No Golfing in Rain? That’s a Playable Lie!

My favorite golf line came from a colleague who had interviewed the head pro at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley. Heavy rains could be coming down, yet someone living just two blocks away will call the pro shop and say, “How’s it look over there?”

About the only reason some golfers don’t play in a downpour is because course officials won’t let them. Rain for golfers is just a little inconvenience. El Nino? Just another part of the competition.

Friday morning I was standing near the ninth green at Dad Miller Municipal Course in Anaheim, cold, wet wind whipping my umbrella, as I watched a foursome putt out. The rain was coming hard and nasty.

But one of the group, Jeff Fontenot, a construction worker from Anaheim, felt he had a good explanation for playing: “When I got up this morning, the weather map on TV showed the rain was still off the coast. I thought if I hurried, I might beat it.”

On the 10th tee, I asked Jim Guarin, a postal worker from Buena Park, why he and his nephew, Ray Luboa, were plugging on despite the rain picking up its pace. He asked if I played the game. When I said yes, he responded: “Then you know.”

Guarin and Luboa didn’t come unprepared. They wore full rain gear, including boots over their spikes, stayed under umbrellas between shots and kept their clubs under rain covers. Guarin explained that his nephew had just come in from the Philippines, where he lived, and they didn’t want to miss any days playing golf.

“Incurable addicts,” Luboa said laughing.

You have to be a golfer to understand.

At Willowick Golf Course in Santa Ana, 86 groups teed off Friday morning before course officials decided the fierce rain was just too much to handle.

“We play unless it’s lightning or the greens start to puddle, like today,” Willowick head pro Tim Walsh said. “That’s what’s so great about the game: The elements are never the same. You never have the same shot twice.”

If you just have to play golf no matter the weather, you might try Rancho San Joaquin Golf Course in Irvine. “We never tell people they can’t play,” said general manager Scott Woodward. “If you want to go out there right now, you can have at it. But--no carts today. You’d have to walk.”

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From Ringo to Willie: Remember that famous photograph of the Beatles having a pillow fight in their New York hotel room? It was noted Scottish-born magazine photographer Harry Benson who took that shot.

But Benson is better known for his award-winning photographs from the White House. The photojournalist has covered every president from Kennedy to Clinton.

Benson will present a slide show and lecture Sunday at 1:30 p.m. (tickets are $5) at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda. Afterward, he will sign copies of his new photojournalism book, “First Families” ($29.95).

A few of Benson’s insights from the book:

* “Lyndon Johnson was the most distinguished-looking president I have encountered, a tough yet decent man.”

* “Nixon was the most stately and presidential of all the commanders in chief I met.”

* “President Clinton was the only American I’d ever met who could pronounce ‘Kirkcudbright’ properly (Kir-Koo-Bree.)” Kirkcudbright is a county in Scotland Clinton had visited while a Rhodes scholar at Oxford.

There’s a poignant shot in the book of Nixon standing outside his boyhood home on the library grounds. One interesting black and white picture shows Clinton in the Oval Office with his shoes off. The absolute best photograph in the book is John F. Kennedy Jr. and Caroline Kennedy, taken in 1984 at the Kennedy Library next to a portrait of their father. What handsome siblings.

Sorry, no shots of Monica Lewinsky lurking in the halls of the West Wing.

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Helping Hands: Sylvianne Lestringant of Aliso Viejo has had some rough times. A car accident 15 years ago left her walking permanently with a cane. Five years ago she had to battle breast cancer. Now Lestringant is under treatment for stomach cancer.

But Lestringant also has lots of friends who care about her. They’re throwing a benefit dinner to help defray her expenses Feb. 16, from 7 to 9 p.m., at Jack’s Restaurant, 24462 Del Prado, Dana Point. A donation of $100 per person is requested.

Lestringant is the longtime receptionist at Lou Guadio’s Health Club and Day Spa in Dana Point. Guadio, who is organizing the fund-raiser, said Lestringant “has an incredibly upbeat attitude about this and everything else she’s been through.”

You can call his club at (714) 661-9448 for further details.

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Wrap-Up: In January, I wrote a column about Alice Bergel, one of Chapman University’s resident experts on Albert Schweitzer, the German theologian and author. She had died, at age 86, the day I was scheduled to interview her husband, Kurt Bergel, about her work. She and her husband had helped establish the Schweitzer Institute at Chapman.

This week I received an e-mail from Ragnar Arnesen, writing from his home in Haiti. He had been a student of Alice Bergel’s and asked me to pass it along to her family. Arnesen writes in part that Bergel “was an inspiring teacher who taught Greek to three of us, from beginning to Homer in one year. She charmed us all.”

The memorial service for Alice Bergel will be today at 2 p.m. at the Waltmar Theatre on the Chapman campus in Orange.

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Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com