Clinton Finds Executive Privilege Extends to Golf

President Clinton played golf in sweltering heat Wednesday before flying back to Washington and beginning the last phase of his three-state vacation.

Clinton, who turns 47 today, will mark his birthday by flying to Martha’s Vineyard, an island off Cape Cod, for an 11-day stay at the secluded estate of former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara.

The President spent two nights at a lakeside home in northwest Arkansas after two days in Vail, Colo. Over the course of five days, he found time for three golf matches, went horseback riding and dove into Beaver Lake for a long swim.

Clinton began Wednesday’s game at Champions golf course and country club in nearby Rogers by stretching and complaining, “Oh, God, am I sore.” Temperatures climbed toward 100 degrees by the afternoon.

He wasn’t happy with his first drive, which whistled through the leaves on nearby oak trees.

“Hit another one if you want to, Mr. President,” offered David Matthews, a former state legislator who joined Clinton and four other golfers. “It’s just a drill.”

“Is it OK?” Clinton asked the others.

“You’re the President of the United States, you can do whatever you want to,” Matthews assured him.

But Clinton wasn’t happy with his second drive, either. “No, that was worse,” he said. “I rushed it.”

Matthews teed off before Clinton and sent his ball toward a stand of trees. “Those trees are mostly air,” Clinton said, apparently trying to reassure Matthews.

Matthews declined the offer of another try from the first tee. “A Democrat from Benton County has to be able to go around a lot of obstacles,” he said, referring to the fact that northwest Arkansas, where they were playing, generally has been a Republican stronghold in national elections.

Aside from Matthews, Clinton’s golfing partners were John Tyson, whose grandfather founded Tyson Foods Inc.; Lisa Cornwell, a local golf champion and cousin of Clinton’s; Grant Hall, a newspaper sports columnist, and Woody Bassett, a Fayetteville lawyer and former law school student of Clinton’s when he taught at the University of Arkansas.