Former President Bill Clinton, seen Friday at PGA West during the second round of the Humana Challenge, is trying to lower expectations for his golf match with pro Greg Norman on Saturday. / Omar Ornelas, The Desert Sun
LA QUINTA — Former President Bill Clinton is trying to lower expectations for his golf match with pro Greg Norman on Saturday.
“I have no idea what my handicap is,” he said Friday at a small press conference in the Clinton Foundation’s hospitality tent at PGA West in La Quinta.
The former president said his heart surgery a few years ago permanently changed his game.
He played best in 2001, his last year in the White House. Sidelined since then by health problems and working as President Barack Obama’s emissary to Haiti, Clinton said, “I never got my distance back."
“I’m going to have to play better than I normally do to keep Greg Norman from ragging me about it,” he said.
With a limited field of pros, Clinton has become the face of the 2012 Humana Challenge. And he takes the job seriously, popping in and out day after day to talk to spectators and the players.
He said one of the highlights of the week was meeting a man from Arkansas whose wife worked on his first campaign when he ran for Congress in 1974.
The former president has committed himself and his foundation to eight years of work rebuilding the tournament formerly named after Bob Hope.
Clinton says his purpose is twofold: promoting health and wellness and “putting this tournament back on sound footing.”
He promised to be at the tournament every year.
“I signed on,” he said. “First, I’m having a good time. And second, it’s my responsibility.”
