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Presidents, 'Shark' Add Bite To Tsunami Fund-Raiser
By Michael C. Bender
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
HOBE SOUND, Fla. -- If a Medalist Golf Club member doesn't get a helicopter ride to the landing pad on the property, he pulls up to a valet stand and exchanges the keys to his luxury car for those to a golf cart.
While the caddie pulls the clubs out of the trunk, the member can enter the nearby clubhouse, where he's immediately greeted by The Shark.
No, not Greg "The Shark" Norman, the professional golfer who lives in nearby Jupiter Island and helped design the course, but a 1,083-pound great white that Norman caught off Australia in 1990.
The shark is mounted above the clubhouse bar, where some of the world's most rich and famous sit and enjoy a burger and a beer.
On Wednesday, the country's two most recent ex-presidents will hang out at this exclusive lodge with Norman and 72 well-heeled guests in hopes of raising more than $2.1 million in one day for tsunami victims in Asia. The event is billed as Three Friends: One Goal.
The guest list is closely guarded but includes mostly club members and personal friends or associates of Norman and former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
The 72 golfers each will donate $30,000 to play in the one-day shotgun and scramble event, which begins at noon. Each of the foursomes will have the chance to play one hole with Bush, Clinton and Norman.
After the event, expected to last between four and five hours, the players will retire to the clubhouse dining room for cocktails and a dinner.
Clinton will be making his second attempt at a round of golf at Medalist.
In 1997 while he was still in office, Clinton stayed with Norman with plans for two days of golf. A few hours before tee time, Clinton slipped on some steps at Norman's house, sustained a torn quadriceps tendon in his right knee and ended up at St. Mary's Medical Center.
Clinton's press staff said Friday it was unclear when he would be arriving in town for the tsunami fund-raiser or where he would be staying.
Bush used to be a frequent visitor to Jupiter Island. His parents, U.S. Sen. Prescott and Dorothy Bush moved to the corner of Links Road and Rabbit Run in the 1950s, and two of Dorothy's brothers soon followed. The four have since passed away, but Bush still has family on the island, including at least one cousin.
Bush is scheduled to arrive in the area Tuesday and stay with friends at an undisclosed location until Thursday, according to a Bush spokesman.
The 41st president has played Medalist several times with his son Gov. Jeb Bush and Norman, the spokesman said, and is an honorary member.
The club has 250 members, among them Dan Marino, Jim Palmer and Wayne Huizenga. Membership dues are between $10,000 and $12,000 per year, with an initiation fee of about $100,000.
The 18-hole course sits on a portion of an 850-acre property that includes about 20 homes and plans for an additional 100.
The course can make for a difficult day, with swampland, ponds and alligators serving as hazards between tee boxes and greens.
"Both of the presidents will have a hard time," said Hobe Sound resident Nathaniel Reed, a founding member of the club. "I really enjoy playing there. There is a fabulous collection of birds and probably the most number of alligators anywhere in South Florida. There's a big alligator on nearly every other hole.
"It's a place that unless you play really well, you're going to lose a lot of golf balls. I've heard of people losing 36 golf balls in one round."
The clubhouse has vaulted ceilings, pine pillars and stone and marble floors. There is a fireplace in the lobby and leather chairs and flat-screen televisions in the bar room. The locker room has a steam room and Jacuzzi.
And that's about it.
The dining room, where dinner is served once a month, has only about a dozen tables.
There is no room for large banquets or big weddings.
"This was designed to be a place to relax and unwind," said Gerard Conway, Medalist's general manager. "It's classy and elegant and adequately sized for what we do."
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