HOW TO IMPROVE PACE OF PLAY IN GOLF

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.

If there was one way to improve the pace-of-play in golf, it would be this:

Enforce the “40-second rule.”

What is that?

Well, a specific rule in golf, rule #5.6, encourages prompt pace-of-play by recommending that:

• Players should recognize that their pace of play affects others and they should play promptly throughout the round (such as by preparing in advance for each stroke and moving promptly between strokes and in going to the next tee)
• A player should make a stroke in no more than 40 seconds (and usually in less time) after the player is able to play without interference or distraction

If you watch professional golf on TV as much as I do (or, for that matter, attend professional golf tournaments on occasion), the 40-second rule does not appear to exist.

In fact, I have never seen it enforced.

This was true last week as I attended the United States Golf Association (USGA) Senior Women’s Open, which was held in Oregon.  There, as a volunteer, I watched play take forever.  On occasion, there were even three holes between one group and the next.

For senior women, it could be argued that, given their age, they deserve a little leeway.  But three holes behind?  No.

Still, when it comes to pace of play, it could be more appropriate to consider general professional events for men and women rather than senior tournaments.  In regular events, where is the 40-second rule?

For the major men’s tour, the PGA Tour, here is the current reality:

“The PGA TOUR rules for pace of play includes the 40-second time limit, but also allows an extra 20 seconds (for a total of 60 seconds) under the following circumstances:  The first player to play a stroke on a par-3 hole.  The first player to play a second stroke on a par-4 or par-5 hole.”

So, apparently, an abridged 40-second rule.

For its part, the USGA says this about the rationale for the 40-second rule:

“By giving players affirmative guidance, support and encouragement on prompt play, rule changes help in:

• Setting expectations for both beginners and experienced players on what types of behavior are considered prompt play, including the maximum amount of time it should normally take to make a stroke.
• Encouraging players to play faster by confirming that it is proper to play out of turn in stroke play when it is safe and responsible to do so (that is, to play “ready golf”).

“Enforcing pace of play continues to be primarily up to each Tournament Committee, as there are limits to what the rules themselves can do to insist that players play promptly.

“…rules enable Committees to point to specific expectations set by the rules when using their authority to enforce prompt play and encourage every Committee to adopt a pace of play policy so that all players on the course, whatever the type or level of play, know what is expected of them.”

Lots of words. 

Now, one of the things I did recently was talk to one of Oregon’s best rules officials whom I know well.  I asked him about the 40-second rule and he confirmed that it is not regularly enforced unless a player gets out of position.  Then, based on the decision of a rules official following the group, it would (or at least could) be enacted.

In previous blogs, I have advocated for doing whatever could be done to move professional golf along faster much like professional baseball administrators have done recently with that sport.

And, I also have advocated for considering what was done in Europe a few years ago in what was called the “Shot Clock Masters.”  There, a golf cart with a shot clock was following every group, and, then, when the player got close to his or her ball and had pulled a club, an official in the cart started the clock.

In one case, a player who could 41 seconds was given a warning.

Give a player one time to go past 40 seconds (or 60 seconds as described above) and do what was – give a warning.  Then, for a second violation, apply a one-stroke penalty.  Etc.

Enforce the 40-second rule deftly and then watch golf tournaments go faster.

HOW BAD ARE THINGS TODAY? AND IS RECOVERY POSSIBLE?

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.

Sparked by a column by political operative Karl Rove, I ask the question in the headline.

In this day and age, especially in politics and government, it is possible to think that things are as bad, or worse, then they ever have been.

But Rove’s column reminds me that that I often wish, in college, I would have been a better student of history.  Since college, as well.

Rove started his column in the Wall Street Journal with this headline:

America Is Often a Nation Divided

U.S. politics today is ugly and broken, true enough.  But the good news is that it was worse in the past, and it will get better again.

