Once in a while, an event comes together that ends up meaning more than what can ever be printed on a schedule. That's what's happening with the Nashville Classic.
Freedom Hunters' Classic has moved to Nashville June 21 to 22, bringing its annual banquet and golf scramble back to the Nashville Palace and Hermitage Golf Course. The weekend is centered around honoring our nation's military heroes and their families, and everything else builds around that.
Freedom Hunters has spent 20 years getting military members and their families back outdoors. What started as a fundraiser is now something people plan around. Once you've been part of it, you understand why it matters.
This year's event is presented by Sunbelt Rentals, with support from The Fowl Life, First Onsite Property Restoration, Benelli, and the Nashville Palace. These kind of partners step into something like this for a reason, and this one holds up.
Freedom Hunters was built on a simple idea: Take veterans, active-duty military, and their families and put them back in the outdoors. Not as a program or something you have to explain. Just put them back out there, where things slow down a little and feel more like themselves again.
Over time, this event has turned into a lot of people getting time they didn't even realize they needed. Time to hunt, to fish, to sit in a blind before daylight and not have to explain anything to anyone next to them. For some, it's a reset. For others, it ends up being something even more than that.
"It's hard to explain what happens in those moments unless you've been there," said Chad Belding, host of The Fowl Life. "You get people back in a place where things slow down a little bit, and something just settles. The outdoors is peace, and that's what Freedom Hunters is about. This weekend in Nashville helps make sure more of that keeps happening."
The event this year gets started Sunday evening at the Nashville Palace, graciously hosted by Barrett Hobbs and the entire team.
Doors open at 4:00 PM. People come in, grab a drink, find a few familiar faces. It fills in quick.
By 5:00 PM, food is out and the first music set is already going. Leith Lofton, Jake Bleau, Natalie Murphy, and Justin Kennedy have confirmed they will play, and usually a few more end up jumping in as the night goes on.
There's a live and online auction running through the evening, along with raffles and sponsor recognition. Some items are big, some are simple, but people pay attention to all of it because they know where it's going.
At 6:20 PM, everything pauses. Presentation of Colors. National Anthem.
Then it picks right back up. Music, auctions, conversation. It carries through the rest of the night until close.
Monday comes early at Hermitage Golf Course. Coffee's on. Breakfast sandwiches. Registration opens at 6:30 AM, and teams start getting organized.
At 8:00 AM, the shotgun start sends groups out across the course. It's a scramble, which keeps things light, but what people remember usually has nothing to do with the scorecard. It's the conversations. The people you meet. The ones you end up sitting with later, like you've known them for a long time.
When the round wraps, nobody's really in a hurry to leave.
Everyone moves into the 19th Hole BBQ. Food, music, and awards mixed in there. The afternoon stretches out and winds down around 5:30 PM, but most people hang around as long as they can. That usually tells you what kind of event it was.
The Nashville Classic will continue to grow each year, not just in size, but in what it produces afterward. Every ticket, every team, every sponsor turns into another trip somewhere down the line. Another group of veterans in the field. Another family getting a few days where things feel a little lighter.
That's why people come. Not because they have to, but because they see it work.
For companies, it's a chance to be part of something that has a real outcome and a crowd that truly pays attention. Additional sponsorship opportunities remain available for brands looking to be part of the weekend.
For everyone else, it's simple. Good music, a course worth playing, a room you don't feel out of place in, and a noble reason behind it..
Tickets and sponsorship opportunities for the 2026 Nashville Classic are available at https://freedomhunters.org/fundraisers. Media inquiries and coverage opportunities are available upon request.
If you've been before, you already know.
If you haven't, you'll figure it out pretty quick once you're there.
