Hootie & the Blowfish MAM is canceled again. Here’s the plan to bring the party back
For the third time in 17 months, the coronavirus pandemic has forced the cancellation of the Hootie & the Blowfish Monday After the Masters Celebrity Pro-Am.
The annual fundraising event that includes a golf tournament at Barefoot Resort’s Dye Club and concert at the House of Blues in North Myrtle Beach was canceled in both April 2020 and April 2021.
Organizers had rescheduled this year’s event to Sept. 13.
But the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the area, state and country has prompted the band to wait until April 11, 2022, to attempt to hold its 26th Hootie MAM. That’s the day after the scheduled final round of the 2022 Masters Tournament in Augusta, Ga.
“We never expected when we pushed it to September that we would still be in the situation we’re in now,” tournament director Paul Graham said. “So we had constantly been preparing for what the event world in a pandemic looks like and having a Plan A and Plan B in case this happened or that happened. ... We’ll just keep trying to get used to this new normal.”
The band previously announced on the MAM website that spectator tickets to the September golf tournament wouldn’t be sold.
Graham and the band wanted to cancel more than a month in advance to give adequate notice to the tournament’s sponsors, supporters and participants.
“We were far enough out that our partners that have been so instrumental in our success have an opportunity to be able to adjust to the fact we’re not having the event,” Graham said. “We’ve had amazing support from all of our sponsors and fans of the band.
“The band is so thankful to have people that are aligned with their objectives, which is is to try to raise money for charity while having a good time doing so. Our response has been great.”
The event has been held on the Grand Strand since 2003 and had not been canceled prior to 2020.
Event raises money for charity
The Monday After the Masters event generally includes three days of festivities, including a welcome party, Masters final round viewing party, pairings party and auction, celebrity golf tournament with spectators, and a concert.
The 2020 tournament was sold out for the 14th consecutive year with more than 6,000 spectator tickets sold.
Early commitments to the 2020 event included Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame center Dermontti Dawson, Jim Cantore of Weather Channel, actors John Ashton and Anthony Michael Hall, NFL receiver Adam Humphries, actor/comedian Gary Valentine, and pro golfers John Daly, Harold Varner III, Chris DiMarco and Robert Gamez.
The 25th Hootie MAM helped the band raise $360,000 in 2019 for its foundation, through which it makes donations to children’s educational programs and junior golf in South Carolina.
The band and organizers didn’t want to deviate from the standard schedule of events, even for one challenging and abnormal year.
“We just think it’s the right thing to do. We’d like to consider it the responsible approach, and that’s basically how we like to do things,” Graham said. “If we just had a golf tournament, it would be easy, just come down and play golf. But Monday After the Masters is not just a golf tournament, it’s all the other stuff that goes on.”
Organizers have extensive safety and security plans annually that Graham said includes the involvement of the FBI and local law enforcement, and they took on a different perspective this year in an ongoing pandemic.
“It just feels better to try to have hope upon hope in April 2022 we can roll in and have a regular old event,” Graham said. “We’re going to use all of our efforts to make this event as great as possible in April. We’ll just keep it rolling.”
This story was originally published August 11, 2021 at 8:09 PM.
