PHOTOS: Toby Keith Makes Rare Appearance To Celebrate Record-Breaking Toby Keith & Friends Golf Classic

The 19th Toby Keith & Friends Golf Classic took place on Friday, June 2, and Saturday, June 3, and raised a record $1.8 million in support of OK Kids Korral, the cost-free home for families of children battling cancer.

Dinner and Golf

Toby Keith appeared at the two-day event, which included a golf tournament and dinner. 

The Friday night dinner was headlined by chart-topping country group Sawyer Brown. 750 guests attended the denim and diamonds-themed soirée, which also included a record-setting auction. 

The high-dollar auction included memorabilia from NFL quarterback Joe Burrow, NBA star Steph Curry and golf icon Tiger Woods, as well as items from Ashley Furniture, Crew’s Cottage Carlton Landing, The Joinery, Tim Kenney, Travis McIntyre, Red Fork Distillery, Kennel & Crate, Ryan Cunningham, South OKC Ace Hardware and LOREC Ranch Home Furnishings.

The Following Items Drew in the Top Bids:  

Guitar signed by Taylor Swift: $120,000

Fishing trip with Toby Keith and Jimmy Houston: $80,000

Dinner with Toby Keith: $70,000

Game of Thrones trip to Croatia & Spain: $20,000 (11 were sold)

Guitar with signatures from Tim McGraw, Garth Brooks, Carrie Underwood, Kane Brown, Parker McCollum, Cole Swindell, Jordan Davis, Brantley Gilbert, Russell Dickerson, Brett Young, Ingrid Andress, Maren Morris, Luke Bryan and Jelly Roll, donated by Country Countdown USA’s Lon Helton: $44,000

The Saturday morning golf tournament included 55 teams. According to a press release, the morning winners were Isa Camall, Joe Lemeux, Lane Wallace, Mark Moore and Ben Hayes, and the afternoon tournament winners included Ryan Sparkman, Harvey Sparkman, Drew Goodman, Carson Sparkman and Evan Sparkman. The $10,000 shootout winner was Pete Penner.

Annual Event

To date, the Toby Keith & Friends Golf Classic has raised nearly $18 million. The funding supports The Toby Keith Foundation, which helped construct OK Kids Korral in support of Oklahoma pediatric cancer patients. 

“Next year, it’ll be the 10th year for OK Kids Korral, 20th year of my foundation party,” Keith told The Oklahoman at the event. “We’re gonna celebrate a 10 and a 20, and we’re gonna blow it out. It’s amazing how much support we get. But it takes that kind of support to handle 300 families a year.”   

According to a release, “OK Kids Korral helps make life a little easier for children with cancer by providing a safe, convenient, and hopeful place for families to connect with each other and focus on the well-being of their child. OK Kids Korral provides daytime and overnight lodging for pediatric patients and their families. The state-of-the-art facilities at OK Kids Korral are designed to create a relaxing haven for the entire family.”    

To learn more about The Toby Keith Foundation, click HERE.

A Country Music Icon

Throughout his career, Toby Keith has earned 42 Top 10 hits and 32 No.1 singles. He has sold 40 million albums and raked in 10 billion streams. He is a member of the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, and in 2022, he was awarded the prestigious BMI Icon award.

Keith joins an elite list of songwriters who have earned the BMI Icon Award, including Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams, Jr.

“When I got to Nashville, they said, ‘You got to get affiliated,’” Keith shared from the stage during the star-studded event. “I said, ‘What does that mean?’ They said, ‘Well, you wrote these songs — you gotta get affiliated.’ So, since 1990 or ’91, I have been affiliated with the greatest organization in the music business, and that’s BMI. They’ve been so great to me as a songwriter, because I knew that even if I didn’t make it as an artist, that maybe somebody would cut my songs. I always felt that the songwriting was the most important part of this whole industry.”

The country star has remained mostly out of the spotlight throughout the past year after revealing that he was diagnosed with stomach cancer last summer.