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 to 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 press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as 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.

Slow play has come up several times recently as a plague for many sports, but golf, especially, has tended to get into first place on the problem list.

Those who criticize have a point and, so far at least, those who administer the game of golf on the PGA Tour appear not to have done much about the problem.

All it would take for slow play to end is for a player or players to get penalty strokes. Almost immediately there would be no more plague. Hit pro golfers in their pocketbooks to solve the problem.

A couple instances lately have brought the subject to the fore (pardon the pun).

In one case, Bryson DeChambeau, a five-time PGA Tour winner, came under fire for two instances of slow play last week at the Northern Trust tournament. The instances of DeChambeau’s slow play and his defense made the social media rounds and led to harsh criticism.

He was clearly upset by the backlash, twice defending himself to reporters and suggesting that his speed in getting to the ball should balance any extra time he might take to hit it.

Here’s the way Wall Street Journal writer Jason Gay put it in a recent column:

”Even golf pros think golf can go on too long. Witness the recent controversy around the young golf star Bryson DeChambeau, a wildly talented, tournament-winning 25-year-old who sometimes moves around a golf course like, well, a tortoise on Benadryl.

“A viral video made the rounds this past weekend of DeChambeau preparing for a putt. DeChambeau looks at his putt from one angle. Then he looks from another angle. Then another. DeChambeau spends more time prepping for this putt than I did for my wedding and the birth of my children combined.

“The whole thing lasts…well, it only lasts a bit longer than two minutes, but it feels like forever. One of DeChambeau’s playing partners starts reading Dickens. The other crochets a cable-knit sweater. OK, I’m making that stuff up, but you get the point.

“Here’s the big finale: He misses the putt. It’s like watching someone spend six hours making a pie, only to drop it on the ground.”

The second incident involved one of the slowest players of all time — , J.P. Holmes. He takes forever to line up any shot, often plumb-bombing even three or four foot puts. Plus, he never prepares to hit any shot until it is exactly his turn to play – in other words, he always waits until the last minute to get ready to hit, then takes forever to hit the shot.

It has become so bad that I, as a dedicated golf player, will turn to a commercial when it is Holmes’ turn to hit. Can’t watch the elongated process.

Okay, rather than just complain, here are my ideas about actions to take.

1. Adopt what the Oregon Golf Association (OGA) does for all of its tournaments, including ones it runs for the United State Golf Association, which usually area local qualifiers for national events.

From tournaments involving junior players as young as eight up to senior players, the OGA has a strict pace-of-play policy. Listed on the scorecards are the times for each hole to be completed and, then, at four checkpoints around the course, players are informed about whether they are ahead of behind the appointed times.

If they are behind, they get, first, a warning, then, if they remain behind, they get a one-stroke penalty.

Yesterday, in a USGA qualifier in Salem, OGA tournament officials used this policy and, for the last group that finished its 18^th hole, they barely made it under the time by only about 30 seconds. If the group had missed the time, a penalty would have been imposed because it would have been the second miss.

Under the approach, pace-of-play has improved in Oregon tournaments, suggesting that such an approach could be a national model.

2. Use what Europe has used at least once in a tournament called the “Shot Clock Masters.”

Each group in this professional tournameant was followed by a golf cart with shot clock mounted on the back for all to see, including the players.

When a player got to his ball to play the shot, the official in the cart started the clock. That gave the player 40 seconds to play. In one case, the player took 41 seconds – yes, 41 seconds – and received a one-stroke penalty.

Think of this as a bit like the time clocks used in football and basketball at the professional golf. They are used to speed up the pace-of-play.

3. Give players a target time to play their round.

This is the approach used where I have the privilege of playing in La Quinta, California each winter. The scorecard lists the target time to play 18 holes as three hours and 50 minutes. Yet, on the tee, the pros tell players the target time is three hours and 30 minutes.

Not tough to do if you focus on the game at hand.

For those of us who love golf, a lot rides on dealing with slow play. The reality of slow play means, for one thing, that it is often difficult to attract new players to the game. They simply believe they do not have time to get out on the course.

Trimming the number of holes played from 18 to nine is one option. But more needs to be done for the good of the game and the three ideas above are just two options.