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.

Remember the acronym ACA?

In federal government parlance, it stood for the Affordable Care Act, which was the label put on the so-called “health care reform” proposal from President Barack Obama – which weren’t affordable at all.

But that’s a story for another time.

Today, I use the ACA to stand for the “Affordable Course Act,” a proposal from my friend, George Peper, the editor of Links Magazine.

Is George Peper really a friend of mine? Well, perhaps not in any personal sense.

But I have followed Peper’s writings on golf from his days as editor of Gold Magazine, to his move to Scotland to become a member of St. Andrews Links Trust, which enabled him to play the seven courses there, including the Old Course, to his move back to the U.S. to edit Links.

In Scotland, the flat he and his wife bought and remodeled sat right near the 18^th hole on the Old Course.

Peper chronicled all this in a book, Two Years in St. Andrews, At Home on the 18^th Hole, which captured my imagination as I read it more than once. One of the my pipe dreams is to do what Peper did, which was to live on the Old Course, or, perhaps more possibly to do what another golf writer, Lorne Rubenstein, did when he stayed for four months near my favorite golf course in the world, Royal Dornoch, to the far north in Scotland.

Golf in Scotland? Yes. Many times yes. Setting foot on the Old Course, Royal Dornoch or many other courses in Scotland is a pure privilege to tread where golfers of old invented the game we love to play.

In a column in this month’s issue of Links Magazine, Peper advocates for his “Affordable Course Act” with this paragraph: “When I am appointed Golf Czar, my first order of business will be to address the games three big weaknesses – its glacial pace, extortionate expense, and damnable difficulty – and I will do so with my signature decree: The Affordable Course Act.”

Peper than goes on to outline three planks in his ACA platform:

• Each ACA course will have a USGA Pace Rating of no more than 240 minutes. [This means the course will be navigable by a group of four players, whether in carts or on foot, in four hours or less.]

As an aside, I sent an e-mail note to Peper last evening suggesting that he take a look at The Palms where I have the privilege of playing in La Quinta, California. The guideline there is to play in three and one-half hours and no one has a problem doing so.

• Each ACA course will have an average of green fee of $100 or less. [Peper would allow a bit higher fee on weekends and in peak season, but such fees will be balanced, he contends, by lower charges during the week and off-season.]
• Each ACA course will have a maximum USGA Slope Rating of 135. [And, be aware, that’s from the very back markers. The regular tees should check in at closer to 130 or less.]

Peper closes his piece with this:

“Thanks goodness once czardom is conferred on me, I’ll get this done for the good of golfkind. I recognize, however, that my coronation may not be imminent, so I hereby magnanimously offer my ACA formula and specs to all course owners, developers, and architects in the fervent hope that they’ll step up and do the right thing.”

Again, Peper scores well in what he writes — even of under par, to use a golf analogy. For the good of the game of golf, the proposals are worth considering, especially if we want to see the game grow.

For me, beyond The Palms in California, I have the privilege of playing at Illahe Hills Golf Club in Salem, Oregon. Over my 30-plus years at Illahe, it always has been easy to play in four hours or less.

So, it may be true that Illahe already meets the three ACA planks advocated by Peper.