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 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.

With so much time on my hands in retirement, I spend a lot of time on a golf course, often the one where I live in Salem, Oregon – Illahe Hills Golf and Country Club.

As I walk or ride on the course, I have thought about key phrases that have to do with how you play the game.

These:

• What’s the most important shot in the golf?  The next one.

• Play one shot at a time.  Don’t get ahead of yourself.

• What’s one of the most important credentials for a golfer?  A short memory – so you forget what could have been a bad shot and move on to the next one, which could be better.

• It is said in golf that one of the main virtues is to be patient.

Of all the above, the one word whose definition often escapes me is “patience.”  What does it mean to be patient on a golf course?

As any good retired person would do, I consulted Mr. Google and learned this on-line:

“Awareness – Be aware of the top triggers that test your patience, such as a three-putt or missing an easy up and down.  In the past – put the bad shot or hole behind you before you step up to the next shot.  Take a long-term approach to the round and focus on the remaining holes instead of looking back.

“Patience is an important characteristic that enables you to negotiate a shot properly and also perform your best over an entire round.  The loss of patience can be the difference between scoring well and not scoring well.”

Plus, a member of the PGA, Brendon Elliott, wrote this a while ago:

“When we look at days like the last two at the PGA Tour’s Wells Fargo Championship, where the weather has been less than desirable, we know the following to be true:  The players that can be the most patient will inevitably be the same ones setting themselves up for success come Sunday.

“I could pose that question to you in general, life terms, or in relation to how you conduct yourself on the golf course, or on the practice tee, or as you make your way through a series of lessons.  The answer for some may be the same both on and off the golf course:  I am a very impatient person, or, I am a very patient one.  For others, and in my estimation, this includes most of us, it is a mixed bag. You find yourself being patient in some aspects of your life and not others.

“Golf is an inherently maddening game.  It can test those that are the most patient people in seemingly all other aspects of their lives.

“Patience is an important characteristic that enables you to negotiate a shot properly and also perform your best over an entire round.  The loss of patience can be the difference between scoring well and not scoring well.”

So, patience – in life or on a golf course – is a clear virtue.  Some of my friends know that I am not the most patient person in the world.  So be it.

I want to get from point-A to point-B quickly.  No dawdling.

In golf, that may not work very well as it would, say, in business where you may need to move fast to capitalize on new client opportunities or revenue enhancements.

For me, I rest with this definition, which I thought of all on my own in a patient way until the words came to me:  Take your time on the golf course; don’t play too fast; allow the game to come to you rather than chase it too far; forget bad shots as quickly as you can; remember the most important shot in golf is the next one.

So, patience it is.