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.

This sounds like another “words matter” blog from me, but it’s more about golf than words.

Other than this introduction.

I have come across three words lately that tend to roll off the tongue, but not just that – they sound good. 

The words?  Kerfuffle.  Roil.  And, now, quirky.

As for quirky, my latest edition of Links Magazine carried an article about “quirky golf holes.”  The writer, Tony Dear, put it this way:

“Quirky can mean different things and it’s hard to put a finger on its exact definition because so often it depends on our personal experience, its context, and the surroundings.  But whatever words we use to describe ‘quirk,’ one thing is for sure — we know it when we see it.”

Dear added this:

“The wonderful coastal courses in Cornwall, England, gave me my first taste of quirk as a teenager.  Lelant (West Cornwall) had a few holes on the front nine that crisscrossed; Mullion on the south coast had a near vertical drop-shot par three and a couple of really provocative clifftop holes; and the James Braid-designed Church Course at St. Enodoc on the north coast had a par four with a gargantuan bunker dug into the front of a 140-foot-tall sand dune as well as numerous other idiosyncrasies.”

Tom Doak, architect of Pacific Dunes, Streamsong Blue, Tara Iti, and a host of others, says he only cares about how well a hole plays rather than if it passes the quirk test.

Yet, Doak is a huge fan of St. Enodoc and enjoys all its oddities, chief among them the drive at the brilliant 323-yard 4th.  “You hit over the corner of a farmer’s field, which is OB, to get the best angle into the green,” he says.  “It’s much like the tee shot at the Road Hole at St. Andrews—another great quirky hole—only more visible.”

So, what is a quirky golf hole?

Ask the architect, Doak, and he will say:  “A quirky feature is one that’s unexpected or unusual and which you don’t normally see on a golf course. That could include things like blind shots and severe contours in odd places like the middle of the fairway or right next to the green.   Or the stone wall in front of the 13th green at North Berwick (West).”

Or, I add, the 6^th at Riviera in the Los Angeles area which has a pot bunker in the middle of the green.

For something to be genuinely quirky, though, Doak believes it has to be controversial.  “Some people are going to love it,” he says, “and some golfers are going to hate it at the moment it gets the better of them.”

As a golfer, I am like others – I know a quirky golf hole when I see one.  I have played the Road Hole at St. Andrews three times and it always is just that, quirky, as you hit a tee ball over part of the old St. Andrews Hotel.

I have played North Berwick in Scotland when you hit a ball over a stone wall that bisects the fairway.  I never have played Riviera, but it would be fun to play over or around the middle-of-the-green bunker.

I also have played “my” home course in Salem, Oregon, for more than 35 years.  And we had a quirky hole on the course — #17 – until we made the good decision several years ago to rebuild it.

It was supposed to be patterned after a type of hole in Scotland that has come to have a name – a “Redan hole.”

So, what is it?

Here’s more than you may want to know.

The term Redan originates from a French word for part of a fortification.  It is an arrow or V-shaped embankment toward the expected point of attack.  Redans were common features in Malta in the 17th and 18th centuries and the Russians later used the design in defense of Napoleon and the French.

So, what does Redan have to do with golf?

Redan golf holes are well defended, like the military fortification for which they’re named.  The green is offset close to a 45-degree angle moving from right to left and is guarded on the front left by a large, deep bunker.  Usually seen in its original par-3 form, the Redan often plays as a mid-length to long par-3 to force longer irons and lower trajectory shots.  They can range anywhere from 170 to 240 yards.

The green slopes from the front right to back left (or vice versa on a reverse Redan).  A common identifying feature is a large shoulder or hump on the front right of the green to help funnel balls back.  While there are many different versions of the Redan, the traditional one has the front bunker and a second one situated behind the shoulder to catch all long shots.  The common pin positions on Redans are in the middle or back of the green.  It’s a genius design because it forces players to aim away from the hole in order to get it close.

The par-3 15th at North Berwick is known as the original Redan, though no single architect has been credited for designing the hole.

See, more than you want to know?

The old Redan hole at Illahe didn’t measure up to the qualities of a Redan hole.  It was quirky, at best, and, frankly, not much fun to play because it was so poorly designed.

Overall, I like well-designed quirky holes such as the 17^th at St. Andrews, the 15^th at North Berwick, and the 6^th at Riviera.  They play well and serve as an attraction for golfers – just as does the new 17^th at Illahe, which fits the rest of the course. 

I never tire of playing the 17^th hole or the rest of the course.