Photo Credit David McClister

The Academy of Country Music announced today that chart-topping country music star and ACM Award nominee Darius Rucker will return to host the ACM Lifting Lives® Celebrity Golf Classic at TPC Las Vegas for the third consecutive year on Saturday, April 5, 2014.

The ACM Lifting Lives Celebrity Golf Classic—the eighth held since 2004—brings together country music artists Frankie Ballard, Charles Kelley, Scotty McCreery, Jake Owen, and Cole Swindell as well as other members of the music community in a star-studded scramble tournament to raise funds and awareness for ACM Lifting Lives’ Diane Holcomb Emergency Relief Fund.

This fund enables ACM Lifting Lives to respond quickly to unforeseen, immediate financial needs of music related organizations and individuals. Funds are disbursed at the discretion of a committee made up of ACM Lifting Lives Board Members. TheACM Lifting Lives’ Diane Holcomb Emergency Relief Fund resources cover a wide range of financial, medical and personal emergencies, and each case is treated with integrity and confidentiality. The fund was established to honor Diane Holcomb’s memory by her only daughter, Gayle Holcomb, who served four years as Chairman of the Board of the Academy of Country Music.ACM Lifting Lives has helped 45 people and given over $230,000 through this fund since its inception in 2007.

The ACM Lifting Lives Celebrity Golf Classic, 2nd Annual ACM Party for a Cause® Festival, and more will all be taking place in conjunction with “The Week Vegas Goes Country®,” leading up to the 49th ANNUAL ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS­, a star-studded event produced for television by dick clark productions, that will be broadcast LIVE from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Sunday, April 6, 2014 at 8:00 PM live ET/delayed PT on the CBS Television Network.