Darius Rucker On Why He Gives Back Through Golf

As Darius Rucker continues along on his 2025 international tour with stops in California, Canada, the United Kingdom and his native Charleston, S.C., don’t be surprised to see the three-time Grammy winner signing classics like “Wagon Wheel,” “It Won’t Be Like This For Long,” “Hold My Hand” and “Only Wanna Be With You.”

Also, don’t be surprised to see Rucker on a nearby golf course throughout his tour travels, culminating on December 13 at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Fla.

“If my body would let me, I would play golf every day,” Rucker said. “Now I play about four or five days a week.”

Rucker, 59, was first introduced to golf when he was 14. When his best friend, Rick, and his father, Captain Richard Johannes, would talk about going to play, Rucker would usually ride his bike home and come back another day. At the Johannes’ house for dinner one evening, Rucker’s interest was finally piqued so he joined Richard and Rick at Wrenwoods Golf Course at Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina.

“I made a par the first day I played—a legitimate par,” Rucker said. “When that happened, I was hooked. I just wanted to play golf. (I’d ask Rick), ‘When’s your dad coming home? I want to play golf.’”

While music became his passion and career, Rucker continued his relationship with golf. Boasting a 5.9 handicap as of mid-June, the former Hootie & the Blowfish frontman doesn’t just play golf, he gives back to the game by creating opportunities for young players.

He helped establish the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate, a three-day tournament for NCAA Division I women’s collegiate golf played each March at the Long Cove Club on Hilton Head Island, S.C. Alongside his bandmates from Hootie & the Blowfish, Rucker co-hosts the Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate, a NCAA Division I men’s collegiate golf tournament that has operated since 2005.

A lifelong philanthropist, Rucker also hosts the annual Darius & Friends concert and golf event to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as well as the annual Monday After the Masters event benefiting the Hootie & the Blowfish Foundation which supports junior golf programs throughout the band’s home state of South Carolina.

“You use golf a lot to raise money to help people,” said Rucker, the PGA Tour’s first official brand ambassador. “That’s really something we discovered early on—if you have a golf tournament and get a bunch of buddies to come, you can raise a lot of money for charities that help different things.”

For all of his contributions to the game, Rucker was named the 2025 Ambassador of Golf in June during the Kaulig Companies Championship.

Honored by the Kaulig Companies Championship, PGA Tour Champions and Northern Ohio Golf Charities Foundation in Akron, Ohio, Rucker joined an illustrious list of winners including Jack Nicklaus, Nancy Lopez, Condoleezza Rice, President Gerald Ford and Steph Curry.

“I was looking at the list and got a little nervous when I saw that because it’s a list of people who have done great things to help other folks and who have done a lot for the game of golf,” Rucker said. “Golf has been so great to me so for the PGA to see my love for the game and how much I try to give back to the game and for them to acknowledge that, it’s pretty freaking amazing.”

Taught humility from golf—“It’s a humbling, humbling game,” he says—Rucker’s recognition was certainly well deserved. He also said the game has taught him “how to be a gentleman.”

Leveraging his success as a multi-platinum recording artist, Rucker is creating opportunities for others to benefit from the game that has taught him so much.

“Especially in a sport like golf, we should create as many opportunities for women as we do for me,” he said. “It’s because everybody can play. As many opportunities as I give to men, I’d definitely love to give to women.

“… I think it’s made me a better person, a better man. It taught me how to be a friend. It teaches me how to control my anger. Golf does a lot.”