Then, he wrote this lead paragraph:

“America is deeply divided.  Our politics is broken, marked by anger, contempt, and distrust.  We must acknowledge that reality, but not lose historical perspective.  It’s bad now, but it’s been worse before — and not only during the Civil War.”

Beyond that introduction, Rove looks backward to describe some aspects of our past – and, in doing so, compared to the length of many normal columns, he is granted lots of space to give all of us a history lesson.  Here’s a summary:  

• The just and peaceful civil-rights protests of the 1950s and early 1960s were often met with state-sanctioned violence.  Then, Harlem exploded in 1964, followed by a riot in Philadelphia.  Watts went up in flames in 1965; Chicago, Cleveland and San Francisco the next year.
• A total of 163 cities—including Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Detroit, Milwaukee, Newark, N.J., New York and Portland, Oregon — suffered widespread violence in the “Long Hot Summer” of 1967.
• On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.  Riots broke out in more than 130 American cities, with 47 killed in the ensuing violence.  Two months later, Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles.
• That same year the nation’s most prominent segregationist, George Wallace, running for president as an independent, won five states in the Deep South.  In 1972, he came in third for the Democratic nomination, 1.8 points behind the winner in total primary vote.
• Beginning in 1965, the country was rocked by demonstrations over the Vietnam War, many of them student-led.  In some instances, governors sent in the National Guard to restore order.  After guardsmen killed four students in 1970 at Ohio’s Kent State, protests broke out on 350 campuses, involving an estimated two million people.
• Thirty-five thousand antiwar protesters assaulted the Pentagon in October 1967.  An estimated 10,000 tried shutting down the 1968 Democrat National Convention in Chicago.  Four years later, thousands tried the same at the GOP convention in Miami Beach.  The U.S. experienced more than 2,500 domestic bombings in 18 months in 1971-72.
• Two presidents were driven from office during this period. Lyndon B. Johnson opted against seeking re-election in 1968 because of the war. Richard Nixon, facing impeachment over Watergate, resigned in 1974.
• In the early 1930s, 1 in 4 Americans was unemployed.  Populism emerged on both ends of the spectrum.  On the left, Huey Long, proclaimed “every man a king,” threatened confiscation of wealth, and preached class hatred until he was assassinated in 1935.  On the right, Father Charles Coughlin, the “Radio Priest,” blamed the Depression on bankers and Jews in nationwide broadcasts from Detroit.
• The Gilded Age is often overlooked as a time of division, but Republicans and Democrats hated each other.  They were still fighting the Civil War by political means.  President Ulysses S. Grant’s 1872 re-election was followed by five consecutive presidential contests in which no winner received a popular-vote majority.
• From 1873 until 1897, Republicans held the White House and the Senate and House for four years; Democrats for two years.  That left 18 years of divided government.  When Democrats flipped 92 seats to win the House in 1874 for the first time in 18 years, it was part of what historian Michael Perman calls “The Return of the Bourbons” as 56 former Confederates, including the former vice president of the Confederacy, were elected to Congress from Southern and border states.
• In the Gilded Age, it was routine for the House majority of either party to phony up a challenge to a member of the opposition who’d won by a few votes and toss him out, no matter how flimsy the evidence.  
• The 1800 election, between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, was among the most acrimonious in the nation’s history.  Historian James Roger Sharp writes that “vicious personal attacks, portents of doom and disaster if one or another of the opponents were to be elected, and scurrilous rumors of betrayal and intrigue pervaded every aspect of the contest.”

Rove ends his history lesson with a couple salient points.  First, he asks what ended these periods of broken politics and he answers that “adroit political leadership” from Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan clearly mattered.  They set a tone that led to healing.

But, Rove adds:  “Most of the credit goes to the American people, who make mistakes but have always found their way back to true north.  They have often tolerated our country’s politics being angry, hyper-partisan and divisive; in some instances, they are the driving force behind polarization, with the political class reflecting the public’s unchecked passions.  But that lasts only for a season.

