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.

This is a post for those among us who, (a) like golf, and (b) love to be involved in the often-arcane subject of golf rules.

The question:

Is it ever legal, under the official rules of golf, to take a “mulligan,” the word in golf that refers to taking a stroke again?

Most of us involved in golf would answer no.

But, the answer is yes.

The issue appeared under this headline in a recent Golf Digest magazine:

Pro receiving penalty for NOT taking mulligan is the weirdest rules controversy of 2019

The article went on:

“Even by their byzantine and bizarre nature, it’s been a rough go for the Rules of Golf in 2019. Still, this story involving Jesper Parnevik and a mulligan not taken puts other oddities to shame.

“During the final round of the SAS Championship, Parnevik missed a short bogey putt that horseshoed around the hole and ultimately hit his foot. From there, Parnevik tapped in what remained for his double.

“Only to find out that he really carded a triple.”

Under golf rules, it turns out that Parnevik was entitled – actually required — to replay the original bogey putt under Rule 11.1.b, Exception 2. Here’s the terminology:

“When Ball Played from Putting Green Accidentally Hits Any Person, Animal or Movable Obstruction (Including Another Ball in Motion) on Putting Green: The stroke does not count and the original ball or another ball must be replaced on its original spot (which if not known must be estimated).”

Because Parnevik failed to follow the rule, he incurred a two-stroke penalty.

Brian Claar, a former PGA tour player, was on the site as a rules official. When he saw what happened, he was confused.

“They said ‘did that really happen out there’?,” Claar told Reuters. “He actually gets a mulligan. It’s strange you get a do-over because there’s (generally) no such thing as a do-over unless you hit a power line or something. He should have put it back and tried again.”

The situation was so rare, according to Claar, that the United States Golf Association couldn’t recall the incident happening in a professional tournament.

The snafu did not decide the event. Parnevik finished 22 strokes behind the winner, Jerry Kelly.

And, upon reflection, I thought of another occasion when a mulligan is allowed under the rules of golf. It is when a golf shot hits a power line over or near a hole on a course. In that case, the player gets a do-over – automatically.

This has happened recently in two cases in junior tournaments run by the Oregon Golf Association where I have been a volunteer. At Mallard Creek in Lebanon and Rock Creek in Beaverton, power lines intrude on the course on a few holes.

Instructions I provide to players on the first tee instructs them that, if their ball hits a power line, play again.  No choice. No penalty. Take a mulligan.

Finally, a friend of mine pointed out this week that the official golf rules document does not use the word “mulligan.” True. Good catch.

But, still, the point is that, in the two situations outlined above, the players gets to play another stroke, without penalty, which is unusual in golf. And, most of us, if asked a question this subject – as remote as such a question would be – would say “no.”

“Yes” is the correct answer.