Red, blue and greens: Bill Clinton charms at golf tournament

From La Quinta — One of the leading stupid mantras of the Olympics is that sports and politics don’t mix.

Golf never even entertained that thought, and Friday at the Humana Challenge, it floated out, as proof, Exhibit A. Into a room of people with cameras, microphones and notepads walked the 42nd president of the United States.

This was Bill Clinton the golfer and golf fan, the event-promoter, fundraiser and agenda-setter. The man who ran the most powerful country in the world from 1993 to 2001 was dressed in a blue windbreaker vest and salmon pants. You need a coat and tie to talk about budgets and tax cuts. On this sunny Southern California day, Clinton had bigger fish to fry.

He was on hand as the unofficial host of a recently floundering tournament that had once flown high in the eyes of the golf world under the banner of the Bob Hope Classic. But Hope has died, and this event was on life support — until Clinton and PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem brokered a deal that provided backing from Clinton’s foundation and a health and welfare insurance company named Humana, which became the title sponsor.

There is a different buzz here this year, and that is in no small part due to the presence of Clinton, who, no matter your politics, remains engaging.

He met the media in a tent and stood in front of a display of Hope memorabilia and sayings:

— “Shanks for the memories.”

— “I tell jokes to pay for my greens fees.”

— “Golf is misery with a caddy.”

Clinton intertwined his message with his memories of Hope, who died at age 100 in 2003.

“I remember seeing him play when he was, maybe, 93,” Clinton said. “He could still swing the golf club. He didn’t live as long as he did by accident. I remember we had dinner one night, it was late, and he talked about how, even if he missed his walk earlier in the day, he’d walk for an hour after the dinner. He said he never missed his one-hour walk. If the weather was bad, he put on boots and took a bigger umbrella.”

Clinton said Hope would love being at his tournament this week because of all the emphasis on health. Many of the ads promoting this tournament feature people walking. They have a program called Humana Walkit that has people wearing pedometers — the gallery, golfers, officials — and have pledged $10 for every mile up to a total of 100 million steps or a maximum donation of $500,000.

They even handed out pedometers with press credentials. Good luck with that. Call it a misstep.

Clinton’s health message, while universal in scope, has a personal side. He is 65, has had heart surgery and says that one of the huge problems ahead for this country is the growing imbalance of older people to younger.

Poor care for all those elderly will result in costs that bring what he called “a tremendous burden for our children.”

He talked about watching tour golfer Erik Compton in amazement earlier in the day.

“He’s had two heart transplants, and he is driving the ball 300 yards out there,” Clinton said. “And he’s not riding around in a golf cart.”

He talked about a health summit held here earlier this week as part of the new agenda of this PGA Tour event and praised the work of tour pro Notah Begay, a Native American who participated in the summit and is leading an effort to battle obesity on reservations.

As usual with Clinton, his message was clear, and his delivery was smooth and entertaining.

He joked about the time he played in the tournament years ago as part of a foursome that included former presidents George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford, as well as pro Scott Hoch.

“We all [the three presidents] played terrible,” Clinton said. “On the first tee, Ford and Bush duck-hooked their drives, and I just popped mine up short and right. That was good because they got credit for the casualties.

“Bob Hope played four holes with us and sang the whole time.”

Clinton, who said he once got his game to about a 10 handicap in the year after he left office in 2001, said he has yet to regain his swing balance and his distance off the tee since his heart surgery.

The commitment of the William J. Clinton Foundation and Humana runs for eight years, and Clinton said his plans are to be here for the entire week each year. Saturday, he will play a round in the tournament alongside his friend Greg Norman, whom Clinton enticed to play to help the revitalized event with gate and image.

“I gotta play better tomorrow,” Clinton said. “If I don’t, Greg Norman will be ragging me for the rest of my life.”

Soon, it was time to leave. Those who make a living buzzing around like mosquitoes and tugging important people in this direction and that were buzzing and tugging. Clinton seemed as if he wanted to stay, to talk some more, to show off some of his own golf memorabilia in the foundation tent. But he was tugged outside, where a large crowd had gathered to see him.

He smiled, waved, tried to chat a bit over the ropes, and then climbed into a golf cart and was whisked away.

From the crowd of golf fans came the chant: “Run again. Run again.”

Sounded political.

bill.dwyre@latimes.com