“Their good common sense eventually brings them to vote for change, determined to reshape our politics in healthier, more constructive ways.”

With Rove, I hope that recovery emerges today as it has in the past.  He writes that “the better angels of our nature as Americans will emerge and win out.”

Again, I hope he is right.

LIKE OTHER SPORTS, COLLEGE FOOTBALL FOLLOWS THE MONEY

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.

I am a fan of college football, at least some of the time.

But events lately, especially athletic conference realignments, indicate that college football is after one thing – money.

In that way, it’s sort of like professional golf where the architects of the sport, not to mention many players, are going after tainted Saudi money – and they say it is to survive.

Sportswriter John Feinstein, in recent columns, got it just right when he said that college athletic administrators who say they are in favor of “student athletes” are blowing smoke.  They just want money.

Now national columnist George Will, writing in the Washington Post, goes beyond his normal political beat to write a column under this headline:  “At last, college football admits it is an unembarrassable money machine.”

Well, I am not sure that college football administrators have “admitted” that they are going after the money, it appears that is just what they are doing.

Will writes:

“There are furrowed brows as many people seriously ponder an unserious question:  Can college football be saved?  This question should be answered with a question:  Saved from what?

“Presumably, from itself.  Its sudden convulsions this summer are rational ones, in the limited sense that they are driven by cold economic calculations.  As a result, the college football industry must, at last, retire the three most important components of its tiresome, patently insincere, vocabulary:  ‘Amateurism,’ ‘student-athletes’ and ‘tradition.’

“This autumn, and ever after, college football will be played without the patina of romance that has been decreasingly successful at obscuring the absurdities that accompany grafting a multibillion-dollar entertainment industry onto institutions of higher education.

“The ‘realignment’ of the pre-eminent conferences, including the swift and ignominious collapse of one of them (the PAC 12) serves common sense.  Realism has displaced the fog of sanctimony and semantic obfuscations that suddenly are laughable and unnecessary.

“Big-time college football has shucked off the accumulated hypocrisies that have encrusted it and now stands before us with an agreeable lack of pretense:  It is an unembarrassable money machine, nothing more.”

Like Feinstein, Will is right.

College football is rarely anything more than a money machine.  Promise to give more money to so-called higher education institutions and they’ll bite.

Will recites the re-alignment:

“The re-alignment carousel accelerated in 2021 when the universities of Texas and Oklahoma announced they would defect from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference, where the annual per-team television payout is millions better.  Who knew the nation’s Southeast extends to Norman, Oklahoma.

“The Big Ten had 10 members, spanning 461 miles from Columbus, Ohio, to Iowa City until it added Penn State (1990) and Nebraska (2011).  Then the Big Ten caught the television fever, adding Maryland and Rutgers in 2014 to reach the Washington and New York markets.  The conference then extended 2,417 miles from Pasadena, California to Piscataway, New Jersey.

“Last year, the Big Ten poached (to begin in 2024) USC and UCLA from the Pac-12, which is now the probably terminally ill Pac-4.  This month, the universities of Washington and Oregon agreed to leave the Pac-12 for the soon-to-be 18-team Big Ten, sprawling 2,389 miles from Piscataway to Seattle.”

For my part, what I want is for those who administer “professional” sports, including college football and golf, to admit what they are doing — they are going after money.

Then, with that bit of honesty, we would have a chance to get back to being just fans, even with all the re-alignment.

THE FIRST REPUBLICAN DEBATE THAT WASN’T A DEBATE

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.

What happened a night or so ago – a so-called debate among eight Republican candidates for president – wasn’t a debate.

Rather, it was a performance by Fox News that, when it comes to deciding who will be the next president, will be irrelevant.

So will the candidates on the stage.

The one who wasn’t there was Donald Trump who, instead, was “mugging” for a still photo as he was arraigned in Georgia on the fourth criminal indictment he has faced.

