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.

On this day, the last day of 2022, I engage in a ritual…writing resolutions for 2023.

The preamble to this blog notes two of my favorite subjects – golf and politics – so I thought, why not summarize New Year’s resolutions for both.

Here goes, though I also will limit myself to one resolution for each subject.

GOLF

• I wish leaders of the PGA Professional Golf Tour and LIV Golf would find a way to arrive at middle ground – middle ground for the good of the game.

This may mean that Greg Norman, the spokesman for LIV Golf – what else does he do besides speak — may have to exit stage left because he is nothing if not controversial as his ego intrudes into almost every conversation.  Negotiations likely will not go on with Norman at the helm for LIV.

Would PGA Tour CEO Jay Monahan have to go or could he change his notions to allow negotiations?  I believe the latter. 

One point not worth negotiating:  Should players who left the PGA Tour for LIV (or, is the word “defected”), be allowed to return?  I say “no.”  They left for the lure of money, so stay there.

Being open to middle ground would require me to let go of my disdain for the funding of LIV Golf, reliance on the tainted Saudi Defense Fund.  But, for the good of the game we love, I’ll stifle my disdain.

Plus, I hope any settlement, if there is one, would restore professional golf to being a “competitive” event in the spirit of real athletic pursuits instead of the “exhibition” nature of LIV.

So, I pine for negotiations.

POLITICS

• Speaking of pining, I pine for politicians of all stripes to find middle ground on pressing public policy issues.

This should be preceded, of course, by asking a hard question – is there a role for government in a particular issue and, if there is, how should a program be designed to achieve results.

Further, middle ground is often where the best solutions lie anyway.  Not the far left.  Not the far right.  In the middle.

This also would mean that politicians would have to stop campaigning for a new term in office after having just been elected.  Get about the business of governing, not campaigning.  The skills are different.

Two resolutions.  Both are worth pining for – and isn’t “pining” a good word?  I say “yes.”