Pro Takes Shot at Helping Clinton With His Game

SYDNEY, Australia —  The president practiced his drives. He polished his putts. He surveyed his clubs. And then he blew his first shot.

After days of anticipation, President Clinton teed off Thursday with golf pro Greg Norman for the game of a lifetime.

“Too far left!” Clinton moaned as his first shot veered off course.

“Are you going to take another?” asked Norman, handing him another ball.

With that ready offer of a mulligan, or extra shot, the game quickly evolved into a sort of teaching clinic for Clinton from none other than “the Shark,” holder of 16 PGA titles and national hero in his native Australia.

“Someone call Maxfli and get some more balls,” Norman urged at the outset, making a joking call for reinforcements from a golf equipment company.

In a more charitable assessment on the sixth hole, Norman professed that Clinton was beating him.

“If you believe that, I’ve got a little land I want to show you,” chimed in Clinton, who reveled in a steady stream of free advice from Norman.

They didn’t keep score.

“It was pretty much an 18-hole golf lesson for the president by Greg Norman,” White House spokesman David Johnson said.

After his match in Sydney, Clinton and his wife, Hillary, flew today to Port Douglas, a beach resort in northern Australia.

The Clintons planned to take a boat out to the Great Barrier Reef. The two-night stay in Port Douglas was the couple’s last stop in Australia before the president attends a summit of Pacific Rim leaders in the Philippines.