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.

In addition to what the preamble describes as my interest in golf, I also have had an affinity over the years for the golf commentating business on TV.

One of the best, Johnny Miller, is calling it quits soon. He’ll be replaced in the top commentating spot at NBC by Paul Azinger. For me, this is good news because Azinger already has made a name for himself on other networks, including Fox and ESPN.

Now he’ll get to join host Dan Hicks on NBC golf broadcasts.

Why do I pay attention to this? Well, one reason, I suppose, is that, in retirement, I don’t have much else to do.

But, more substantively, those who call golf on TV can make the experience enjoyable for a fan like me. Or, by over-talking, they can make the experience tedious.

Over the years, Miller, a great golfer in his own right, made a name for himself by not fawning over golfers, however good they appear to be on TV. He irritated some of them by calling out their faults, or suggesting that they were choking, a tough word in any major sports endeavor.

Azinger, for his part, is looking forward to his new gig, though it is likely that he will not turn out to be as negative as Miller. I suspect he still will not pull any punches.

In a story in one of my golf magazines, it was reported that when word of the change leaked, Miller told Azinger: “Keep telling like it is. I don’t know why people can’t tell it like it is. You do and I do, but few others will.”

Azinger’s only reservation about the new position was the history at NBC where golf commentators, as he put it, “talk to each other.”

“At Fox or ESPN, we talked to the audience. At NBC, a lot of sentences end in somebody’s name.”

Azinger added that he may need to change his approach to coincide with that approach, but I suspect he could end upleading leading an effort to talk to the audience more directly.

Here is how Azinger ended the interview in the golf magazine.

“Toni (Azinger’s wife) told me that I’m good at two things: Golf and talking. That’s true, but she also told me, ‘remember, nobody tunes in to that tournament to hear you.’ She’s right again. My job is to inform the viewer about something that the pictures don’t show. And in that role, I’ve learned that less is more.  Hopefully, I’ll always keep that in mind.”