Me: “Chris, I gotta tell you… the neck snap isn’t as crispy as it was in Rush Hour.”
Chris: “You know it ain’t as crispy! That’s called getting old as shit.”
Chris Tucker had been working some classic moves on stage with Ja Rule earlier in the evening and I had taken notice of the classic neck snap move. Later, while Tucker and I were dancing on the beach, I took the opportunity to inform Chris of his decline in crispiness. He was well aware. Celebrity interactions like this are common when you hang around with Derek Jeter, but this was my favorite interaction from a star studded several days at the 2025 Derek Jeter Invitational.
For over 22 years, The Derek Jeter Invitational has been the #1 Celebrity Pro Am on the planet. More importantly, the tournament benefits a charity with a cause that I admire. In 1996 the Turn 2 Foundation was created in order to motivate young people to turn away from drugs and alcohol and make better decisions early on in their lives. As a recovering alcoholic myself, a program like this could have made a huge difference for me as a youth. Over $34 million and two decades later, countless lives have been changed for the better.
Phase 1: Practice round
My partner in adventure for the 2025 DJI was world renowned world traveler Lee Abbamonte. Both Lee and I love some golf, so our first order of business was to scope out the tournament course during an official practice round. Like a couple of tour pros, we analyzed the breaks in the green in an attempt to give ourselves a competitive advantage over the world class lineup of athletes. Like always, I captured the beauty of Royal Blue golf course with my cameras. We were officially stoked and ready for action.
Phase 2: Welcome Reception
After we cleaned up from our practice round, we headed back to our accommodations at the Baha Mar. The hotel is equal parts massive and glorious. The Baha Mar has just about everything that you could want in a high end resort. Restaurants, casinos, a shopping mall… Hell, they even have waterslides. When we stepped back into the hotel, I immediately realized that I had forgotten to pack some classy attire for the evening events. Fortunately, I was able to buy a halfway decent shirt at the hotel, so I didn’t look like a complete hobo for the reception gala.
As media for the event, we had 10 minutes with the tournament host, Mr Derek Jeter, and I decided to keep it brief with just 2 questions.
Patrick: “What were you able to transfer from playing baseball at the highest level to achieving success with golf?
Derek Jeter: “Absolutely nothing. Golf is entirely different. Aside from the obvious competitive spirit, there is nothing quite like the game of golf.”
Patrick: “I have a new daughter named Holliday and she just turned 8 months old. Any advice for a new dad?”
Derek Jeter: “Just keep em alive.”
Derek goes on to explain that he lives for the pick ups and drop offs with his 4 young children. After several minutes of talking about our children, it is clear that Derek lives for his kids. It’s a pretty cool experience to have something so cool in common with one of the all time baseball greats.
Lee Abbamonte and Ja Rule
Lee and I rubbed shoulders and chatted it up with the celebrity guests like a pair of seasoned celebrity minglers. Chris Tucker cut a rug on the dance floor. Tiki Barber told some college stories and the fellas from Entourage managed a 50% smile rate. The culmination of the evening was when surprise musical guest, Bernie Williams, took the stage to wail hard on the guitar. Both Lee and Ja Rule were mesmerized by Bernie’s skills and captured some solid iPhone footage. I went behind the scenes to capture the star struck pair.
Phase 3: DJI Tournament Day
The Derek Jeter Invitational tournament format is a scramble with every group assigned to 1 celebrity. With about 20 celebrities, its a pretty small group which allows everyone to get to know each other pretty well over the course of several days. Our celebrity pairing was MLB pitcher Dontrelle Willis. I knew very little about “D Train” except for the fact that he had a high leg kick and could strike a mother fucker out. Even with my preconceived notions, Dontrelle was better than advertised. His energy got us out of the gates strong and through 7 holes, we were -8 and on top of the leader board. That is when our putters went ice cold. We slowly slipped into a tie for 5th place. Like a true leader, Dontrelle accepted full responsibility for our decline down the stretch. We didn’t mind one bit as we were having too much fun to bother with getting upset about burning every damn edge from 10-15 feet for 7 damn holes in a row.
After the tournament had concluded, Derek puts on a celebrity closest to the pin shoot out. Chris Tucker and Anthony Anderson tell jokes while the celebs try to hit it close from 120. Everyone gathered around as the mediocre approach shots began to land on the 12th green.
In the end, Jerry Ferrara was crowned the champion with his approach coming to rest at 12 feet. He hoisted the belt high and bathed in the glory of his achievement. Moral of the story… never underestimate the shortest guy in the field.
It was a particular poor shot by Anthony Mackie that caused Derek Jeter to push back the crowds from the field of play. We moved back some, But Derek could not possibly have predicted the unpredictability of Ja Rule. After several practice swings and a lifetime over the golf ball, Ja shanked one directly into the bystanders. I had a front row seat as the golf ball bounced off of the forearm of the camera man directly in front of me. I think the man was some sort of Russian MMA fighter because he barely even flinched and brushed off the incident immediately. Ja Rule apologized profusely and no charges were filed.
Phase 4: Beach Party
After the near murder at the shootout, the Jeter crew hit the beach for an ocean front concert from Ja Rule with the sand between our toes. This is where I informed Chris of the crispiness issue. Below you will find two non-crispy iPhone photos to keep with the theme.
Phase 5: Day 2- 9 Hole Duel
The only downside about the Derek Jeter Invitational is that you only get two rounds of golf which means that you don’t get to play with every celebrity. Fortunately, we hit a home run with our second celebrity drawing, Angie Martinez. For those not familiar with New York, Angie was dubbed “The Voice of New York” during her 28 year run at Hot 97. I quickly learned that Angie is far too humble to admit that she was running the airwaves back in the 90’s. However, it was obvious that she was the queen of the scene, hanging out with the likes of Jay Z, DMX and Mariah Carey. Fortunately, she had to hang out with a bunch of crusty golfers for Day 2. Sadly, the second round is only 9 holes. We finished a respectable -6 and another tie for 5th place with no major on course incidents.
Phase 6: Welcome Home
As a previously childless man, my return trips home from the road were nowhere near as joyous as they are now. Both Rachel and Holliday greeted me in the window with a sign. Afterwards, Holliday chewed on my media badge as I told her all about my trip. Sometimes, I think I take these trips just so I can be excited to come home now.
