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.

My on-line edition of Links Magazine Insider came up the other day with a list of water on golf holes around the country which claimed the most golf balls.

If you play golf much, you can probably guess which hole came in first.  Yes, the 17^th island green at the Tournament Players Club course at Sawgrass.

Here is what Insider wrote about that hole:

“If this were a ranking, it’s a safe bet the iconic island green at the home of the PGA Tour’s Players Championship would be No. 1.

“Depending on the source, somewhere between 60,000 and 120,000 balls are fished out of the water around this hole every year.

“It’s the most famous hole ever created by Hall of Fame architect Pete Dye (or his wife, Alice Dye), and one many players think about before and all throughout a round at TPC Sawgrass.

“There are even stories of players who take a fresh sleeve of golf balls and throw them into the water off the tee in hopes of appeasing the ‘golf gods’ to get a safe tee shot.”

Well, as I thought about this at my home golf course in Salem, Oregon, Illahe Hills Golf and Country Club, I knew that I had never “sacrificed” golf balls to the water.  I just reached the water with a few golf balls over the years, never on purpose.

On eight holes of our 18-hole golf course, water in some form or shape comes into play.

On five of those eight, ponds are in play.  On the other three, there is a creek that sometimes runs dry, but not in the winter when it rains.

In general, water may be the bane of many golfers’ existence.  But it does add beauty to a course – and that’s important.

Plus, as I contend with two kinds of penalty areas on a golf course – water and sand bunkers – I often say to myself, “You can play out of sand, but you can’t play out of water.”

Unless, of course, the golf ball lies in only an inch or two of water.  Then, like a dummy, you can try to hit the ball while getting wet and dirty.

So, from Links Insider, here are major courses with the most water:

Caledonia Golf & Fish Club—18th hole (Pawleys Island, South Carolina)

The closing hole at this Mike Strantz masterpiece isn’t especially long, but it’s among the most anxiety-inducing finishers on the Hammock Coast.  A precise yardage off the tee is critical to setting up the forced carry approach over water on this par four.

The Coeur d’Alene Resort—14th hole (Coeur d’Alene, Idaho)

There’s little margin for error when targeting the floating 14th green at Coeur d’Alene, a 2,200-ton island that can be moved via an underwater cable system.  Divers pull between 25,000 and 30,000 balls out of the lake every year, going down every couple of weeks during the season.  It’s not unusual to see three players out of every guest foursome hit their first shot into the water, says Director of Golf Andy Mackimmie, which is why — for pace of play — the course has a local-rule drop zone after a player rinses his or her first two tee balls.

Harbour Town Golf Links—14th hole (Hilton Head Island, South Carolina)

“Just get on the green, take your par and move on.” That’s the advice from Tiger Woods when it comes to Harbour Town’s par-three 14th, which is known as one of the most difficult on the PGA Tour.

Kiawah Island Golf Resort, Ocean Course—17th hole (Kiawah Island, South Carolina)

When it comes to Kiawah’s toughest water holes, one could also pick the par-four 13th hole, a tight squeeze which has a canal running the length of the right side.  But after being roughed up for 16 holes at the Ocean Course, players are faced with a long par three to a narrow target fiercely guarded by water short and to the right. There are two deep bunkers to the left of the green, so the architect, Pete Dye, didn’t leave much bailout room.  And for those high handicappers who did err to the left, it’s not uncommon to see balls from the bunkers shoot across the green and end up in the water anyway.

Mauna Kea Golf Course—3rd hole (Waimea, Hawaii)

Your swing better have rounded into form early at Mauna Kea, where the tee shot at the course’s first par three is one of the most intimidating (and beautiful) you’ll find anywhere.  A full carry over a rocky ocean cove, the hole plays over 270 yards from the back tee.

Pawleys Plantation Golf & Country Club—13th hole (Pawleys Island, South Carolina)

The 13th looks innocuous on the scorecard — a tiny par three.  But once on the tee box, the small green encircled by a wooden bulkhead suddenly seems even smaller.  That’s because of the size of the massive surrounding marsh separating the course from Pawleys Island in the distance.  The plethora of golf balls visible in the marsh when the tide is out doesn’t exactly help ease fears; the club estimates that more than 10,000 balls end up in the marsh there every year.

PGA National Resort, Champion Course—15th hole (Palm Beach Gardens, Florida)

The first hole of the vaunted “Bear Trap” has the most water in play off the tee, with a hazard looming in front, to the right, and long of the green.  While the par-three 17th can be just as fearsome, playing downhill but slightly longer with water to the front and right, the 15th is susceptible to three-club swings because of the wind.

PGA West, Pete Dye Stadium Course—17th hole (La Quinta, California)

Dye’s West Coast version of the 17th at Sawgrass is “Alcatraz.” While not long, it’s a very visually intimidating island green completely encircled by jagged rocks. Slight misses look even worse when they violently ricochet sideways off unforgiving boulders and into the awaiting pond. The Stadium course is one of five at PGA West open to the public and the 17th hole was the site of Lee Trevino’s hole-in-one in the made-for-TV “Skins Game” in 1987, a magic moment that was called by Vin Scully.

River’s Edge Golf Club—9th hole (Shallotte, North Carolina)

Arnold Palmer created ample opportunity to lose golf balls in the marshy waters of the Shallotte River on this par five once called the scariest hole on the Myrtle Beach Golf Trail. Water runs down the entire left side of the hole, which plays to a green pinched on the end of a narrow peninsula.

TPC Sawgrass—17th hole (Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida)

Enough said!