Last year marked the innaugural event and hosted celebrities such as Joe Thornton, Rick Nash, Michael Jordan and Kevin Costner. The second annual event happened in mid-July and had a decent lineup as well.
Five of us headed down to Toronto on the Sunday night for the one day tournament that was scheduled for Monday. After a brief stop at the hotel, Steve and I hopped onto a shuttle and headed for the airport. When we arrived we met up with Avi and Neil.
Kevin Dillon's flight, naturally, was late arriving. One of the first people off the flight was Noah Wyle who is best known for his role as Dr. John Carter on the TV drama ER. He was a nice guy. He signed a couple of autographs for the guys and took a photo with me.
We asked him if Kevin Dillon was on his flight and he confirmed that he was and that he should be along shortly. Noah then went outside to wait for his ride.
When Kevin came out, we headed him off and asked for a few autographs. He seemed angry about it and said that he only does one per person. I got my cast photo signed, as that one is the one that I hope to get signed by all the guys.
I was able to grab a photo with him though.
When then headed outside and saw Noah still waiting. He asked us if we had seen Kevin. "Yes, we saw him. You were a lot nicer than him." He started laughing. We then headed to the hotel to get some rest before the next day.
On Monday morning, we drove to Woodbine raceway to take the shuttle to the golf course. The lineup for the tournament was very strange. The actual tournament was happening at one course while the driving range for the tournament was located elsewhere. When we arrived at the tournament, we walked for about a half an hour to get to the driving range.
This was one of the most unenjoyable experiences for me. I was not prepared for what was about to happen. There were roughly fifty hounds at the driving range waiting for the celebrities. I didn't have enough sleeves in my binder and I was dragging around a 16x20 to get signed. It didn't work out well for me. Steven Stamkos was the first guy that I was able to get, but not before a bit of work. It is really cutthroat. I was holding out an 8x10 to get signing and someone would come by and put theirs right over mine. I was really close to hitting someone.
After Steven Stamkos, I spent a lot of time trying to get an autograph from Samuel L. Jackson, but to no avail. I did manage to get one more photo signed by Kevin Dillon. I was happy to get it signed as Jerry Ferrara had already signed it at the Wayne Gretzky tournament.
Finally I got Stephen Ames to sign a golf ball for me. It was really a poor experience for me. I guess I need to learn though. Next year I will be more organized and hopefully not need to carry around a 16x20.
Upon arrival back at the tournament course, I saw "Ponch" from CHIPS was there in his outfit. Eric Estrada was there to greet fans at the tournament. I grabbed a photo with him. He was a nice guy. He later signed a couple of pieces of photo paper for Avi.
Finally it was time for the tournament to start. After the success I had at the Gretzky tournament I knew that this part would be much better than the driving range. During the actual tournament everyone was spread out, which meant that all the hounds were spread out also.
I was finally able to get my first autograph from Samuel L. Jackson. He signed a Pulp Fiction photo for me. On a side note, he had a great drive off the tee. One of the longest I've seen for a celebrity.
I really didn't try all that hard at this tournament. Avi and I situated ourselves in between two of the greens and waited for golfers as they came by.
I was able to get a couple of photos signed by rocker Tom Cochrane. He was a really nice guy and a great signer also.
We also saw Fred Couples, 1992 Masters champion and winner of 15 PGA Tour championships.
Mike Weir, 2003 Masters winner and winner of 8 PGA Tour championships.
Camilo Villegas, winner of 8 professional tournaments including 3 on the PGA Tour, would go by also.
I didn't know ahead of time that there are a lot of golfers that don't sign golf balls. None of the above guys would. I should have printed some photos of the golfers. I guess I will know for next year. Another interesting thing about golfers is that they all carry their own markers. Stephen Ames, for example, signs all of his autographs in red.
After the golfers, I was able to grab my second autograph from Samuel L. Jackson.
I also had one of the guys get a photo of me with Mr. Jackson. It was impossible to ask him for a photo as there were still too many people around. I don't mind settling for this photo. You can at least tell that we are both in the picture. It is similar to my photo with Brett Hull from Collingwood.
Kevin Dillon also passed by our spot, but only signed a few autographs before going to the tee box. There was a girl standing near us who started saying, "Please Mr. Dillon. This is the third time. The third time I've missed you like this." He told her to come under the rope to the tee box. He signed for her and told her that he was sorry, but he tries to get everyone. She concluded with something along the lines of "you just made my year." The highlight of this whole situation was after she had said this, every started yelling "VICTORY" as a tribute to Kevin Dillon's character on Entourage, Johnny Drama, who played in a show called Viking Quest. Dillon raise his arm as he does on the show and smiled in acknowledgement.
After Kevin Dillon, Avi and I decided we would hit up the refreshment stand. We rested for a short while and then went to bug Marty Brodeur and Rick Nash.
As the day was winding to an end, I was able to get a photo with Stephen Ames. He was the nicest golfer that I met that day. All the rest seemed to hate meeting fans, even though it was a charity event.
While Avi waiting for Mike Weir, I decided I would catch Samuel L. Jackson one last time as he finished up on the 15th hole. He ended up signing for each person at the whole. This photo is probably the nicest out of the three and could even be frame-worthy.
That ended our tournament day. On the way out of the course we spotted Damon Allen and grabbed a quick photo with him.
What did I learn from this whole experience? Be organized. Be agressive during scrums. If you want to relax, you will meet all the people you want, but if you want to get all your things signed, you need to work hard.
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