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.

Anyone who knows me knows that I like golf rules, especially a chance to debate the often-arcane character of the rules.

I play the game and try, valiantly, to play by the rules, as tough as they are, from time to time, to understand.

So it was that this weekend I read a piece from one of my golf magazines outlining major golf rules infractions that occurred on the PGA and LPGA tours.  Yes, professional golfers violate the rules, often in front of TV cameras, so the snafus are magnified.

Just for the fun of it, here is a list of major infractions in the last year.  See if you remember the specifics.

• PGA Tour puts in internal out-of-bounds on 18th at Waialae in Hawaii

• Patrick Reed takes embedded ball relief on Saturday at Torrey Pines

• Rory McIlroy takes embedded ball relief on Saturday at Torrey Pines

• Matthew Wolff assessed retroactive penalty at The American Express

• Maverick McNealy’s ball moves at address on Saturday at Pebble Beach

• Russell Knox gets McNealy’d on Sunday at Pebble Beach

• Matthew Wolff’s practice-stroke gaffe at the WGC-Concession

• Annika Sorenstam gets penalized for incorrect ruling, still makes cut at Gainbridge LPGA

• Robert Gamez fails to sign his scorecard at Bay Hill, gets disqualified

• PGA Tour foils Bryson DeChambeau’s big plan at the Players

• Viktor Hovland gets two-shot penalty thanks to … his mother?

• Marshal runs over Bubba Watson’s ball at the Players 

• In Gee Chun disqualified from Kia Classic for failing to sign her scorecard

• Obscure rule stumps announcers in Scheffler-Kuchar match at WGC-Dell Match Play

• Abraham Ancer unknowingly touches sand at the Masters, gets penalized

• Si Woo Kim’s ball hangs on the lip a little too long at the RBC Heritage

• Yani Tseng fails to sign scorecard, gets DQ’d at Hugel-Air Premia LA Open

• Former major champ gets two-shot penalty for being late for tee time at Innisbrook

• Former major champ DQ’d at PGA Championship for signing an incorrect scorecard

• John Catlin receives rare pace-of-play penalty at PGA Championship

• Carlota Ciganda loses her match on brutal slow-play penalty

• John Catlin receives slow-play penalty AGAIN, this one more brutal than the last

• Mackenzie Hughes’ tree trouble at Torrey Pines

• Maria Fassi hit with slow-play penalty, misses cut at Women’s PGA

• Michael Campbell accidental tee shot at the Senior British Open

• Patton Kizzire’s driver dilemma at The Northern Trust

• Nelly Korda’s “eagle” at the Solheim Cup

Frankly, I don’t remember the details of all these infractions.  The last one, however, occurred so recently that the specifics are clear.  When it happened, I knew instantly there was a problem. 

Korda left a 30-foot putt on the lip, crouching down out of disbelief that the ball didn’t go in.  But, her opponent, within five or six seconds, picked up the ball and “gave” the putt to Korda, a procedure allowed in match play.

Except Korda gets a period of time – 10 seconds after she walks to the hole from the spot of her putt — to see if it would drop.  She did not get the required period of time, so referee ruled her putt was good, giving her and a partner a win on the hole – and it turned out that the margin of victory in the match was one point.

Still, it didn’t matter in the end as the European side retained the Solheim Cup.

For now, enough of golf rules – though chances are I’ll come back to the subject soon.