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.

For a person who follows golf rules, there was another fascinating situation last Sunday in the final round of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament.

After suspensions of play earlier in the day due to bad weather, the two players in the final group – Phil Mickelson and Paul Casey – were trying to finish before dark.

And it was dark, though, as always, TV screens tended to show more light than there was.

On the 16^th green, Mickelson finished the hole, as Casey exercised his right not to finish, with a four or five-foot put for par left on the hole. He wanted to wait until Monday when, among other things, the greens would have been manicured to remove blemishes after a long day of play on Sunday.

The first impression, left by announcers in the TV booth, was that both players – Mickelson and Casey – would have to decide together whether to continue

Mickelson appeared to want to continue. Casey did not.

Both were within their rights according to golf rules.

But, the fact is that, in stroke play, one player can continue and one player can stop. They key phrase is, “in stroke play.”

If one player – in this case, Mickelson – decided to keep playing, he could do so, but then Casey, who had decided to stop playing, would have had to follow Mickelson in order to keep serving as his scorekeeping marker.

It turned out that both players stopped, leaving two holes to finish on the next day.

All of this was pointed out to me on Monday as I played at The Palms golf course here in La Quinta. One of the other members there is Tom Loss, a long-time golf rules official who, besides serving as a referee in many national pro and amateur tournaments, worked for TV as a rules adviser.

He has told me that he was often in a TV truck on a tournament site, providing advice to commentators, off-camera and off-mike.

As we talked on this Monday, he came across as irritated that, whomever was providing rules advice during the CBS telecast, did not summarize the accurate rules application. In match play, players agree together on whether to continue playing or not. In stroke play, the decision does not have to be made together.

A final note is that I have known Tom for many years. Back more than 20 years ago, he served as a rules official in the first of 11 national tournaments in which my son, Eric, has played. I was on the bag for Eric in that tournament in Connecticut and I remember, on the first hole, that Tom waved me off to stand farther to the side as Eric played his second shot into the par 4.

I add quickly that, as a caddy, I knew enough not stand behind a player during a swing. I thought I was in an appropriate position, but, nonetheless, I quickly moved farther away at Tom’s direction.

I don’t know why this situation sticks in my mind to this day.  A friend said that this 20-year-old memory, which I had described to him, struck him like pro golfers who remember shots they hit to win tournaments long in the past.  They remember the club they hit, how far it was to the hole, and whether they hit a fade or a draw.

But, if nothing else for me, my memory of Tom’s role long ago indicates that I value him as a rules official.  And, in this case involving Mickelson and Casey, he is right.

This was confirmed to me earlier when another friend, Mike Bennett, said something similar happened to him when he and others were playing in a college golf tournament some years ago. He said one player in a group could continue; others in a group could stand down. And that’s what happened in his tournament.

A footnote to all of this is that, on Monday, Mickelson won the tournament by playing the final two holes in one under par and Casey finished solo second when he birdied #18. His pro-am team also won that side of the tournament.

Good result, I say, for both Mickelson and Casey. And Mickelson struck a classy note when, on Monday, he complimented Casey on the decision not continue on Sunday night. It was a solid and understandable decision Mickelson said, one that worked for both players.

Based on this situation, I learned something more about golf rules, which shows, among other things, that I don’t have much else to do in retirement. But golf rules situation are fun, just as they are difficult to decipher, even under the new golf rules (they were effective as of January 1) developed by the United States Golf Association and the Royal & Ancient.