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.

To demonstrate my management agility, I am opening the Department of Pet Peeves today hard on the heels of opening the Department of Inquiring Minds earlier this week.

These are two departments I run with a free hand to manage as I see fit.  The others are the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering, and the Department of “Just Saying.”

See, I am nothing if not a management guru.

Today, in the Department of Pet Peeves, I choose to limit myself to one peeve.

HOW TO RUIN A GOOD PROFESSIONAL GOLF TOURNAMENT:  Pro golfers return this week to one of the great courses in America – the Pebble Beach Golf Links in California.

Tough to beat it as a location for golf, with its vistas and solid tournament history.

However, CBS, which televises the tournament, makes a huge mistake, which earns it a place in my list of peeves.  This:

Every year, CBS gives a prominent place to the antics of someone who calls himself a comedian – actor Bill Murray.

His act, always stale to me, has become especially stale lately as he prances around the golf course pretending to play the game we love.  But, he spends most of his time, in addition to prancing, making fun of spectators as he encounters them along the rope line.

CBS could do me and other real golf fans a huge favor:  Avoid giving any airtime to Murray.  He was not funny as he acted in such films as Caddyshack, nor is he funny today.

Okay, given the tournament format, a pro-am, I don’t mind airtime for such celebrities as Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.  But, Murray?  No.

The focus should be on golf.  Not stupid, stale antics.