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.

There, I used one of my favorite words again – kerfuffle!

Doesn’t it just roll off the tongue?  But what does it mean?

The dictionary says this:  “A commotion or fuss, especially one caused by conflicting views.”

This time the word applies to three cases of golf rules issues that arose last week at the Players Championship in Florida.

As a person interested in golf rules, I paid attention to each.  Here is a summary, with my comment in each case.

ISSUE #1: A TWO-SHOT PENALTY FOR PRO GOLFER KEEGAN BRADLEY

Playing well in brutal conditions Saturday, Bradley was dinged by the rule book as he was assessed a two-shot penalty on the 16th hole.  After marking his ball, a wind gust moved the ball.  Bradley replaced it, but was supposed to play it from where the ball came to rest.

According to several of my on-line golf publications, Bradley, in the moment, said the penalty angered him.  Two days later, he sounded more frustrated. 

He lashed out at officials as the infraction became magnified during the final round.

“Well, first off, I think the USGA needs to smarten up and change that rule,” Bradley said afterward.  “It’s so silly. They try to make the rules easier, and they never get it right.”

At issue was how Bradley proceeded after he put his mark down on the 16th green, when wind moved his ball. Bradley believed he was to play from where his mark was. But, because he hadn’t picked up his ball before it was blown, he should have played from the new spot, according to Rule 13.1d (2).  

Comment:  It’s time to make this rule more straight forward and simple so pro golfers – not to mention the rest of us – would know how to proceed.

ISSUE #2:  PRO GOLFER DANIEL BERGER INVOLVED IN BALL DROP LOCATION DISPUTE AT THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

According to Golfweek, Daniel Berger’s chances of winning the Players Championship effectively ended with a splash at the 16th hole of the final round, but that’s when things got interesting.

Berger’s second shot at the par-5 from 234 yards landed in the lake right of the flag, but where the ball crossed into the penalty area became a topic of substantial conversation.,

As soon as Berger hit the golf ball in the air, he said, ‘Oh, water ball.”  Then, one of the pros playing with Berger, Victor Hovland said he was watching the whole flight, and it was just short right of the green in the water on 16.

When Berger went to drop his ball after a penalty stroke, Joel Dahmen, the third player in the group, and Hovland objected.

Berger was the under the impression that his shot faded into the water and crossed much closer to the hole.  Dahmen saw it differently, and told Berger he should be dropping at least 60 yards farther back.  Hovland sided with Dahmen.

Chief referee Gary Young tried to sort the matter, but, in cases such as this, the onus is on the players to find the best solution – even a compromise – rather than rely on a rules official to resolve the matter when he or she didn’t see the situation on site.  And, that’s what Young said.

Comment:  For all the kerfuffle captured by TV coverage, the solution, in the end, was right:   The players involved would have to agree on a resolution; it would have to be a consensus, as hard as that might to achieve.

ISSUE #3:  AN IMPOSSIBLY BAD BREAK FOR PRO GOLFER PAUL CASEY  [This one is not a rules penalty, but, rather, an example of a change in golf rules that should been done previously and should be done now.]

The Players Championship was strange and, on the last day, Monday, it got stranger.

Playing alongside leader Cameron Smith, Paul Casey stepped up to his tee shot on the par-5 16th with a window of opportunity.  Yes, the Englishman found himself two shots off Smith’s pace, but he’d just watched as the Aussie snap hooked his drive into trouble.  If Casey could make a few good swings coming down the stretch, the biggest victory of his career was within reach.

But first, he’d need to put his drive in the fairway.

Casey made the kind of swing under pressure that most can only dream of. His ball rocketed off the face, screaming through the thick Florida air on a collision course with the center of the fairway.  From there, he’d have a great chance to reach the green in two.

As Casey’s Pro V1 rolled down the fairway, it dodged divots and stray sod, and the commentators remarked what a great position he was in.

Then, calamity struck.

With the ball slowing to a stop, it banked to the right at just the last moment — and it finished embedded in another player’s pitch mark.

It was the kind of break that gives pro golfer’s nightmares.  In contention, coming down the stretch, and your ball finds trouble in the unlikeliest of places.

Golf rules provide relief for an embedded ball.  However, that is only if the golfer’s own ball embeds in its own pitch mark.  Since Casey’s ball embedded in another player’s pitch mark, he had to play it as it lies.

Comment:  From the time golf rules were changed a couple years ago, I have said a change that should have been made, which is to provide relief if a ball ended up in a divot or, as was the case with Casey, another player’s pitch mark.

What happened wasn’t fair to Casey.  Nor is it fair to maintain the rule for the rest of us.

See, being able to write all of this verifies that I have nothing better to do in the California desert than play golf, as well as focus on golf rules. 

One of my good friends wonders why this is the case.  This time, it’s because I get to use the word kerfuffle again.