, including the 2010 U.S. Open which was also his first and only win on the PGA Tour. He has also represented Ireland at the World Cup and been a member of the European Ryder Cup team on two occasions.

Before turning professional, McDowell had a successful amateur career both in Ireland and in the United States, where he won many tournaments and was recognised as the most outstanding collegiate golfer in 2002. He also represented Ireland internationally and was a member of the triumphant Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team in 2001.

McDowell was born in Portrush, Northern Ireland. He has played with Rathmore Golf Club since he was eight or nine years old. His uncle, Uel Loughery, coached him there when he was younger. At the age of 14, McDowell played senior cup for Rathmore. He attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham from 1998 to 2002. In 2002, he won the Haskins Award, given to the most outstanding collegiate golfer in the United States. He won on six occasions that season, out of 12 college events. In 2001 he was a member of the Great Britain and Ireland team which retained the Walker Cup at Sea Island, Georgia, United States.