1.23.2012
tiM;rosafortE
sezna’s;presidential;week
davis sezna is a registered
republican who likes to
think of himself as an independent thinker—especially
when it comes to bill clinton. after seeing the president in action, he compared
him to a cross between
dwight eisenhower and
arnold palmer.
to tell a story on health and
wellness. it was more than
a home run. it was a grand
slam.
day night party. president
clinton dropped by, intending to spend 20 minutes.
he hung around for three
hours, enjoying not only
the company, but also the
vegan pizza one of the club
members prepared.
“what’s terrific is having
the incredible honor and
pleasure to meet the for-
mer president of the united
states,” sezna said from
his car saturday night in la
quinta, calif. “but as i told
him on the golf course today,
it was so charming to have
the opportunity get to know
him as a person.”
the bob hope tournament
was on life support, sezna
was playing seminole gc in
florida with deutsche bank
ceo seth waugh. clinton’s
name entered the conver-
sation. “we didn’t have a
sponsor, we didn’t have a
host and i didn’t think it was
long before the plug would
have been pulled,” sezna
said. “that’s when seth said,
‘i’ll be having dinner with the
president, and would you
like me to present the idea of
him hosting?’ i said, ‘abso-
lutely. he’d be a home run.’ ”
last august, a golf game
was arranged with clin-
ton at trump national in
westchester county, n.y.
“he patted me on the knee
about the 13th hole and
said, ‘i know all about you,’
sezna said. the reference
was to davis losing his
oldest son, deeg, in the
september 11 attacks. their
conversation went beyond
golf. they bonded on a dif-
ferent level.
saturday, sezna was on the
bag and dropping one-liners. play was suspended
on the 10th hole because
of high winds. clinton put
an arm around sezna and
joked about getting off easy.
sezna joked right back.
sezna is president of pga
west and the la quinta
resort, along with being a
former board member of
the tournament. he was the
guy carrying clinton’s bag
around the arnold palmer
private course at pga west
saturday at the humana
challenge. in 2010, when
the call back was more
than encouraging. waugh
used the word “intrigued” to
describe clinton’s response.
pga tour commissioner
tim finchem, a democrat
who worked in the carter
white house and got to
know clinton through the
presidents cup, became
involved. clinton’s partici-
pation and his foundation’s
worldwide outreach cap-
tured the interest of huma-
na. golf became a platform
“i asked him if i could have
15 minutes, never to be
repeated, and he said yes,”
sezna said. “you can say
he does his homework and
was extremely empathetic
but extremely sensitive
to the issue and willing to
discuss anything i wanted
to discuss about it.”
“i said i was one wrong club
from being exiled to the
ukraine,” he laughed.
each year at the tourna-
ment, sezna hosts a thurs-
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