Shark: Clinton Bromance Traced To 41

Ron Sirak previews the Bob Hope Classic Humana Challenge (noon PT Golf Channel start) and talks to Greg Norman about how he got to know President Bill Clinton.

That call came in 1994 when the President asked to get together with the Shark while Clinton was on a state visit to Australia. The immediate reaction from Greg, a self-described Republican despite the fact he is not an American citizen, was to turn down the invitation.

"I didn't really feel comfortable with his political positions," Norman said. "But I asked President George H.W. Bush and he said, 'I have a piece of advice for you. Respect the office.'" Clinton and Norman played at New South Wales GC while Greg was back home for the Australian Open. The course was closed, they played as a twosome and they hit it off.

Scott McCarron visited the press room Wednesday and talked about playing with Norman and Clinton Saturday, as well as a Humana dinner at Bob Hope's house.

Comments

[Press Agent]

I find myself disliking Norman more and more every day.

[thusgone]

i can't think of a single one of clinton's political positions that would give any rational australian pause. indeed, i can't think of any clinton political positions that implicate australia at all.

the fact that someone needed to advise the great white windbag to respect the office tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the guy. "self-described republican," what a douche-nozzle.

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

We really don't feel comfortable on your golf courses, so that makes us even. And the wine, well, once in a while it is better than two buck chuck.

[Boobtube]

Great White Windbag. Good one, thusgone.

[Chuck]

The political differences were just a ruse. The true reason that Norman disapproved of Clinton was that he had been unfaithful to his wife.

[Sandfly]

I read somewhere that Tom Watson had to tell his whole team to "respect the office" when Clinton invited them to the White House before or after the Ryder Cup he captained. The team had elected to turn down the invitation en masse till he told them to grow up. And I have a notion that they were less than well-behaved when trotted out reluctantly to the event.

[thusgone]

@sandfly: i remember being really disappointed in those guys - particularly azinger, whom i've always liked - when they did that. but - unlike norman - at least they had a dog in the fight when it came to objecting to clinton's policies and/or party affiliation.

[Sandfly]

Not so sure, thusgone. Norman lives a great deal of his life in the US, and I'm sure a great many of his business interests are headquartered there, so his economic/policy interests are as valid as those of native-borns. I'm sure he has heavy tax liabilities in the US as well as probably in Australia.

I read on some other blog or chat board some years ago the comment that the PGA Tour was the Republican party at play. From what I can see there is a good deal of truth to that, and it's the rabid element of the Republicans, too. Wouldn't do any harm to see it a bit more politically diverse. Might open it up to the other kinds of diversity it professes to want.

But when Clinton left office he had trouble finding a country club he could join to play golf. If country clubs are so Republican that they are not even interested in ex-presidents, they are not likely to be open to a whole lot of immigrants or working class people. It's not really a very pretty picture that the membership of the PGA Tour provides.

[thusgone]

@sandfly: in all fairness, i suspect clinton's difficulty in finding a club that would accept him had less to do with his party affiliation than with the public embarrassment that followed the disclosure of how he conducts himself in private. i voted for the guy, but i wouldn't want him anywhere near my family. also, he's a well-known golf cheat.

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

Indeed. Winged Foot or someplace similar would have let the man in if he had had the good sense and self control to ignore the thong of a 20-something intern. Idjit. And I voted for the peckerwood. Twice. Idjit. As for Azinger, his honorable service in the US Military gave him every right to call the president a draft dodger, which he was, of course. Kind of like Dick Cheney, N. Leroy Gingrich, Bush43, Mitt Romney...the list is long. Very long.

[Sandfly]

I wasn't aware of any military service except "The War on the Shore." His old man was in the military, but when did Zinger fit it in? He turned pro at 21, after attending college.

[arb:]

Greg Norman's opinions on anything other than golf make him look like Donald Trump with slightly less ridiculous hair.

BTW-Clinton admits that he did not want to serve due to his opposition to the Vietnam War, although since he was on a Rhodes Scholarship during most of his draft eligible years, it is unlikely that he would have been called up... If that makes a draft dodger, just like the card burners and Canadian immigrants, all the war-lovin' Republicans who wriggled out of serving their country are chickenhawks plain and simple.