The Golf & Guitars Music Festival at Haggin Oaks Surpasses The 1.5 Million Dollars Fundraising Mark
Morton Golf Foundation Uses Funds To Support Programming For Youth, Veterans & Those With Disabilities
The Golf and Guitars Music Festival is a celebrity pro-am golf tournament and country concert featuring nationally recognized & major label country music artists that raises money for key children’s charities in Haggin Oaks Golf Complex in Sacramento, CA. Each golfer in the tournament plays with a celebrity and gets a seat near the stage where these generous artists put on a tremendous concert underneath the stars on the golf course. The hottest acts in country music, the up-and-coming artists you’ll soon see topping the charts and some of Nashville’s very best songwriters are all donate their time to help raise funds for children’s charities. Much of the funds from the event go to the Morton Golf Foundation with the balance being paid out via a tournament purse to the artist’s children’s charity of choice.
This year started with decidedly female slant as the Monday night Singer-Songwriter Showcase was a near-all women event. Nashville’s downtown club The Listening Room has hosted an all-female songwriter collective show every Monday for the last decade or so called The Song Suffragettes and our event was able to host a “West-Coast version” of their show with eight incredible young songwriter and artist talents including Kaylin Roberson, Lydia Dall, Bonner Black, Emily Brooke, Haley Mae Campbell, Jillian Dawn, Julie Williams and Olivia Faye. Daughter of PGA Tour player Bobby Clampett and wildly talented songwriter Katelyn Clampett and longtime supporters Megan Conner, Johnny and Heidi Bulford rounded out our first night playing for a few hundred VIP guests.
The next morning was our Pro-Am Tournament where all of the songwriters and artists play in a five-person gross score scramble format. Restaurants were on every other hole providing food, local Bud Light distributor Markstein Beverage (our longest-running sponsor) made sure no one went home thirsty and our Caddie Crew with nearly every group made for an incredibly fun day of golf. Golfers will be proudly wearing their Americana flag sweatshirt hoodies and caps that they received courtesy of another key sponsor, Adidas.
When the strokes were counted, these were our winning teams and the charities the artists chose to play for along with the dollar amount that was contributed in their name.
Steve Mendiola (Cripple Creek Band) – $5,000 – St. Jude
Lydia Dall – $5,000 – Next for Autism
Conner Smith – $4,000 – Show Hope
Chris Roberts (The Lonely Fighters)- $2,000 – Valor Collegiate Academy
Adam Wakefield (Texas Hill)- $2,000 – National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Kaylin Roberson – $2,000 – Hope Nation Foundation
The balance of our Tuesday was filled with incredible music from our main stage starting with our pre-show featuring Northern California act The Cripple Creek Band and new Americana duo The Lonely Fighters.
And before our main concert began, artist Jason Michael Carroll invited his four PGA Hope playing partners up for a standing ovation recognition and a gracious recognition gift from PING Golf who gave each of our veteran heroes a red, white & blue PGA Hope bag and a promise to fill it with a full set of custom clubs. Not a dry eye in the house was left from their response.
And lastly, but certainly, not least was the music. Jordan Fletcher, Conner Smith, Texas Hill, Jason Michael Carroll, Jackson Dean, Love & Theft, Restless Road and Ryan Hurd joined special last-minute guests Parmalee for three hours of musical celebration that lasted well into the evening.
The result? An incredible time had by all and a healthy addition to the more than 1.5 million dollars raised for charity with this event since its inception.
