David “Big Papi” Ortiz is hosting his 18th annual celebrity golf tournament this weekend at the PGA National Members Club in Palm Beach Gardens. The three-day event, called “Weekend with Papi,” started Saturday and is meant to raise money for the David Ortiz Children’s Fund, which pays for lifesaving pediatric heart surgery and care for children in the Dominican Republic and throughout New England.
Ortiz said during a Saturday morning interview that the foundation has performed nearly 2,000 open-heart surgeries on children. Former Major League Baseball stars Alex Rodríguez, Johnny Damon, Barry Larkin, Iván “Pudge” Rodríguez, Prince Fielder and Vladimir Guerrero Sr. are expected to take part, along with NFL legends Emmitt Smith, Warren Sapp and Jevon Kearse. Bobby Orr and former boxing champion Winky Wright are also scheduled to attend.
According to the foundation, the event had raised almost $16 million through 2025. Foundation president Hallie Lorber said every $5,000 raised pays for one surgery that saves a child’s life. She also said the program has cut mortality among the children it treats from 6% to 3.4%.
The foundation was started in 2007 with the CEDIMAT hospital in the Dominican Republic, and it added a partnership with MassGeneral Hospital for Children in 2009. Lorber said the group began after Ortiz met a boy who needed heart surgery and whose family had to choose between the operation and food and housing for their other five children.
Registration and warm-ups began at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, with a shotgun start set for 10 a.m. Fans who want to support the cause can donate or bid in the silent auction through the fund’s website.
