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 (Les AuCoin), 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.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

I have a friend who says he has no time to discuss golf rules, which he finds complicated and time-consuming.

That’s why I like to talk to him about those rules.

But no argument with his disposition.  But, here, my second recent blog about golf, is another often-misunderstood issue regarding the game I love.

It is this:  What is meant by the handicap number assigned to each golf hole?

Most golfers think that, for example, the #1 handicap hole means that it is toughest hole on the course.  And that toughness proceeds from the #2 hole on to the #18 hole; thus the latter is the easiest hole.

No.

Well, I guess that could be true, but it is not the right definition of “handicap assigned to a hole.”

From the Internet, here is the actual definition of what the handicap number means:

“The number one handicap stroke hole is assigned to the hole where the bogey golfer needs an additional stroke in order to halve the hole with a scratch golfer.”

There, got it now?

Well, for me, yes, sort of.  The definition is tougher to remember than the one that focuses just on the toughness of the hole.  And it also is difficult to explain to others in my regular golf groups.

Golf rules and definitions are complicated.  Too much so, for my taste, in some cases, as is this one.