Controversy Dogs Quayle on the Links : Racial: The vice president plays golf at an all-white country club in Pebble Beach. He cancels a second round after complaints from local officials.

WASHINGTON —  Vice President Dan Quayle canceled a second round of golf at a Northern California course Friday after being criticized for playing at a country club with an all-white membership.

His office said he was unaware, when he played the first round Thursday, of the controversy surrounding the Cypress Point Club.

Quayle shot more than 18 holes at the course in Pebble Beach, provoking outrage from some local officials. The Professional Golfers Assn. in September ruled the club ineligible for the 1991 AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

“I have a great concern about the vice president of the United States playing at Cypress Point and not being aware of the sensitivity of the issue that revolves around it,” Monterey County Supervisor Sam Karas said.

Secret Service agents kept reporters and photographers off the club’s private grounds when they tried to question Quayle.

But his office in Washington released a statement from Press Secretary David Beckwith, stating Quayle was “unaware of the controversy surrounding the Cypress Point golf course. He has been assured the club does not discriminate and has never had a policy of discrimination.”

But, the statement said: “The vice president is unwilling to leave any impression that he condones any form of discrimination. He has therefore canceled his round of golf today.”

Quayle is a member of the Burning Tree country club outside Washington, which has an all-male membership.

He was returning Friday to his skiing vacation in Colorado before going back to Washington today. Quayle will leave tonight for a New Year’s visit to the troops in the Persian Gulf.

Asked how Quayle could be unaware of the highly publicized controversy involving the club’s banishment from the national tournament, Bill Kristol, his chief of staff, said in a telephone interview: “It proves he’s not spending time reading the golf pages.”

An official who answered the telephone at the club’s hotel, where Quayle was staying, said the staff had been instructed not to try to contact Quayle’s party.

Golfing with Quayle on Thursday were two Cypress Point Club members who are officials in the Bush Administration: Donald B. Rice, the Air Force secretary, and Ebersole Gaines, U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas.