Celebrities Make Bob Hope Classic A Memory To Be Thankful For

As a former member of the super group The Eagles, Don Felder played guitar in front of 125,000 fans without the slightest twinge of fear or trepidation.

However, take the guitarist and best-selling author out of the crazed atmosphere of the concert venue and put him in the pastoral atmosphere of the golf course and a common metamorphosis occurs.

?Put a golf club and ball in my hand and put me on the tee in front of 150 people and I?m shaking like a tree in a strong breeze,? Felder said. ?It?s always a humbling experience when you?re standing on the first tee and they announce you after the pros tee off and you get to put your first shot in the water.?

That experience and the experience of seeing multi-platinum artists like Felder mix with presidents, Hall-of-Famers in the four major American team sports, Academy Award-winning actors and comedians that span generations is one of the chief elements that makes the Bob Hope Classic one of the iconic sporting events on the American landscape.

More exciting moments and memories are in store for golf fans at next week?s 52nd Bob Hope Classic, the $5 million PGA TOUR golf tournament held at La Quinta Country Club, SilverRock Resort, and the Palmer and Nicklaus Private Courses at PGA West.

The Bob Hope Classic is one of the true, albeit rare, melting pots of Americana: a place where presidents trade barbs with comedians and singers, where golf pros discuss swing keys and music keys in between shots and where athletes who are legends in their craft talk shop with actors who are legends in theirs. And they all do it in front of thousands of golf fans who get a rare ?green carpet? glimpse behind the curtain.

The legacy of having celebrities play in the Bob Hope Classic came from Hope himself.

One of the most important and influential entertainers of the 20th century, Hope was a single-digit handicap golfer who never tired of combining his passions of golf, making people laugh and raising money for people who had little reason to laugh. In 1965, he added his name to the tournament, and a new star was born.

And where Hope went, the brightest celebrity lights followed: Bing Crosby, Kirk Douglas, Desi Arnaz, Hoagy Carmichael, Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra ? all of them played, some alongside former presidents, such as Dwight Eisenhower and Gerald Ford.

It was Ford who brought out Hope?s A-game ? off the course:

* ?When I play with Gerald Ford, I usually try to make it a foursome – the president, myself, a paramedic and a faith healer.?

* ?Gerald Ford – the most dangerous driver since Ben-Hur – has made golf a contact sport. There are 42 golf courses in the Palm Springs area and nobody knows which one Gerald Ford is playing until after he has teed off. It’s not hard to find Gerald Ford on a golf course – just follow the wounded.?

* “Whenever I play with Ford these days, I carry 13 clubs and a white flag.?

Watching the likes of Hope, Sinatra, Crosby, Sammy Davis Jr. and Jackie Gleason yuk it up on TV in Detroit was a skinny boy named Vincent Furnier. Two generations of music fans and nearly a generation of Bob Hope Classic golf fans know him as Alice Cooper

?It was Disneyland if you lived in Detroit and you?re looking at that. You just can?t believe it exists,? Cooper said. ?But then when you move out there, I never thought I would ever be playing in the Bob Hope Classic.?

Not only does Cooper ? a recent inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a fine golfer who plays to a 5 handicap ? play in the Bob Hope Classic (this will be his 13th), but the boy who watched Hope on his black-and-white television was about to give the object of his childhood fascination a swing tip.

?I remember one instance at Bob Hope?s house. He was having a birthday party for Steve Allen, and every major comedian was there ? and me. I stuck out like a sore thumb because I had hair down to here and smeared makeup and someone says, ?Hey, Bob wants to see you,?? Cooper remembers. ?So I go in there and there?s Bob Hope, Gerald Ford, Johnny Carson ? all the giants of comedy.

?And Bob says, ?I?m pushing my drive to the right a little bit.? I told him, ?Well, relax your right hand.? And that?s all we talked about. And I realized that when I walked away it was Bob Hope, the President, and we never once spoke about anything except how to get your right hand square. That just shows you what golf is. It cuts through anybody?s job, anybody?s political stance. Anything.?

It was that reverence for Hope and what he meant to the game and a charitable endeavor that has raised nearly $49 million in 51 years that brought another comedian and all-around entertainer inside the ropes ? John O?Hurley. Playing in his fourth Classic in 2011, O?Hurley is a 9 handicap who, like every golfer who doesn?t play the game for a living, laments the fact he doesn?t have the time to work on his swing. But that doesn?t stop him from carving out time to play.

?I pinch myself when I think I?m part of the legacy that Bob Hope started,? said the man who often stole scenes as entrepreneur J. Peterman on the long-running series ?Seinfeld.? ?I feel honored that in the long line of entertainers who have played in this event, I?m able to continue that long rumba line by playing.?

That long rumba line includes a plethora of athletes who earned accolades on courts, fields and arenas instead of courses: Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson, Roger Clemens (a two-time amateur champion), John Elway, Troy Aikman, Pete Sampras, Charles Barkley, Jerry Rice, Greg Maddux, Oscar de la Hoya and Mike Ditka are some of the more glittering athletes to participate.

Maddux, a four-time Cy Young Award winner and winner of 355 games, and Jackson are both scheduled to play in this year?s Classic.

And so is Felder, who has been busy with promoting his best-selling book, ?Heaven and Hell. My Life in The Eagles,? and recording with his own band that his handicap has ballooned from a 7.2 to a 16. Yet, he makes time to put his less-than-platinum game on display.

?The Bob Hope people do a pristine, platinum job of putting this event on,? Felder said. ?This is one of the best tournaments in the United States that I have the honor of participating in. Plus, it raises so much money for the people in the (Coachella) Valley and I love being a part of giving my time and energy to that.

?If me losing golf balls helps people who need that help, well God bless them.?

At the root of all the laughs, that?s a message Hope would undoubtedly endorse and embrace. There?s one PGA TOUR professional who understands what Bob Hope was doing by busting the chops of former presidents and Rat Packers.

?I always remember Bob Hope out there with the other celebrities making everyone laugh and everyone having a great time,? 2007 Bob Hope Classic champion Charley Hoffman said. ?It wasn?t until I was older that I realized just how much he had done for golf.?

News release from the Bob Hope Classic