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.

First, this true confession:  I did not watch much of the just-completed Ryder Cup because I was volunteering at an Oregon Golf Association tournament in Central Oregon.

I would have been rooting for the Americans, of course, but so much for rooting.  It didn’t matter.  Never does.

The Americans got their “hats” handed to them by the European squad.

I put the word “hats” in quotes because, based on reading various on-line golf publications, it appeared there was a lot of controversy over why American golfer Pat Cantlay was not wearing a hat when he played.  The lack of a hat occupied a lot of writers, and on-site fans, as well.

For Cantlay’s part, he said the hat didn’t fit well.  Others said it was a protest because he thought Ryder Cup players should be paid to play.

Who knows?

But the hat battle apparently did spark a bit of a set-to between Euro golfer Rory McIroy and Joe LaCava, Cantley’s caddy who, McIlroy said, demonstrated too much and too close to him on a green during Saturday’s play.

For his part, McIlroy said the set-to propelled him to victory in his singles match on Sunday.

Back to the first day of the Ryder Cup.  I heard commentator Paul Azinger, himself a former Ryder Cupper, put it best when he said this:

“European players have the Ryder Cup in their hearts.  U.S. players have the Ryder Cup in their heads.”

The difference, I guess, explains how the two sides play and how much value they put in the biennial match.  Hearts vs. heads.

Two years from now, the Americans will try to redeem themselves at home at the Bethpage Black course in New York.

But in the just-completed tournament, in addition to Azinger’s telling comment, this much is true:  The Euros played better than the Americans.

Simple as that.