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.

It was a privilege for me to be Pronghorn Golf Resort in Bend, Oregon about a week ago.

The occasion:  One of several final stage qualifiers for the U.S. Open, which will be held at Brookline Golf Club in Massachusetts starting June 16.

A total of 66 players teed it up on the Nicklaus Signature Course at Pronghorn trying to earn one of three spots into the Open.

Here are the three who made it to the Open from this qualifier:

• Brady Calkins, from Chehalis, Washington, shot 68-68

• Isaiah Salinda, from San Francisco, California, also shot 68-68

• Ben Lorenz, from Peoria, Arizona shot 71-67 (winning a playoff to secure the third spot)

Why was I there?

Well, on behalf of the Oregon Golf Association, which ran the tournament for the United States Golf Association, I had the privilege of serving as the starter on hole #1, both for the first 18 holes, as well as the second 18. Because, as you see, it was 36-hole qualifier.

So, I got to watch 66 players hit their tee shots during the day.  In a way, both impressive and intimidating.

With this experience, you can understand that I will be watching for the above three names to see how they fare at Brookline under the pressure of the U.S. Open.  They wanted to be there enough to try to qualify.  Now, they have the challenge to perform.

Another interesting fact was that a golfer from Mission Viejo, California, Michael Block, was trying again to make it to the Open.  He was the last player off in the queue for both the morning and afternoon rounds.  I talked with him on the tee and both of us remembered that, in the final stage qualifier held at Portland Golf Club several years, he made it to the Open that year.

It was the same year that, of all people, Mike Weir, the Canadian golfer who now plays on the Senior PGA Tour, showed up in Portland, but ended up not advancing through the qualifier (and, unfortunately, in the PGA Tour’s Canadian Open, now running in Toronto, Weir missed making the cut there by one stroke, though he was playing against much younger golfers).  He would have loved to contend in his country’s national openl.

Block remembers fondly that he beat Weir and, with Lucas Herbert at Portland Golf Club, advanced to the Open.  Alas, Block did not make the cut in the Open that year, while Herbert has gone to make a mark on the Tour, winning enough money to stay eligible.

At Pronghorn, it turned out that a variety of players from the Northwest region tried to qualify, but didn’t make it.  For them, I imagine that it was still a good experience as they worked to lift their games from the college ranks to the national championship arena.

Here’s another interesting final fact about this year’s Open:

Any professional golfer or amateur with a Handicap Index that does not exceed 1.4 was eligible to enter.  More than 8,600 golfers entered local qualifiers and, of that total, 500 advanced to final qualifying stages, one of which was the Pronghorn event.  Only a few then went on to make it to the Open.

Tough odds to go all the way, but that’s the way it should be for the country’s “open” golf tournament. 

Know this – I’ll be glued to the TV for the four days at Brookline.