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 policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

1. A Global Golf Post writer, put it well this week when he referred to the meeting – an embrace — between PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and LIV Golf executive Yasir Al-Rumayyan in a European Tour pro-am event: 

“When two turkeys meet, you don’t get an eagle.”

I ask:  If there is so much to be gained, why have Monahan and Al Rumayyan cut a deal?  Perhaps there is not much to be gained.  Plus, they had to embrace.  Why not just shake hands and tend to business, whatever that is.

•  Or, this other day at the course where I play in Salem, Oregon, when the pro was getting a few of us older folks ready to tee off, he said this:

“Today, we will be playing preferred lies.”

Well, when I heard that, I thought presidential candidate Donald Trump would show up to continue spreading his “preferred lies.”

No.  Just us.