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.

…it is because I just completed an endurance test – a four-day rules of golf seminar in Portland sponsored jointly by the United States Golf Association (USGA) and the PGA of America.

The seminar was two things:

• A solid look at new golf rules, which are scheduled to be effective as of January 1, 2019 – and, based on work done jointly by the USGA and the R & A in Europe, the number of rules has been reduced and the style of writing has been updated.
• A complicated – perhaps too complicated — look at golf rules, which, if you allow yourself to do so, can twist your brain in circles.

Another point must be added quickly. It is that golf is played on a large tract of land in the out-of-doors, so the rules are bound to be more complicated than what exists for indoor sports such as basketball or football, plus many others.

After enduring the four days, here is a summary of my wishes:

1. I wish golf rule writers would land on either “dropping” a ball or “placing” a ball. As it is, the use of the two steps can create a lot of confusion.
2. In the same way, I wish golf writers would land on two penalties – a two-stroke penalty or a disqualification penalty. As it is, there are three – one stroke, two strokes and DQ, the latter of which is related to what could be labeled a “serious breach” – which often means a code of conduct violation. If the rule writers could settle on one stroke or two, not both, those who have to interpret rules on a golf course would have a simpler process.
3. And, if I were a golf rules writer, I would revise the new policy about bunkers. Most of the time, those whose play out of a bunker are prohibited from touching the sand before a shot. Now, with the new rules, three strange actions are now possible – (a) players are allowed to lean on a club in a bunker before hitting a shot if that would help them “stay balanced,” (b) players are allowed to leave extra clubs or even their golf bags in the bunker while they play, and (c) players are allowed expressly to pound their club in the sand “in frustration or anger” after hitting a bad shot in the bunker, even that shot ends up staying in the bunker.

Stupid!

I actually find it hard to believe that the USGA and PGA have enshrined “frustration and anger” in the new rules. In Oregon, in the tournaments where I help to officiate, such behavior would prompt a serious code of conduct violation.

On the plus side when it comes to rules for bunkers, players who want to do so can now take a ball out of a bunker for a penalty of two strokes and play from that new area.

I also have a major suggestion going through the seminar. I would add a section on one of the days that could be entitled, “The Top 10 Rules Situations You Will Encounter on the Golf Course.”

That way, those into the golf rules business would be able to focus on what’s likely to occur, not the minutia of many of the individual rules. Just a thought.

Finally, I would give the USGA and the PGA credit for working together to provide information rules seminars. The two organizations could proceed separately; they have agreed to cooperate, which is good for golf.

Overall, the new rules effective in 2019 are not a wholesale change. Many of the old rules remain in place. But what the USGA and R & A have done is a step in the right direction if one goal is to encourage more play and more golfers to play.

Still, strikes me that there is more to be done on those scores.