Sure, They Can Rock--but Can They Swing?

The Scene: Sunday’s kick-off party for the first Hard Rock Cafe-Eddie Van Halen Charity Golf Tournament. It was held at the Beverly Center’s Hard Rock. The tournament was played Monday at the exclusive Sherwood Country Club’s Jack Nicklaus-designed course in Thousand Oaks. Holding a rock ‘n’ roll golf tournament at the pro-quality Sherwood is akin to having a monster truck contest on the lawn at Versailles.

*

Who Was There: Many who know much about rock ‘n’ roll, few with the same understanding of golf. Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly, who at least knows how to play the game, said: “I am the Lee Trevino of this crowd.” Among the 400 guests were Van Halen and wife Valerie Bertinelli, Sammy Hagar, Ray (Boom Boom) Mancini, Faith Ford, Jamie Lee Curtis and Dweezil Zappa.

*

Quoted: Although golf pros have told him, “You have to play twice a week just to stay bad,” Van Halen said he gets by on five outings a year, “so you can imagine how bad I am.”

*

High Point: Van Halen, a band that usually plays stadiums, blasted forth inside the restaurant.

Golf is rarely this loud.

*

So, How Loud Was It?: So loud that drinks on the bar shook. So loud that jaded rock ‘n’ roll writers, most of them half-deaf to begin with, were reaching for napkins to stuff in their ears.

*

Money Matters: It was hoped that the tournament, plus an auction of autographed guitars at the party and underwriting from Cobra Golf, would raise $250,000 for the UCLA School of Medicine’s Pediatric Kidney Research Center.

*

Pastimes: While some watched a closed-captioned Jean-Claude Van Damme movie on the bar’s TV and others schmoozed, Tommy Lee of Motley Crue was in a passionate make-out session with girlfriend Bobbi Brown. At one point a photographer said, “I think now she’s chewing on his nose ring.”