The Country Club of Little Rock, where Bill Clinton has played golf several times a year since he became Governor, sits on a graceful hill in an exclusive neighborhood called the Heights, its greens sloping down to the Arkansas River. Opened just after the turn of the century, it recalls an older South in many ways, including its membership: 500 white men and women.

Last week Mr. Clinton, his quest for the Democratic Presidential nomination seemingly wrapped up, found himself under fire for playing at the club, and he quickly admitted he had made a mistake and vowed never to play there again until it was integrated.

"A guy asked me to play nine holes of golf," he said on Friday. "It was the only place we had time to play. I should not have done it."

But he did not explain why he had played at the club for years despite its all-white membership. Today, Mike Gauldin, his spokesman in Arkansas, was asked that question; he said, "No one ever complained about it before."