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.

I came to the conclusion in this blog headline based on what’s happening in baseball.

Those in charge of what has been labeled “the national sport” are using a pitch clock and a batter clock.  Yes, to force faster games.

I wish the sport I love – golf – would do the same.

It did once, a few years ago in Europe in an event called the “Shot Clock Masters.”

Clocks were put on the backs of golf carts and the carts road on the fairways just behind all player groups.

When a player reached his golf ball, a rules official turned on the clock and the player had 40 seconds to hit his golf ball.  In one case I remember, a player got a warning when it took him 41 seconds to hit.  He didn’t go past 40 seconds again, which, if he did, would have meant a one-shot penalty.

Using a clock would make golf faster and counter the tendency among professional golfers to take forever to play their next shot.  They often stand around deciding what club to hit or waiting for the wind to die down a bit.

[Of course, if there are special circumstances – a lost ball, an impediment affecting the swing, etc. – then the time to hit would be extended as it was in the Shot Clock Masters.]

Back for a moment, to baseball.

One of the best sports writers going, Rick Reilly, wrote a column for the Washington Post that appeared under this headline:  “God bless the pitch clock.  And pizza-box bases.  Baseball is fun again!”

Here is how Reilly started his column:

“I used to love baseball, but I stopped watching when games got slower than sloth races.  Last year, the average game was 3 hours and 3 minutes. No, thank you.  I have Christmas plans.

“But this year?  This year, I’ll be back now that baseball has installed — at loooong last — the wonderful, brain-saving pitch clock.”

Already in spring training, Reilly added, games are finishing in an average of 2 hours and 36 minutes.

“That’s nearly a week and a half faster than your average Yankees-Red Sox game last year.  If there had been a pitch clock earlier in my sports-writing career, I’d be 37 right now.

“Once they get the ball, pitchers have 15 seconds to go into their windup (20 when there are base runners).  If not, the ump calls a ball.  Hitters have to be in the box and looking at the pitcher with eight seconds left on the pitch clock.  If they’re not, the ump calls a strike.”

Great moves for baseball.

I hope golf follows with efforts to speed up the pro game, which would make it more fun to watch. 

It also would provide lessons for young players who would realize that you don’t have to take an eternity to play a shot.  All you have to do is get ready and hit it!