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Clinton not the first President to improve his handicap

Bill Clinton says his reputation for awarding himself free shots on the golf course -- golfers call them ``mulligans'' -- is greatly exaggerated. He doesn't do it all that much, and even when he does, he says, he doesn't get a lot of benefit from it.

``My mulligans are way overrated,'' the president said in an interview with Golf Digest, in which he explained his mulligan philosophy and said he loves the game because it brings him closer ``to being a normal person.''

Taking mulligans ``screws your game up,'' Clinton told interviewer Thomas Friedman, a foreign policy analyst for The New York Times and a contributing editor to the golfing magazine. The New York Times Company owns Golf Digest.

``You'd be surprised at how many times you don't get a bit of good out of it,'' Clinton said.

``I normally don't (take them),'' he said. ``I let everyone have one off the first tee, and then normally what I do when I'm playing with people is, I just play around and if somebody makes a terrible shot I say, 'Well, take that one,' and then I give everybody else one.''

Clinton said golf takes his mind off work. ``I like it for the same reason a lot of other busy people don't: I like it because it takes so much time,'' he said.

``You can't do well if you're thinking about anything else. ... This is the nearest I ever am to being a normal person.''

Of course, when you're the most powerful man in the world, it's impossible to really get away for a private round.

Bill Clinton in action at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.Allsport.

On a typical outing, Clinton is accompanied by more than a half-dozen golf carts carrying Secret Service agents, a police sniper, a photographer, a man carrying U.S. nuclear codes, various aides and someone with a secure telephone so the president can speak to world leaders between putts.

The president said Americans don't begrudge his time spent on the golf course because they know he works hard at his job. He was in Florida Tuesday, raising money for Democrats, and planned to sneak in a golf game Wednesday, weather permitting.

Clinton offered the theory that he may be the only president whose golf game has improved while he was in office. His nearly eight years in the White House may have grayed his hair, but they have also improved his backswing.

``It's only because I've gotten to play with all these pros and other good golfers, and they give me all this good advice,'' the president said.

He may have overlooked some other White House golfers whose game improved in office. Dwight D. Eisenhower was a latecomer to the game but became a golfing zealot. George Bush also got plenty of professional golfing advice during his White House years.

In the interview, conducted in August during a round of golf at the Army Navy Country Club in Fairfax, Va., Clinton said he gets to play with some regularity -- five times a month during the summer and about three times a month the rest of the year. He also has a practice tee at the White House, where he works on his short game.

Clinton, who took up the game as a boy and first played an old course in Hot Springs, Ark., said he's about a 12 handicap and has shot 15 or so rounds in the 70s, but is ``liable to have a bad round now and then.''

Clinton also had these things to say about golf:

-- His ``dream foursome'' would include ``Lincoln and the two Roosevelts.''

-- Golf is not an interest shared by other members of his family. First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton may play once a year to ``humor'' him and daughter Chelsea took a few lessons but never got interested.

-- As for Al Gore: ``You know, he tried to learn, and started playing a little bit because of his son,'' is all Clinton had to say.

Like all good competitions, Clinton said, golf is much more than just a simple game.

``Golf is like life in a lot of ways: The most important competition is the one against yourself. All the biggest wounds are self-inflicted. And you get a lot of breaks you don't deserve, both ways. So it's important not to get too upset when you're having a bad day.''

 

 

 

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