Former Presidents Go On Charity Swing For Tsunami Victims

By Mike Clary
Sun Sentinel

HOBE SOUND, Fla. -- Former President Bill Clinton joined his White House predecessor George H.W. Bush for a round of golf in a charity fund-raiser here Wednesday, brushing aside concerns that a surgical procedure today to remove fluid and scar tissue from his chest cavity was anything but routine.

The operation in New York is a follow-up to a four-hour quadruple heart bypass Clinton underwent in September, and could keep him hospitalized for up to 10 days, according to doctors. "My ribs will hurt for two to three weeks, and then I'll go back to my life," Clinton said.

Asked if his heart problems had him pondering his own mortality, Clinton responded, "I've had an unusual life. If something happens -- if I get struck by lightning on the golf course today -- I'd wind up ahead of where 99.99 percent of the people that ever lived.

"I am just grateful for every day the sun comes up."

Alas, there was no sun for what was billed as "Three Friends: One Goal," a tsunami relief outing in which about 70 golfers paid $30,000 each to join the ex-presidents and pro golfer Greg Norman for a few holes at the Medalist Golf Club. The event was expected to raise about $2 million to aid the victims of the December tsunami in Asia and Africa, a cause for which Bush and Clinton have been working together at the behest of the current President Bush.

Neither was there any lightning in Martin County on Wednesday. Instead, the 18-hole golf course was enshrouded in low clouds and a relentless rain that chilled the event but did not stop it.

"They are the presidents, and they're here," said club member Jared Abbruzzese, 50, who rounded up several friends and came down from his home outside Albany, N.Y., to answer Norman's invitation. "It's a round of golf, and it's a pleasure and an honor."

Clinton and Bush both got soaked as they spent about 30 minutes on the driving range before lunch, and then later led a parade of well-heeled golfers onto the soggy links. Each of the former presidents spent about three hours on the course.

Clinton, 58, thinner and less animated than he typically was during his two-term presidency, nonetheless whacked the ball with a fluid grace.

Bush, athletic but 80, dribbled most of his shots for little distance.

Clinton recalled that when he last came to play golf here in 1997, the then-president tripped on the steps at Norman's Jupiter Island home, wrenching his knee. "At least I get to play before I go to the hospital this time," he said.

Bush, Clinton and Norman took questions while seated before a fire in the club's lounge. Most queries concerned Clinton and his health. "It's no big deal," Clinton said of today's surgery, in which doctors are to make a small incision in the former president's left chest to drain fluid and peel away scar tissue that is pressing on his lung. "I just want to be able to breathe again," he said.

Doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center have described Clinton's condition as rare though relatively uncomplicated. "This is not a dangerous procedure," Clinton said, "unless something totally unpredictable happens."

Norman praised the former presidents for their charity work, calling them in a statement "two distinguished Americans from opposite ends of the political spectrum." In previous joint appearances, the two former rivals -- Clinton defeated incumbent Bush in 1992 -- have shown signs of a playful camaraderie that has developed during their travels to Asia and elsewhere on behalf of tsunami aid.

Asked if he gave Bush a handicap when they competed on the golf course, Clinton joked, "He should give me strokes. He's the one jumping out of airplanes." Bush went skydiving in June to celebrate his birthday.

Bush was asked whether his younger son, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, might run for president. "We can talk about it," Bush said. "But he's not going to do it."