I used the word “mugging” intentionally because, of course, Trump sycophants produced a “mug shot” that showed him snarling for the camera so it could be used immediately in another campaign fundraising appeal.

Which is working.

For me, the good news was that I didn’t watch the debate.  I had better things to do.

While not being on the debate stage, Trump worked with one of his main allies, Tucker Carlson, to produce an interview that was aired on the new Twitter, now called “X.”  [This represented the occasion when Trump was allowed back on Twitter airwaves for the first time in months.]

In the Washington Post, media critic Erik Wemple got it just right when he wrote this about the “debate” hosted by Fox News:

“The Post reported that the debate might have given the network an opportunity to ‘burnish’ its image after the Dominion fiasco.  Nah.  Stage-managing a ho-hum bicker-fest among GOP hopefuls months before the 2024 primary schedule doesn’t confer credibility.

“That comes from facing your viewers and telling them inconvenient truths when it counts the most — precisely the test that Fox News failed in 2020, when some of its hosts indulged the lie that the presidential election was stolen and even implicated Dominion’s voting technology in the alleged fraud.”

So much for truth and honesty in politics.

Neither word belongs in the same sentence with Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, or Fox News.

Another way to look at the “debate” was to consider part of the inauguration to run on the Trump ticket as vice president. 

On that score, I suppose it could be contended that Vivek Ramaswamy burnished his credentials.  When Fox News moderators asked candidates to raise their hands if they support Trump. Ramaswamy’s hand went up first and he left it up for awhile.

ANOTHER NORSKE GOLFER? YES, THERE IS ONE

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.

Over the weekend, I wrote that I knew two golfers with heritage in Norway – Victor Hovland, who shot a great last round to win a PGA Tour event last week, and me.

At least, as I said, I think I know myself.

As for Hovland, his course record – 61 – was easily one of the best rounds this year on the PGA Tour.

Well, yesterday, I learned that there is another golfer who says he shares Norway as the home of his forbears, at least some of them.

In the spirit of full disclosure, he said his heritage comes both from Norway and Germany.  So he is not full Norske.

I won’t provide his name here.  He prefers anonymity.

But this blog will clarify my statement that there are two Norskes.

No, there are two-and-a-half.

TWO NORSKE GOLFERS – ME AND VICTOR HOVLAND

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.

Yes, there are two golfers that I know with heritage in Norway.

First, I know myself, or at least I think I do.

Second, I know Victor Hovland, who shot a 61 yesterday, one of the best golf rounds of the year, if not longer.

At a tough course, Olympia Fields in Illinois, he posted a 61 in the BMW Invitational, winning the tournament and advancing to the Tour Championship next week.

He also is on the European Ryder Cup Team.

Here is how GolfWeek described the round:

“As Rory McIlroy counted up Viktor Hovland’s scorecard after the final round of the BMW Championship, he realized that Hovland’s back nine included eight threes and a single four.

“’It adds up to a nice little 28 for him,’ McIlroy said marveling at Hovland’s brilliant performance.  ‘He just keeps his foot on the pedal.  Just isn’t scared. Just keeps going forward, keeps going at it.’

“The 25-year-old Norwegian kept his foot on the pedal and rode his way to a course-record 9-under 61 at Olympia Fields on Sunday and a two-stroke victory over world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick. Hovland’s sizzling 61 to clinch his fifth PGA Tour title was the low round by a winner this season on the Tour and, also, the lowest final round in the history of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

“When told that the CBS golf team declared it the best round of the year, Hovland exclaimed, ‘Wow!’ and added, ‘It definitely has to be the best round I’ve ever played given the circumstances, a playoff event and this golf course.’”

Just think of this back nine – eight three’s and one four.  That adds up to 28, and couple that with a 33 on the front, you get 61.

Has that other golfer with Norwegian heritage ever shot that kind of round?  Absolutely not.  Might have had a 61 after about 13 holes or so.

So, here is to the real golfer from Norway, Victor Hovland!

