Bipartisan Golf Opens Clinton Vacation : Politics: He plays with ex-President Ford and Nicklaus. He takes a swing at recent polarization.

VAIL, Colo. —  President Clinton began a multi-state vacation Saturday with a bipartisan golf match, expressing hope that his Administration can avoid the political polarization with Republicans that marked the first months of his presidency.

Clinton and golf pro Jack Nicklaus teamed up against former President Gerald R. Ford and a Houston businessman, Ken Lay, at the Country Club of the Rockies golf course.

As they stopped their golf carts to pose for pictures, Clinton was asked about the significance of a Democratic President playing with a Republican.

“It’s the way I’m going to try to run the rest of my Administration. I don’t ever want the kind of polarization we had the last six months,” Clinton said.

Not one Republican voted for Clinton’s $496-billion package of tax increases and spending cuts that squeaked through Congress, and the GOP blocked Clinton’s economic stimulus program. The President will need Republican support to get his health care program through Congress next year.

He said he also was counting on the GOP to back his anti-crime proposals.

Ford, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday, said, “We’ve got a few things where we have similar views, particularly NAFTA (the free trade agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico) which I think is a very critical issue for the country.

“I’ll be as helpful as I possibly can,” he said. But when asked his views about Clinton’s budget, Ford said with a laugh: “I look down the road to the future. I don’t talk about the past.”

After a hectic two days of appearances in Colorado and California, Clinton arrived in Vail late Friday for a weekend of golf and rest with his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and their daughter Chelsea. They are staying in a private home two doors down from Ford in Beaver Creek.

Accompanied by Ford and his wife, Betty, the Clintons attended a performance by a touring group of the Bolshoi Ballet Academy of Moscow. At the conclusion of the program, they went on stage at the urging of Sophia Golovkina, director of the academy.

Mrs. Clinton and Mrs. Ford then tossed roses at a crowd of about 2,500.

Clinton will move his vacation headquarters to Fayetteville in northwestern Arkansas today or Monday, remaining there until Wednesday, with a side trip to Tulsa, Okla., on Monday for a speech to the National Governors’ Assn.

After a night back in Washington, he will fly to Massachusetts for an 11-day stay on Martha’s Vineyard.

To minimize the demands on his vacation time, Clinton taped his weekly radio address Thursday rather than deliver it live Saturday.

In it, the President promoted his anti-crime package and urged Americans to try to influence fellow citizens who may think they are above the law.