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 the first of two blogs on golf rules, a hot-button for me………

The question in the headline has two answers.

• For some, no.  Certain players believe golf rules apply to everyone else, not to them, so honor is not involved.
• For others, yes.  They abide by the rules for the good of the game, thus preserving honor.

Jerry Tarde, editor of Golf Digest, dealt with issues like this in what he wrote recently, which appeared under a headline commemorating 10 of the rules most golfers ignore.

Here is his list:

1. The three-minute lost ball:  Three minutes is allowed by the rules, but my opponents search for 10 minutes and then really start looking.  One of my favorite rules officials, David Fay, former executive director of the United States Golf Association, says, “I’m a one-minute guy. If I can’t find it in one minute, screw it.”

2. The Anderson Leaf Rule:  Especially in fall golf, if you lose your ball in the leaves, no penalty, just drop one where you think it should be.  You can tie but can’t win the hole.  Named after the esteemed Dave Anderson, the late New York Times sports columnist who had a great waggle.

Comment:  We often play what we call “the leaf rule” in the Pacific Northwest.  If you didn’t, with as many leaves as we have in the fall, rounds would take far longer. 

3. The Mulligan:  Invented on the first tee at Winged Foot, a member named Mulligan always required a second drive to find the fairway, and it spread as common practice everywhere.

4. The Gimme:  Legal in match play but widely applied in stroke-play club tournaments.  What starts as “no gimmes” on the first few holes becomes “inside the leather” by the turn and three-and four-footers when you’ve shot yourself out of it.  

Comment:  Most women who play at the course where I play, Illahe Hills Golf and Country, never take gimmes in stroke play.  The rules don’t allow it.  As for men, all of us gentlemen, of course, we give and take “gimmes,” but sometimes, it gets a little ridiculous – like taking 6-footers.

5. Failing to post:  It’s not a rule of golf, but if you have a handicap, you’re expected to post every score to maintain an accurate handicap, unless you play alone when posting is not permitted.  Vanity players post only their low scores; sandbaggers only the high ones.

6. Carrying more than 14 clubs:  My buddies laughed when pro golfer Wesley Bryan got penalized four strokes for accidentally having two 7-irons in his bag at a PGA Tour Monday qualifier.  I’ve seen guys with more than 14 headcovers!

7. The Consultant:  What’d ya hit?  Some guys take a survey before making a club selection on par 3s.

8. In the interest of public safety:  Moving your ball from a tree root — or even a tree trunk — without penalty might be a sensible rule.  Same with cleaning mud off your ball in the fairway.  If you remove a loose impediment, and the ball moves, disregard the penalty.  Dropping incorrectly on the golf-hole side of a paved cart path instead of the actual “nearest point of relief” is acceptable.

So is taking relief from immovable objects like irrigation boxes as “mental interference,” as well as disregarding the difference between red and yellow stakes and taking the more favorable drop from water hazards as if they’re all lateral (red).

Comment:  So, to speak for those who don’t honor golf rules, follow the notions above.  Where I play, with literally hundreds of trees, we do worry about the roots.  As gentlemen, we often authorize taking free relief, rather than hurting yourself or your golf clubs.  So be it.

9. Stroke and distance on out-of-bounds

It’s legal now if a local rule is observed, but we’ve been doing it for years.  Only, if you do, you’re hitting your fourth stroke.  My pals look at O.B. as a water hazard, drop and hit 3. It saves going back to the tee and slowing play.

Comment:  Right.  If you take stroke and distance on hole with out-of-bounds, this emphasis — you are hitting your fourth shot.

10. Teeing off in front of the markers:  You mean that’s against the rules?  Yes.