THE DEPARTMENT OF INQUIRING MINDS IS OPEN AGAIN

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.

This is one of several departments I run with a free hand to manage as I see fit, which could mean I am a dictator.  So be it.

The others are the Department of Pet Peeves, the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering, and the Department of “Just Saying.”

So, here are more “inquiring minds” issues.

HOW IN THE WORLD DOES…the Internet allow you to ask a question such as this – what do I do to restore the linkage between my laptop and my printer – and get an answer in seconds?

I need to ask my grandson, a technology expert, to get the answer.

Our printer is one from H-P, so, with some hesitancy, my wife and I chose to consult on-line with H-P staff.  They were able to give us great help, plus advise us on general improvements related to our equipment, including additional security protections. 

Good work, even on-line, which normally is more frustrating than helpful.

AND HOW IN THE WORLD DOES…the Internet, in only seconds, give me exactly what I want to know when I ask who won professional golf tournaments last weekend?

I only need to type in a few words and up come the results.

For example, I wondered this morning how three players from Oregon did in the U.S. Amateur.  Took me only moments to find out.  Unfortunately, none of three made match play.

As I think about the Internet, my mind goes back to the time when all of us had bookshelves full of encyclopedias.  No longer.  And no need.

STAND UP TO BE SEEN. SPEAK UP TO BE HEARD. SIT DOWN TO BE APPRECIATED.

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.

Two letters to the editor of the Wall Street Journal struck a chord with me when it advocated short speeches as the best way to communicate with any audience.

Short good.  Long bad.

The letters appeared under the headline that I used for this blog.

Here is the way the first letter started:

“In her op-ed, ‘Hall of Fame Tips for Presidential Candidates,’ Merrie Spaeth states that ‘speeches should be governed by the time available,’ and calls this a manifestation of the Peter Principle.  The more appropriate analogy is to Parkinson’s law, which states, in general, that a resource will be consumed in full whether the task necessitates it or not.  In this context, a speech expands or contracts to fit the time allotted.

“Parkinson’s law has many corollaries.  For example, a one-hour meeting will accomplish the same as a half-hour meeting.  My favorite observation is that a group of people walking down a sidewalk will always expand to fill the sidewalk.

“Another great speaking tip, an adaptation of the old Teddy Roosevelt tip, I heard from a CEO speaking to a class of mine:  ‘Stand up to be seen. Speak up to be heard. Sit down to be appreciated.’”

Here is a summary of the second letter:

“The tips on public speaking remind me of advice my father once gave: Leave your audience wanting more.  He later proved it.

“At the family celebration of my parents’ golden wedding anniversary, my dad had three carousels ready, with 81 slides each, for his narrative reflection on the past 50 years.  One hour in and with not a carousel yet completed, with adult children nodding off and grandchildren screaming, my mother pulled the plug on the projector.  Yes, leave your audience wanting more, not less.”

Again, good advice.

I remember various times when former President Bill Clinton droned on and on while delivering a political message.  It may have been a good message, but it was drowned in his long-winded delivery.

Another example:  At a recent U.S. Girls Junior America’s Cup tournament, the speaker, at an opening banquet, droned on for 40 minutes.  I would have been asleep. No doubt the players were, too.

In future such events, the speech limit should be about 5-8 minutes.  Say something important.  Then sit down. 

Applause would erupt.

It’s not the same as giving a speech, but I also remember something I learned while serving as a state lobbyist.

“When you have made a sale, shut up.”

ARE ‘IZE” WORDS REAL? I SAY NO

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.

I almost opened the Department of Pet Peeves, which I run, to make the point revealed in this blog headline:  Words that are made up by adding three letters – “ize” – should not be real words.

There is no need for them.  One of my pet peeves.

Then, I read a column this morning in the Wall Street Journal by essayist Joseph Epstein, and he made the point far better than I could.

As I have written before, I consider myself to be a “words person,” one who likes words better than charts and graphs, or even photos.

