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 750 golf courses is the record established by George Peper, an excellent golf writer who now edits one of my favorite golf magazines, Links.

In the current on-line issue, he reports this:

“About a month ago, I played for the first time a fine links course on England’s Somerset Coast called Burnham & Berrow. Now, normally this would be an occasion of no particular significance—certainly not worth trumpeting in the first line of a LINKS column—but in this instance it meant something. You see, B&B happened to be the 750th golf course I’ve played.”

Wow!

In his column, Peper went on to admit that he kept the names of all the courses on an Excel spreadsheet, so he could review the list by name of course, date of its opening, architect and various other facts.

Too much time on his hands, you might say.

Perhaps.

But, he enjoyed doing what he has done over the years, so what’s the problem?

Peper also issued a friendly challenge to readers to come up with their own list if they hadn’t kept a list like he had done.

I took that challenge and, with help from my wife and daughter, came up with my own list, which, incredibly for me, reaches about 175.

And, that is only a list of the courses I have played, not how many times I have played some of them, which, in the case of my home track, Illahe Hills Golf and Country Club in Salem, Oregon, is a lot.

As Peper predicted, coming up with the list was a welcome mental challenge and enabled me to look back over my golfing life to recall great moments such as at Royal Dornoch in the small Scottish town of Dornoch and the Old Course in St. Andrews, also in Scotland.

Reflecting on experiences of the past – and the great venues involved – was a great way to spend part of a Sunday…after church, of course.

Like Peper, I also thought about new courses where I would still like to be able to play, including Pebble Beach and Spyglass in California and Pinehurst in the East. Perhaps some day.

But, meanwhile, don’t bother me – I’ll be working to add to my list and playing golf at Illahe.