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.

this department, one of five I run with a free hand to manage as I see fit, has been on hiatus for a few months.  But it is still around.

That’s because I thought of some new pet peeves, this time all of them related to golf, my favorite sport.

So, here goes:

Pet peeve #1:  Golfers who leave the flag stick ajar after they leave the hole.  That means the next players have to live with it or fix it.  Neither is a good option.

Pet peeve #2:  Golfers in power carts who don’t observe the rules for such carts.  Plus, they should just think that those who work on the course on which they play have invested time and money to put in cart paths or on focus on the health of turf.  Both are compromised when cart drivers don’t follow the rules.

A person I play golf with rarely follows the rules and he is an interesting case because he worked for years in managing city government.  There, of course, there are hosts of rules which this person would have enforced.  He should now enforce golf cart rules on himself.

Pet peeve #3:  Golfers who slam their club down or throw it after they hit a bad shot.  Better to do what good golfers, which is to move on to the next shot, illustrating the timeless golf adage:  What’s the most important shot in golf?  The next one. Plus, if you keep slamming your club on the ground, pretty soon the shaft could break with the wear and tear – and the result wouldn’t be good, either for