Bill Clinton And Burton Shipley Remarks To Press

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Queenstown, New Zealand)

For Immediate Release September 14, 1999

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AND MR. BURTON SHIPLEY
TO THE POOL
Millbrook Resort
Queenstown, New Zealand

6:41 P.M. (L)

Q How's your golf game today, Mr. President? Did it improve as you went along?

THE PRESIDENT: It got a lot better. It had nowhere to go but up when I started. No, we did better and we won the match, thanks mostly to my partner here. But we did okay. We played the way partners should play. When I had a good score, he didn't; when he had a good score, I didn't play good. We wasted no shots.

MR. SHIPLEY: The President suggested at one stage that we were playing very good brother-in-law golf. I thought the line was very good.

Q (Inaudible.)

THE PRESIDENT: We did, we actually played the pro and his partner, and we won -- and they bought me a Diet Coke. It was a big stake here, it was great.

Q (Inaudible) -- the last hole?

THE PRESIDENT: No, we won that, too. All four of us parred all four holes the second time we played.

MR. SHIPLEY: But we got a couple more strokes.

Q Are you satisfied with how the talks went in New York today?

THE PRESIDENT: What?

Q It seemed to be positive, it seemed that the Indonesians signed on to what the United States wants.

THE PRESIDENT: It appears so. You know, the initial report I got was quite good, but I want to get a detailed briefing about exactly where we are. I think the important thing is to get the force mobilized, get it in in a hurry, and also get the humanitarian aid out there. There are a lot of people still actually in East Timor who need food and supplies, so we've got a lot of work to do.

Q What have you heard about the hurricane?

Q Are you monitoring Hurricane Floyd?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. I talked to Mr. Witt this morning and he told me he would call me back in about 12, 14 hours and let me know where it was. I've not talked to him since I got up these morning.

Q It sounds like a monster storm, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, he said it's going to be huge. And we didn't know at the time how many states would be hit for sure. But all the experts think it's going to be a very, very large storm. We'll just have to hope for the best.

Q (Inaudible.)

THE PRESIDENT: It's fabulous, it's really quite a wonderful course. It's an honest course. It's a good course, it plays hard, but it's an honest course.

Q What do you think of Queenstown?

THE PRESIDENT: I wish I had weeks to spend here. You know, when we were coming in the airplane, landing, everybody on our plane was just gasping when we saw the landscape. It's just so beautiful. You're all very fortunate.

Q When are you coming back, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: How about next week? (Laughter.)

Q (Inaudible.)

THE PRESIDENT: This guy hits the ball further than any person his age I've ever played with, including a lot of the pros I've played water treatment.

MR. SHIPLEY: Just not as straight as the pros.

THE PRESIDENT: And it's only because his public service has kept him from playing every day that he's not a scratch golfer.

Q What did Chelsea do today?

THE PRESIDENT: I think she looked around here and went running. I don't think she went caving or anything as great as yesterday.

ENDS

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