By Andrea Carter
The 4th Annual Warburton Celebrity Golf Tournament will return to the Coachella Valley with a weekend of stars, songwriters, rock legends and golf on February 27-March 2, 2014. Presented by HighTower, the tournament benefits St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®– one of the world’s premier centers for research and treatment of pediatric cancer and other deadly diseases. The tournament and its events will be held at JW Marriott Desert Springs and Classic Club in Palm Desert.
Tournament host, actor Patrick Warburton, perhaps best known for playing Puddy on Seinfeld as well as the star of the syndicated sitcom Rules of Engagement, the voice of Joe on Family Guy and numerous roles in movies like Ted and Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove, brings together many of his celebrity friends to highlight a star-studded weekend in the desert raising much-needed funds for kids fighting cancer.
While St. Jude is located in Memphis, the hospital’s research and treatments help kids worldwide including children from right here in the Coachella Valley. The tournament brought in $727,000 for St. Jude last year, more than doubling what had been raised the previous year. And for a hospital that costs $1.9 million per day to open its doors, ever dollar counts. It is devoted to children with cancer, and no family ever pays St. Jude for care.
In 2010, Patrick and his wife Cathy visited St. Jude to tour the facility in Memphis and meet some of the patient families. Moved by the patients they met and the impressive strides that have been made on pediatric cancer survival rates by St. Jude’s research, they decided to lead a fundraising effort and announced their plans for this celebrity golf tournament. They felt the sun-kissed desert, known for its spectacular golf, was the perfect place to hold it.
More than 50 celebrities are planning to spend the weekend in the Palm Springs area to enjoy a rock-n-roll jam session, songwriter’s night, golf and a comedy show.
The weekend will kick off with an all-new event for the tournament called “The Story Behind the Story: Songwriter’s Night” at the JW Marriott Desert Springs, Thursday, February 27th at 8:00pm. This will be an evening with a group of renowned Nashville songwriters telling the stories behind their biggest hits, along with performing those hits. Songwriters scheduled to appear include Kim Carnes, perhaps best known as a performer but has also written hits for Vince Gill and Reba McEntire, Tim Nichols, who penned Tim McGraw’s iconic #1 hit, “Live Like You Were Dying” and many others, Victoria Shaw, who has multiple #1 songs for Garth Brooks, including “The River” and “She’s Every Woman”, Rivers Rutherford, who had the song of the year in 2001 with Brooks and Dunn’s “Ain’t Nothing About You”, Jeff Hanna, who had a huge #1 for Rascal Flatts with “Bless the Broken Road”, and Matraca Berg, who wrote the smash hit “You and Tequila” performed by Kenny Chesney and Grace Potter. The event will be hosted by HLN morning news anchor, Robin Meade. Tickets are $100.
Friday night’s Celebrity Jam Session, which will be held at 8:00pm at the JW Marriott, has received rave reviews by attendees in years past, gathering rock-and-roll legends to jam together for an unforgettable night of fun – all for charity. Scheduled to perform this year are Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Alice Cooper, Steve Cropper (Booker T & the MG’s and the Blues Brothers), Robby Krieger (The Doors), Mike Mills (R.E.M.) and Tommy Thayer (KISS). Also participating will be Mickey Thomas (Starship), John Elefante (Kansas), Kim Carnes, Danny Seraphine (Chicago), Jeff Hanna (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), Teri Nunn (Berlin) and Dave Brock (Wild Child) and more are still being confirmed. A surprise guest is also planned to make an appearance. Celebrities not necessarily known for their music, but who also happen to be very talented singers and will perform at the jam session include HLN’s host of “Morning Express with Robin Meade,” Robin Meade, and actor Rob Morrow. Celebrity Jam Session tickets can be purchased for $125.
“This tournament is so extraordinary because of the way it incorporates musicians,” said Clarke Rheney, tournament chairman. “Most celebrity golf tournaments focus on athletes and actors, but we really wanted to do something different. We have rock and roll legends and hall-of-famers that come out to this event to share their music and do their part to raise money and awareness for the kids of St. Jude.”
Other celebrities who are scheduled to appear in the golf tournament include actors Richard Kind, Luke Perry, Scott Wolf, Kurt Fuller, Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Peter Gallagher, Robert Hays, Raymond Cruz, Michael Paul Chan, Sam Hennings, Bill Smitrovich, Joe Regalbuto and Brian Thompson; FOX news commentator, Brett Baier, and athletes like former NFL pros, Jim McMahon, Robbie Gould and Sterling Sharpe, volleyball legend, Sinjin Smith, MLB pros Ron Fairly and Steve Garvey, and NHL Hall of Famer, Grant Fuhr. Additional celebrity announcements will be made in February. Golf tournament entries are $2,000 per player.
A Saturday night Gala and Comedy Show will feature red carpet appearances by many of the celebrities involved with the tournament, as well as a dinner and comedy show performance, “Cheech & Chong Do Shakespeare,” by Cheech & Chong and dancing to music by the band, Sixwire, the featured band on the television show, Nashville. Tickets for the gala and comedy show are $250.
The Warburton Celebrity Golf Tournament is the second highest grossing golf tournament for St. Jude nationwide, second only to the tournament sponsored by Donald Trump in New York. For more information or to purchase tickets to any of the shows or register for the golf tournament, go to www.thewarburton.com.
