Fox, Simpson share more than just a passion for golf

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Michael J. Fox (left) was diagnosed with Parkinson's in '91; Tim Simpson (right) has battled similar symptons for 15 years.

LUTZ, Fla. -- Tim Simpson teed off in Friday's first round of the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am seeking his first win on the Champions Tour. Meanwhile, his partner, Michael J. Fox, sought what all amateur golfers -- even those who are movie stars -- look for: a bit of redemption, a few good swings and perhaps some pars and maybe a birdie or two.

Ted Fleming/Special to PGA TOUR

Michael J. Fox and Tim Simpson put their game faces Friday.

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Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am
Amateur scores

Fox/Simpson Transcript

To read more about Michael J. Fox and Tim Simpson, check out their transcript from Friday's news conference. Click here • Listen to Fox and Simpson

No doubt, both golfers -- paired in this unique two-man team, best-ball format -- also knew to expect some frustrations on the course. After all, that's part of golf, right? Everybody experiences frustration at some point.

Simpson and Fox, though, deal with it from a different perspective than most of us.

Fox, the star of such movies as the Back to the Future trilogy and the hit TV series, Family Ties and Spin City, has been keeping his own scorecard with Parkinson's Disease since being diagnosed in 1991. And Simpson has overcome a 15-year battle with a movement disorder that is not Parkinson's but caused a tremor in his left hand that destroyed his golf game.

In 2005 at the nadir of his golf career, Simpson underwent Deep Brain Stimulation (yes, that is brain surgery) that allows him to continue to compete on an elite level with some of the most accomplished and recognizable players in the game on the Champions Tour.

While sitting next to Fox, Simpson -- a few weeks shy of his 53rd birthday -- opens his shirt to reveal a bulge in his chest that he called "his little deck of cards."

It's an implant," he explains. "It has a battery in it and I have a wire that goes up my neck and comes across, and you see me (top of my head) I have a little padding, bump here and that's a plastic cap (under his scalp) that covers the hole. The probe goes down into my brain and sends an electronic stimulation."

As he often jokingly tells his wife Leigh Anne, when he forgets something: "What do you expect -- I've got a hole in my head."

Simpson pointed out that he does not have Parkinson's, but his essential tremors are a movement disorder, described as a "cousin" of Parkinson's. And yet he knows he's "been given a second chance. I'm playing well."

For those who don't know, the symptoms of Parkinson's disease are slowness, stiffness, balance problems and tremors. Fox, who describes himself as an optimist, said (tongue-in-cheek) that's why with Parkinson's, he took he took up golf in his 40s.

"Make no mistake, I'm a horrible golfer," Fox said. "IIt's funny, I have a book out (Always Looking Up) right now about optimism, and there's no greater indication of optimism than the fact that I took up golf in my 40s with Parkinson's, so it got me behind the 8-ball right away."

With the disease, Fox said he never knows what he might be dealing with from day to day.

"Parkinson's is a great excuse for golf," Fox joked. "I love it when people tell me to be still over the ball."

Great advances to control Parkinson's diseason -- a progressive neurological disorder -- have been made during the last decade, according toDr. Robert Hauser, Director of the Parkinson's Disease Center at the University of South Florida.

More on Parkinson's Disease

For more information on the battle against Parkinson's Disease, please visit The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. Click here

"Many of these new medications help us control the symptoms of Parkinson's disease and also our understanding of the disease, where it starts in the body and brain and how it progresses," Dr. Hauser said. "I think for the future we are working on research particularly trying to diagnose the disease earlier, before people get tremors and trying to come up with medications to slow progression of disease.

"Ultimately we want a cure, and that's going to come from understanding the process of the disease ... and how the genes cause the disease and coming up with medications to stop, and that's an important avenue of research."

With a disease of this magnitude, said Dr. Hauser, smart investigators cannot do it all by themselves, thus making funding critical to research. He praised the Michael J. Fox Foundation. "They have been outstanding in raising funds and providing research," he noted.

Simpson believes his medical miracle for a second chance came with some strings attached, and he's never hesitant to discuss his surgery to others with similar symptons.

"I'm being used out here to help others," he said.

Fox said that while he may not accomplish much on the golf course this weekend, he has different objectives.

"I don't have a specific goal in wanting to achieve anything (this week)," he said, " but just become aware that by getting out and living a full life and doing things like this (playing golf) that perhaps provide an example that you can carry on with your life and get involved and do the things that you like to do."

Both men are on a mission and a few missed putts won't keep them from their appointed rounds beyond the golf course.

Said Simpson: "I will pray every day for the rest of my life that they can cure Parkinson's."