Clinton not worried over surgery

He and former President Bush golfed in a tournament to aid tsunami victims.
HOBE SOUND, Fla. (AP) -- A relaxed Bill Clinton hit a soggy golf course Wednesday for a charity event for tsunami victims, joking about his game and saying he was not worried about his impending surgery.
Clinton went golfing with former President Bush a day before he was to check himself into the hospital for a low-risk operation to remove a buildup of fluid and scar tissue pressing on his left lung -- a rare complication from his heart-bypass surgery six months ago.
"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," he said. "I'm just grateful for every day when the sun comes up. But it is not a dangerous procedure, unless something totally unpredictable happens."
Clinton said he knew he needed the operation before he and Bush embarked on a tour of tsunami-ravaged countries last month and scheduled it around the trip and the golf event, which was expected to raise about $2 million for tsunami victims.
Bush gets handicap
The better golfer of the two, Clinton gave Bush a handicap of a few strokes but said he questioned whether that was fair against the athletic Bush, who went sky diving for his 80th birthday.
"He should be giving me strokes. He's the one jumping out of airplanes," the 58-year-old Clinton said of the man he unseated after one term in 1992.
Bush also joked about his golf game and said the tournament would have a "no laughing rule ... which is in effect every time I swing."
About 60 golfers are paying $30,000 each in the tournament at Medalist Golf Club, about 100 miles north of Miami. The event was organized by golfer Greg Norman, a longtime friend of Clinton's.
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