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.

The blog headline above refers to my experience yesterday – walking Illahe Hills Golf Course here in Salem, Oregon to watch high school athletes play golf in a tournament that drew all five schools from our city.

Great fun!

I love that our course made time for the kids to play. Most of them don’t have access to a course of such high quality on a regular basis, so I, as one Illahe member, support giving kids of all abilities the experience to play in tournaments on an excellent course.

My fond memory, of course, applies to my own experience many moons ago of watching my son Eric play in high school tournaments. He had honed his game in his early years at Illahe.

It was not uncommon, in the summer, for me to drop him off at Illahe in the morning, then pick him up as light faded into night. He would have hit 10 bags of golf balls on the range, gone for a swim, played a bit of tennis, charges my number at the hamburger and hot dog shop, then gone out for golf with some of the older guys at Illahe who wanted to play, they told me, “with the young guy with a shock of red hair who could hit the ball a mile.”

The experience at Illahe was a key factor in Eric getting a golf scholarship to play for the Beavers at Oregon State University, which turned out to be another great experience for him.

At one point, he even gave me just a bit of credit for helping him get his start in golf, which remains a passion for him to this day. Good for a father to hear such a comment!

My daughter, Lissy, also had great experiences at Illahe, some on the golf course, and some in the swimming pool where she spent time with friends, intent on opening the pool in the spring and closing it in the fall.

Memories like this came flooding back to me as I watched high school golf yesterday.

Three of my young friends were involved, each of whom is in a family with an Illahe Hills membership and each of whom tolerates me as an “old guy friend.”

• Quincy Beyrouty is in her final year at Sprague High School, then, upon graduation, will head up to George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon to pursue her degree on a golf scholarship.
• Her brother, Sawyer, leads the boys team at Sprague where he hits the ball a mile.
• Brandon Eyre is a sophomore at West Salem High School where he is a three-sport star – football, basketball and golf – though it appears he will focus on golf as he prepares for college, still a couple years away.

Great kids all!

It was a great day for me yesterday to be able to walk or ride with them on few golf holes and to see first-hand how they conducted themselves with golf skill and golf etiquette.

And note that I have not written word-one about their scores. For this blog, scores don’t matter. What does matter is seeing three great young people have fun on the golf course, with me in the audience.