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.

Note the word I chose to include in this blog headline:  “Choose.”

Those of us who play golf choose to do so, no matter how hard the game is and how many mistakes we make along the way.  It is a choice because, just think, – at some point you’ll figure it all out and have a great round!

One of my golfing friends often puts it this way to me as he returns from the range:  “Hey, Dave, guess what?  I found it.”

Yeah, I respond.  But how long will “I found it last.”

Usually, a day or so.

With this mind, I enjoyed reading a story in the New York Times about Max Homa, a pro golfer who appears to have lost his way, though he is still persevering to find it even as he wonders why.

Here is how the Times story started:

“It’s hard,” Homa said, eyes moving, looking nowhere.  “It’s hard just to not want to do this anymore.”

Some background on Homa from the Times:

“We were standing in the breezeway beside Quail Hollow’s clubhouse, a spot Homa knows well.  Six years ago, in May 2019, he stood right here, processing equal levels of disbelief and self-actualization. Then 28, Homa won his first PGA Tour event, legitimizing what had otherwise been a middling career.

“Outside Quail’s clubhouse that day, fellow tour pros stopped one after another to congratulate him.

“A few years later, in 2022, Homa walked through here again, this time as the fist-pumping, ripping-and-tearing action star of the U.S. Presidents Cup team.  After one particularly raucous afternoon that week, he said that, at long last, he finally felt like he belonged among the game’s best.”

But, then this.

“It’s 2025.  Homa is 34.  He is a six-time winner on the PGA Tour.  He has been ranked as high as fifth in the world and played in the Ryder Cup.

“’To be completely honest — I don’t know what I’m getting out of this,’ Homa said Sunday.  ‘But it’s my job.  So, I’ll keep trying and hopefully something great happens.  But yeah, I’m not really sure what’s the point.’”

The Times story continues:

“Then Friday.  Some kind of dreamscape.  Six birdies and a tap-in eagle on the par-4 14th highlighted a 7-under 64, his best score in 70 career major championship rounds.  Homa sat for a 22-minute press conference afterward.  Three shots off the lead, fresh off the round of his life, it was tempting to think his fates might once again be aligning.  The only line missing on the résumé is major champion.  Maybe this was finally it.

“Then came the weekend.

“A round of 76 on Saturday, 12 shots worse than the day prior.  Homa not only imploded but spent the afternoon playing alongside Scottie Scheffler; the world’s best player, the eventual tournament winner, the guy who finished Saturday eagle-birdie-par-birdie-birdie.

“And Sunday.  Homa pulled into the parking lot a little before 9 a.m., nearly six hours before the leaders’ tee times.  Back to the range.  Back to the course.  A round of 77 — four pars, five birdies, seven bogeys, two double-bogeys.  Homa missed left, he missed long, he missed everywhere.

“Golf, perhaps more than any other sport, has a way of most heavily taxing those who love it.  When Homa tossed that club on Sunday, the mini fit of rage made for a kitschy little video clip of a player reaching a boiling point.  What gets left out in such moments is all that comes before it.  Homa has had a trying year.  There was an equipment change, a switch to a new swing coach and a plummet in the rankings.

Then, this conclusion, with which many of us, not pro golfers, but recreational golfers, could say:

“Perhaps more than any other sport, these are the psychosomatic cycles of golf.  Find something.  Lose it.  Search for it.  Suffer.  Find something.  Success.  Happiness.  Wait, it’s gone.  Why?  What happened?  Oh, no.  Lost again.  Another search.  Torment.  Rinse.  Repeat.”

We’ve all been there and will be there again.  Still, golf beckons.

So, I am going out in a moment to try “to find it” again.