This Hope Was All About Charity

There are 57 golf tournaments sanctioned by the PGA Tour this year and only two of them are named after people. Byron Nelson is one and Bob Hope the other. So when news spread Monday that Hope had died at 100 at his home in Toluca Lake, it probably signaled the end of another era as well.

Bing Crosby’s name has been gone from the tournament at Pebble Beach since 1985. In 2000, Dinah Shore’s name was dropped from the tournament at Mission Hills, the LPGA’s first major of the year.

As for Hope, his name has been raised on the marquee for the tournament in the Palm Springs area since 1965.

Making fun of himself and his golf game was the core of Hope’s repertoire. He was the author of 12 books, maybe the most famous of which was titled “Confessions of a Hooker.” It was listed on the New York Times’ best-seller list for 53 weeks starting in 1985.

Hope, who also released a performance video called “Shanks for the Memories,” understood as well as anyone about the ups and downs of golf, so it became a running joke.

At the last Hope tournament in late January, fans were given a rectangular badge with a small black-and-white photograph of Hope. In the photo, Hope was playfully breaking a club over his knee in mock frustration.

The badge carried this message, in bright blue letters:

We love Bob ... No matter how he plays.

It has been a long-standing love affair. Hope was too ill to come to the tournament in January and his longtime publicist, Ward Grant, said Hope was in something called “full retirement.”

Hope hadn’t felt well enough to visit his golf tournament since 2000. That was when Jesper Parnevik won, then walked over to the stands where Hope was sitting and gave him a hug.

In the preceding years, probably the best place to see Hope at his tournament was on the first day, when he played in the celebrity field.

Hope hadn’t been able to play at all since 1998 when he hit his tee shot, then got into his cart.

Maybe one of the most memorable Hope tournaments was in 1995, when Hope played in a foursome with Presidents Clinton, Ford and Bush at Indian Wells Country Club. Hope played all 18 holes, even though he didn’t keep score on every hole.

Afterward, he offered an opinion of the way the day went.

He said Clinton had the best score, Ford had the most errors and Bush had the most hits. As for himself, Hope said he cheated better than ever.

Golf wasn’t the only sport that interested Hope. He featured the All-American football team on his annual Christmas TV specials, and in the 1940s he bought into the Cleveland Indians with eccentric majority owner Bill Veeck.

Hope three times had holes in one in his golf career, which usually isn’t enough to land a person in the World Golf Hall of Fame, but it didn’t stop Hope from getting there in 1983. The Hall of Fame flew its flag at half-staff Monday. Not everyone can count Ben Hogan as a teacher, but Hope did for a brief period, and it paid off. Hope brought his handicap down to four.

That didn’t stop him from telling jokes about himself and his golf.

Hope figured he probably had played about 2,000 courses all over the world. That meant, he said, that there wasn’t a country anywhere on the globe with a golf course he hadn’t three-putted.

What Hope really cared about was raising money for the Coachella Valley charities that benefited from his tournament. Using his name as a springboard, the Hope tournament has raised more than $37 million over the years for the benefit of the Eisenhower Medical Center and nearly seven dozen other desert charities.

There have been 44 editions of the tournament that have carried the name of Hope and there should be many more to come. Tournament officials have an agreement with the Hope family that they can use his name as long as the family is satisfied.

Hope probably wouldn’t mind if his name wasn’t used at some point, just as long as the charities got their money and the players had a good time and the fans enjoyed themselves.

The fact is, Hope wasn’t in it for personal gain or the publicity. He was in it for the fun. And no matter what he might have said, that’s one memory you just can’t shank.