Perspective from the 19^th Hole 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

I received this note the other day from Royal Dornoch Golf Club in Scotland:

“At the Council of Management meeting held on Monday 3^rd June it was decided that applications for Struie Course membership would remain closed.

“There were only 10 offers of upgrade from Struie to full membership approved this year and, with 564 Struie members still waiting for the upgrade, it was deemed that there was no space to accept any new Struie members this year as the prospects of being upgraded are well into the future.

“We are sorry not to have better news but with member retention so high, movement is very slow.

“The next update on membership will be in June 2025.”

So, I lose again.

I had hoped to become a member of one of my favorite golf courses in the world, Royal Dornoch, especially in preparation for a trip to Scotland a couple years ago.  I tried to join, but was told that the first step was to join Struie, a course that sits hard by the side of Royal Dornoch.

Now that, too, appears to be off the books.

Oh well, I mostly am staying in the U.S. these days rather than venturing overseas.

Here is what I wrote a couple years ago about Royal Dornoch:

“If you asked me to list my favorite golf course in the world – a bit of a artificial question, I admit – Royal Dornoch would be at or near the top of the list.

“I have had the privilege of going there on several occasions and have never tired of this great example of links golf in Scotland.

“My curiosity was peaked when I read a book, A Season in Dornoch, by golf writer Lorne Rubenstein.  With his wife, he went from his home in Toronto to Scotland for several months to live and play golf there.  He rented a flat on the second story of a bookstore in the town of Dornoch and it was only a short walk to the golf course.

“He didn’t only play there.  Lorne and his wife got to know the residents of Dornoch.  Plus, he walked on the course, telling stories of the sounds his feet made as he trekked his way around the course that sits astride the Firth of 4^th.

“An excerpt from the book:

“’The town of Dornoch, Scotland, lies at nearly the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska.  A bit too far removed for the taste of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, the Royal Dornoch Club has never hosted a British Open, but that has hardly diminished its mystique or its renown. 

“In an influential piece for the New Yorker in 1964, Herbert Warren Wind wrote, ‘It is the most natural course in the world.  No golfer has completed his education until he has played and studied Royal Dornoch.

“’If any town in the world deserves to be described as ‘the village of golf,’ it’s Dornoch.  The game has been played in Dornoch for some 400 years.  Its native son Donald Ross brought the style of the Dornoch links to America, where his legendary, classic courses include Pinehurst #2, Seminole, and Oak Hill.’”

All of this captured my imagination when I read the book and, so, with my wife, we made a pilgrimage to Dornoch a number of years ago and have been back several times since that first trip. 

For my wife, Nancy, it was a return to her homeland, Scotland, or, more accurately, the homeland of her parents before each emigrated to the U.S. when they were children.

So, Royal Dornoch remains on my “best golf course list,” even though it appears I will not be able join as a member.

Too bad.  The Dornoch folks will miss me.