Showcase focuses on celebs
COEUR d’ALENE — The wacky PGA Tour schedule this year means no pros are part of the event, but organizers are thrilled with the celebrity-filled field they’ve assembled for the third annual Showcase.
The Showcase, a cancer awareness golf fundraiser for the Community Cancer Fund, is scheduled for today and Saturday at The Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course.
Today’s activities consist of a corporate celeb-am at noon, with corporate donors being paired in foursomes with celebrities.
On Saturday is the Showcase Celebrity Exhibition, a 9-hole event starting at noon.
The final lineup of celebs hasn’t been set, but as of earlier this week, the following retired sports greats were expected to play:
Wayne Gretzky, Brenden Morrow, Brett Hull, Doug Weight, Guy Carbonneau, Ray Whitney, Kelly Chase and Sheldon Souray (hockey); Mark Rypien, Neil Lomax and Ryan Longwell (football); Fred McGriff, Jim Edmonds and Shane Victorino (baseball); and Bruce Bowen (basketball).
The last two editions of The Showcase culminated on a Monday, with PGA Tour pros playing alongside low-handicap celebs.
But with this year’s PGA Tour schedule, with the PGA Championship this weekend — only two weeks after the British Open — and the Olympics, the FedEx Cup playoffs and the Ryder Cup to follow in short order, finding pros able to fit this event into their schedules proved difficult, given the window organizers have to stage the benefit event.
“The PGA Tour schedule this year is just a train wreck,” said Jerid Keefer, executive director and co-founder of the Community Cancer Fund. “They have two major championships being played in July, and we have a window we need to fit this thing it. And we just decided to call it a Tahoe-type event (like the popular American Century Celebrity Golf Championship, held each July), maybe this would be a good year to try it as all-celebrity, and quite frankly, the response has been great.”
Keefer said every PGA Tour pro that came last year (Alex Prugh of Spokane and Joel Dahmen of Clarkston, along with Jason Gore and Andres Gonzales) wanted to come back. And while some of the pros’ expenses are covered by various sources, the pros that come to The Showcase were not paid appearance fees. But money was not an issue in lining up the pros this year, Keefer said.
“The response that we got from the PGA guys (in past years) has been fantastic,” Keefer said. “This year just wasn’t going to work ... We didn’t go this way because we had to.”
Last year, organizers planned it so the Showcase took place the Monday just prior to a PGA Tour event in Reno — an alternative PGA Tour event the same week as a World Golf Championship event. This year, the Reno event was in June.
“So this year, for all of those different reasons, we just decided to try it out as a celebrity-only event,” Keefer said.
Following this year’s event, organizers will meet to discuss the format for next year — whether to include the pros again, or keep it celebrity-only.
“But in all honesty, with the reception that we’ve gotten, I don’t know if we go back,” Keefer said. “You always keep your options open, but at the end of the day, the response from celebrities, corporate sponsors ... the response has just been fantastic.”
Once it was determined the pros were unavailable for this year, organizers moved the event from Sunday-Monday to Friday-Saturday.
“The feedback from our corporate sponsors is that Friday-Saturday is much better,” Keefer said. “When we look at what Year 4 looks like, in a roundabout way, I think we’ve stumbled upon another viable option.
“At the end of the day, it (the event) is benefitting the local fight against cancer, and the cancer patients,” he added. “Whatever’s going to make the most sense as far as raising the most amount of money is really the way we’re going to go.”
The Community Cancer Fund raises funds to fight cancer in the Inland Northwest. Since 2014, more than $2.3 million has been raised for the local fight against cancer.
Information: www.showcasegolf.com