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.

Let me get back for a moment to something I know, or at least think I know – the rules of golf.

I do so after writing a couple posts on the Supreme Court confirmation “process” – if what happened could be called a “process” – for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.  Some Republicans turned the process into political theater as they competed for leading roles on stage and before TV camers.  Some of them were preening for a run for president in 2024. 

Stupid.  Unenlightened.  Bad form.  Not surprising for folks like Senators Ted Cruz and Lindsay Graham who always seek the limelight, no matter the damage they inflict.

So, on to the rules of golf.

A case in the second round of the Dell Technologies Match Play tournament for pro golfers prompts this blog.

Here’s now the Southern California Golf Association described the incident in its on-line report:

“The Rules of Golf, they giveth and they taketh away.  And sometimes, the rules are so weird that they do both.  Wednesday provided one of those bizarre instances at the WGC-Match Play, at Austin Country Club, in Texas.  Bryson DeChambeau benefitted.  Thomas Pieters did not.

“Thomas Pieters was 3 up when his second shot on the par-4 13th came to rest on top of a sprinkler head, positioned just off the green and just inside of the water hazard line.  The sprinkler head was so close to the hazard line that the red paint actually crossed over the edge of the head.  

“The preciseness of it was important.

“Pieters’ ball, resting on the sprinkler, cozied up against the red-painted grass.  Since it was touching the hazard line, it was deemed to be ‘in the hazard.’  

“The Rules of Golf took over from there, and Pieters was forced to take a penalty drop from the hazard or play his ball from the sprinkler head.  He chopped it back into play, technically, but it was moot at that point.  Tom Hoge (his opponent) had made his birdie, and Pieters lost the hole without getting free relief.  [Still, in the end, Pieters won the match.]

“Not two hours later, DeChambeau found himself in essentially the exact same scenario in his match against Richard Bland.  After his second shot rolled and rolled and rolled through the green, it dropped down into the depression of the sprinkler, right up against the hazard, just as Pieters’ ball had.”

Then, to their credit, rules officials corrected the mistake by allowing DeChambeau free relief, something it could do in match play.  It couldn’t have been done in stroke play because the action would have benefited one player, not the entire field.

It was interesting for me to note that the rules official involved – including on TV – was Craig Winter.  He moved to the national scene from Oregon several years ago where he had been director of junior golf for the Oregon Golf Association.  Nationally, has won plaudits for his knowledge of the rules of golf.

Essentially, this time around, Winters decided that two wrongs didn’t make a right.  After being called in for a closer look, he clarified that the painted line was incorrectly positioned, and that DeChambeau was entitled to free relief.

It was a quick and solid decision made under the heat of the moment.  But, as quick as it was, that didn’t make it any less confusing.

To avoid any further confusion moving forward, Winter even came in to erase the red paint crossing the sprinkler head and cover it up with some green paint.

The summary is that, (a) rules officials made a mistake in setting up the course with the red line partially covering a sprinkler head, and (b) rules officials — specifically, the official involved, Craig Winter – made an immediate correction.

All good news for those of us who like golf rules.  Well, almost good news.  By “almost,” I mean that the issue should not have arisen in the first place.  If your golf ball is in a sprinkler head depression, regardless of where the penalty red line is, free relief should be provided.

There.  I feel better now.  I have written again about golf rules to help set the record straight.

One of the readers of this blog will feel better, too.