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.

As I write again on this subject – the rules of golf – some of my friends may wonder why I do so.

Well, there are at least two reasons:

• Golf rules are marked by at least two characteristics – they are long and not always well-written – but, to me, they are fascinating.

• In retirement, I don’t have much else to do.

So, today I write about two golf rules issues that came to up recently.

The first occurred in a junior golf tournament last Sunday at the club where I play in Salem, Oregon.  The second came up in a conversation with a friend of mine who enjoys the subject almost as much as I do.

The First Rules Issue

This arose when a player in the junior tournament raised a question at the scoring table after her 18-hole round.

She said that on one of our greens – one with a lot of slope – she marked her golf ball on the green, then replaced her ball on the proper spot while picking up her mark.  Then, because of the slope, her golf ball moved about three-feet or so away from where it had been marked.

From that new spot, she then putted into the hole.

She asked:  Did I take the right action?

The answer provided by a rules official was “no.”  She should have moved her ball as close as possible to the spot where it had been marked because, as this rules official put it, “she owned that position.”

The result was a two-stroke penalty for playing from a wrong place and – good news – the player demonstrated maturity by accepting the penalty without complaint.

Here is the language in golf rule 13.1, which covers this issue:

“Rule 13.1d revises the procedure for when a ball on the putting green is moved by wind, water or other natural forces.  The ball must always be replaced on its original spot, regardless of what caused it to move.”

The Second Rules Issue

This came up in a conversation with a friend who said a player in his group had hit a golf ball that ended up directly on an out-of-bounds line.

Was the bill in-bounds or out-of-bounds?

The answer:  It was out of bounds.

Golf Rule 18.2 specifies this:

“A ball is out-of-bounds when all of it is outside the boundary edge.  A ball is in-bounds when any part of it touches the ground inside the boundary edge.”

So, the effect of this is that, if a golf ball was on directly on the out-of-bounds line without any part of it being on the course, either if marked by a white line or by sticks in the ground, it would be out-of-bounds.

One more question:  If the ball was in-bounds but close to the out-of-bounds marker, could a player stand out-of-bounds to hit the ball?  The answer is “yes.”

So, with all of this, aren’t you glad you know more about arcane golf rules?  Please don’t answer!