Members of Widespread Panic know a thing or two about putting together a fantastic rock concert. The veteran jam band and its crew have spent plenty of time in venues and onstage since forming at the University of Georgia back in the 1980s, and surely knows the ins and outs of each other’s musical talents and collaborative teamwork. Navigating a golf course sand trap on a Par 4 however, is a completely different beast, but one which WSP singer/guitarist John Bell and tour manager Steve Lopez can manage with ease. So it should not surprise anyone who’s played or toured with the two musically-inclined golfers that the two participated in the RSM Classic on Sea Island, Georgia for some real pro-am tournament experience last month.
Lopez caddied for Bell at the tournament, which also acted as a fundraiser thrown by professional golfer, Davis Love III, whose son is apparently a big fan of Widespread Panic. The leisure sport’s connection with the band goes way back to when Lopez was still just an equipment manager for WSP and would notice that some of the crew, as well as Bell, brought their golf clubs on the road as they trekked from city to city.
“They reached out to have JB perform during the tournament, if not, to be part of the pro-am,” Lopez mentioned as The Caddie Network on the topic of how he and Bell got involved in the tournament. “He sat and thought for a while and said, ‘Why not? Let’s play the pro-am … From watching on TV, I kind of knew what I was doing or pretended like I knew what I was doing.”
The two men were paired with U.S. Open and Players Cup champion Webb Simpson for the tournament. Bell may have held his own in terms of how he played throughout the event, but it was the laid-back vibes from the two WSP team members that impressed Simpson and his caddie the most.
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“When we get paired with musicians or actors or anything else, they’re so used to being the center of attention that they seem to act like they’re the center of attention,” Simpson’s caddie Paul Tesori said of their rock star teammates. “That man was humble, kind, respectful … He asked as much about my family and Webb’s family as anything else. And his caddie, Steve, was amazing. It hugely stuck out to me the amount of humility they had.”
Bell and Lopez may not have won the tournament, but they did walk away with more experience, some fun stories, and a prize-worthy caddie bag which the band will be putting to good use. Callaway Golf provided Lopez with a customized bag with his name and the band logo stitched onto the side. The bag has since been signed by all the professional golfers who participated in the tournament and will be auctioned off to benefit the band’s Tunes for Tots program.
⠀ ⠀ #stsimonsisland #rsmproam #webbsimpson #johnbell #widespreadpanic[H/T The Caddie Network]
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