How much the Hootie & the Blowfish MAM raised for charity, and some plans for 2020
The Hootie & the Blowfish Monday After the Masters Celebrity Pro-Am had another stellar year of fundraising for junior golf and education in South Carolina.
The 25th annual tournament held in April at Barefoot Resort & Golf helped the band raise $360,000 this past year for its foundation, through which it makes the donations.
The total is a combination of fundraising at the Hootie MAM and 2019 Hootie at Bulls Bay men’s college golf tournament that the band hosts in March at Bulls Bay Golf Club in Awendaw, with the bulk of the money coming from the Barefoot event.
“We’re pretty pleased with it,” said tournament director Paul Graham, who will be overseeing his 25th MAM on April 13. “We’re just happy and plugging along and things are moving along nicely.”
The Hootie MAM has been hugely popular since moving to Barefoot in 2003 after being in Columbia and Kiawah Island for its first eight years.
Spectator tickets have sold out in each of the past 13 years. Approximately half of the 6,000 adult spectator tickets are available to the general public and the others are disbursed through sponsorship packages.
The event has raised well over $7 million in its 25 years and is responsible for the creation of a $3 million endowment.
“We just keep trying to make things better,” said Graham, Hootie’s former tour manager who spent a week with the band on its Group Therapy Tour this summer. “I have found over the years if I don’t reassess things that complacency can lock in. … We did a little bit more on Sunday than we did the year before. We found a couple of new sponsors, and Intel came back in, in kind of a last-minute deal.”
The 15-year Bulls Bay event includes a one-day golf event for sponsors and guests and a Hootie concert.
A small golf tournament was added at Barefoot on the Sunday of MAM weekend because there have been people wanting to play golf around the event who don’t get into the sold-out primary tournament field.
A charity ball drop from a helicopter was added in 2017 and three days of activities include a welcome party at the House of Blues, brunch, Masters viewing party, pairings party with live and silent auctions at the HOB, and Hootie & Friends concert following the MAM tournament.
“We just do these small little deals where it’s $15,000 here and $15,000 there and it just ends up adding up at the end where the next thing you know you’ve got $100,000 extra and that’s just more money for the charity,” Graham said. “We’ve been fortunate that it has kind of worked out.
“… We’re reassessing some things for next year. We might do something on Saturday night in terms of a function party.”
Despite some recent additions, Graham said organizers are mindful of not allowing the three days of events to get too large and lose the intimate experience of the participants and sponsors.
“We may trim back a few things here and there to keep the intimacy of the event because we want to make sure this event stays intimate and unique and special for the people who have supported it,” Graham said.
Spectator tickets are $20 and go on sale at 10 a.m. on Feb. 17. The names of celebrities and pro golfers who will be participating will be released shortly thereafter.
“People are wanting to make donations, they’re willing to make donations,” Graham said. “My mom writes a check when she comes down. [Guitarist Mark Bryan’s] parents write checks when they come down. Everybody just gets what they’re trying to do. It’s kind of a big love fest. It’s kind of the Hootie way where there are people trying to be nice and doing the right thing, which I think is what the tournament is all about.”
The 2019 participants included current or former PGA Tour golfers Davis Love III, John Daly, Billy Hurley, Woody Austin, Charlie Rymer, Tommy Gainey, Chesson Hadley, Harold Varner III and George Bryan; actor Anthony Michael Hall; new Chicago Cubs manager David Ross; athletes Ed “Too Tall” Jones, Seth Joyner, Sterling Sharpe, Jim McMahon and Rick Barry; and musicians Scott Stapp, Aaron Lewis, Branford Marsalis, Javier Colon and Edwin McCain.
“I want the band to enjoy it, I want the people coming to enjoy it, so I’m always going to be listening and trying to do the best thing for the tournament, and sometimes that’s not always financial,” Graham said. “Sometimes that’s just making it as good as possible so the people know we appreciate what they’re doing.”
Project Golf gets boost
Project Golf got a home facility last month, and it has now received a sizable donation of $25,000 from the Heritage Classic Foundation, a nonprofit that is the host organization for the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing held annually in Hilton Head Island.
Project Golf is a nonprofit initiative dedicated to growing the game of golf by increasing access to facilities and quality instruction. It was created by Golf Tourism Solutions, a technology and marketing agency that promotes the Myrtle Beach golf market.
The money donated to Project Golf was raised at the Congressional Cup, a two-day event recognizing members of Congress who have been instrumental in the tournament’s success.
Golf Tourism Solutions purchased the Champions Golf Academy facility on the driving range at Barefoot Resort last month and is renovating the interior of the building to serve Project Golf’s purposes, which include programs for juniors and veterans.
“The values of Project Golf mirror those of the Heritage Classic Foundation, and we look forward to using the money to help foster an enduring relationship between new players and the game we all love,” said GTS CEO Bill Golden.
Project Golf launched its “Introduction to Golf” series this past summer, bringing approximately 200 new people to the course and attempting to keep them engaged in the game after the conclusion of the six-week program.
This story was originally published December 18, 2019 at 6:03 AM.
