PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

One of my favorite golf magazines, Links, produced a story for its on-line version listing favorite places where “you could fall in love with golf (again).”

For me, I am not sure that is necessary because I still love the sport.

But one of the mentions captured my eye because it reminded me of one of my favorite sojourns in the home of golf, Scotland. It is Royal Dornoch.

Here is a quote from Links:

“If you’ve already made the pilgrimage to St. Andrews and want to drink deeper from the Home of Golf’s bottomless cup, head to the Highlands where storied links rim the shores of firths and bays within shouting distance of the Arctic Circle.

“Start with legendary Royal Dornoch, established in 1616, then move on to an unmatched supporting cast: Cruden Bay, Royal Aberdeen, Castle Stuart, Nairn, Trump International, Carnegie Club, and many more. Extended daylight in summer easily permits a second (or third) round.”

If you asked me to list my favorite golf course in the world – a bit of a artificial question, I admit – Royal Dornoch would be at or near the top of the list.

I have had the privilege of going there on several occasions and never tired of this great example of links golf in Scotland.

My curiosity was peaked when I read a book, A Season in Dornoch, by golf writer Lorne Rubenstein. With his wife, he went from his home in Toronto to Scotland for several months to live and play golf there. He rented a flat on the second story of a bookstore in the town of Dornoch and it was only a short walk to the golf course.

He didn’t only play there. Lorne and his wife got to know the residents of Dornoch. Plus, he walked on the course, telling stories of the sounds his feet made as he trekked his way around the course that sits astride the Firth of Fourth.

An excerpt from the book:

“The town of Dornoch, Scotland, lies at nearly the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska. A bit too far removed for the taste of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, the Royal Dornoch Club has never hosted a British Open, but that has hardly diminished its mystique or its renown. In an influential piece for the New Yorker in 1964, Herbert Warren Wind wrote, ‘It is the most natural course in the world. No golfer has completed his education until he has played and studied Royal Dornoch’

“If any town in the world deserves to be described as ‘the village of golf,’ it’s Dornoch…The game has been played in Dornoch for some 400 years. Its native son Donald Ross brought the style of the Dornoch links to America, where his legendary, classic courses include Pinehurst #2, Seminole and Oak Hill.”

All of this captured my imagination when I read the book and, so, with my wife, we made a pilgrimage to Dornoch a number of years ago and have been back several times since that first trip. For my wife, Nancy, it was a return “to her homeland, Scotland,” or, more accurately, the homeland of her parents when each emigrated from Scotland to the U.S. when they were children.

[As an aside, I cannot avoid mentioning President Trump in almost any blog I write, even this one. So, listen Trump – my wife is the child of immigrants who made their life better in the U.S., even as they loved their homeland. I, too, am the grandson of immigrants, this time from Norway.]

Back to the Links Magazine article. It turns out that I have played most of the mentioned courses, except Trump International and Carnegie Club. I have no interest in playing the Trump course, if only because the president’s name is attached to it. Perhaps I’ll play the Carnegie Club at some point.

But, as for the others — Cruden Bay, Royal Aberdeen, Castle Stuart, Nairn – each represented a true experience in Scottish links golf.]

I love Scottish golf. And I love the book, A Season in Dornoch. In fact, if only because of this blog, I am starting to read it again for at least the 10^th time.

And, this footnote: I was fascinated a few months ago to learn that Royal Dornoch charges a only a $1,177 initiation fee, plus $557 in annual dues, making that $1,734 first year cost the bargain of a lifetime. Perhaps I’ll become a Royal Dornoch member, if only to to say that I have status.