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.

This is one of four departments I run with a free hand to manage as I see fit.

The others are the Department of Pet Peeves, the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering, and the Department of Inquiring Minds Want to Know.

SO, “JUST SAYING” — I have been thinking lately about an issue that has been circulating around – member access to the golf course I play in Salem, Oregon, Illahe Hills Golf and Country Club, a private facility.

My thoughts have gone to an important management principle I used on many occasions during my professional career.  This:

• Be careful not to take a SNAPSHOT and assume a snapshot reveals the entire picture, or, to put a point on it, the next best steps.

• Rather than snapshots, set out to look at the big picture, which I call a PANORAMA.  If you do, you’ll have a better idea about how to proceed.

When I applied this principle to my role as a state lobbyist, I avoided taking snapshots and then acting on those snapshots. 

Rather, I told myself to look at the big picture when it came to a relationship with any legislator whom I was trying to convince that my client had a good point.

To apply this principle to “my” golf course:

• If you take a snapshot, you might see the course closed for a charity event, which means you cannot play when you want and at the time you want.

• But, if you take a panorama, you’ll find that Illahe members have far greater access to golf than any other private club members to the north or to the south.

SO, “JUST SAYING” – does anyone understand the golf handicapping process?

Well, the answer is yes and she is Kelly Neely at the Oregon Golf Association.

But, me?

No.

This last week a probing question came back to me as a player in the Pacific Northwest Golf Association got a hole-in-one in the Mid Amateur my club hosted.

The question is would he have had to post that round for his handicap, including the “1” on hole #5.  The answer is yes.

But, on that hole, if, say, he would have gotten a “5” or “6,” would he have been able to post that score as part of his 18-hole round.  The answer is no.

The player was a scratch golfer, so he would not get a handicap posting stroke on hole # and thus he would have to settle for “3” for his post.

This kind of so-called reality has never made sense to me.  Get a hole-in-one and have to include the score in your handicap post.  Get a double or triple bogey (or higher) and not be able to include that in your handicap post.

Again, never made sense to me.

But, then golf rules, including handicapping rules, don’t much sense to anyone, even to someone like me who cares.

[As an after-thought, I add that if you read what I just wrote and care, well, then, you are golf rules nut like me.]

SO, JUST SAYING…do you know what a hole-in-one on a par 5 is called?

Well, I do.  It is called a condor – and, yes, it is still a bird name like birdie, eagle, and albatross.

How many holes-in-one on par 5s have there been?

Mr. Google says there have been a total of six in golf history.  Three of them came on severe doglegs or horseshoe-shaped holes where the listed yardage could be mitigated by going at the green as the crow flies.  A pair of par-5 aces, however, were made on mostly straight holes.

In the spirit of disclosure, I have made birdies, eagles, and holes-in-one, but never an albatross or a condor.

Is there still time?