So it was that, when I still worked in my old lobbying and public relations company, I balked with one of my partners started to use the word “catalyze.”  What in the world did that so-called word mean?

Yes, it’s nearly an “ize” word, using a “y” instead of an “i.”

If I would have used it, the word would have raked across my tongue, so I demurred.

In addition, my partner was a great friend – and still is, despite his use of “catalyze.”

To read Epstein’s column is to learn more about this word fantasy – the use of “ize” words, such as the one in vogue today in politics, “weaponize.”

Under this headline — IN OUR DIVIDED TIMES, LET’S NOT ‘WEAPONIZE’ OUR LANGUAGE – here are excerpts from Epstein’s column.

• All new words are dubious until proven necessary, useful or charming.  Change being in the very nature of language, new words seek entry with a high frequency.
• Perhaps none do so more than that group of words that began life as nouns and adjectives and seek new life as verbs by adding the syllable “-ize” to their tail.  H.W. Fowler’s magisterial “A Dictionary of Modern English Usage,” first published in 1926, noted of the “ize” appendage that “within reason it is a useful and unexceptionable device, but it is now being employed with a freedom beyond reason.”
• Thus over the years the language has added such words as “publicize,“ “finalize,” “prioritize” and “incentivize.”  Of “finalize,” Fowler commented that “there can be few occasions on which the neologism finalized is an improvement on completed or finished,” though he allowed that “publicize can put up a good defense against a charge of being merely an unwanted synonym for publish.”
• “Most nouns and adjectives converted into verb status were inelegant, or so Fowler felt.  One reason for their popularity, he believed, is that “those engaged in the advertisement and entertainment industries think, perhaps rightly, that the look and sound of them” will appeal to the public.
• “As examples, he noted that “we may be expected to respond more readily to an invitation to slenderize than to slim” and “more likely to buy a preparation that moisturizes the skin than one that merely moistens it.” I-Z-E, those three little letters, have been called in to do a lot of work.”

As for the word “weaponize,” Epstein says politicians lately can be depended upon to avail themselves of it in accusing their opponents of unfairly using whatever is at hand to score points.

For example, he says that, in Democrats’ view, House Republicans are “weaponizing” the Hunter Biden investigation.  By contrasts, Republicans contend that Democrats, hoping to gain voters eventually by allowing an influx of migrants at the southern border, are “weaponizing” immigration itself.

Since departing the presidency, Donald Trump has frequently claimed that the Justice Department has been “weaponized” against him.  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), if elected president, pledges to “end the weaponization of government.”

But, Epstein, with me, suggests ending “the weaponization of “weaponization,” which is so often used it has no meaning, falling into the category of “vogue words.”

Epstein ends with this:

“At a time of national divisiveness, one strongly reflected in our two political parties, the regular use of the word ‘weaponize,’ with its built-in hyperbole, doesn’t help.  The sooner that hyped-up, inelegant word departs the language, the better.  In rhetoric as in other realms, disarmament is sometimes required.”

I end with this.

Beyond my partner’s use of the word “catalyze,” my frustration with “ize” words was heightened by the word “prioritize,” as is in, for example, “I want to prioritize this issue in my political campaign.”

Wouldn’t it be better just to say, in my campaign, “I’ll focus on this top priority issue?”

Yes. 

GOOD THINGS ABOUT WHERE I PLAY GOLF IN SALEM, OREGON

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.

As can be the case with any private golf club, comments from members sometimes head toward what’s wrong with a particular facility, or what can be improved.

No problem with advocacy for improvements, so long as comments are designed to be constructive, not destructive.

But the tension is why I would never want to be a high-level manager of a private facility.  Too many bosses.  Too many views.

But, my thoughts have been going lately to what there is to like about where I play golf, Illahe Hills Golf and Country Club in Salem, Oregon.

Better, I submit, to focus on the positive, not the negative.  The goal is not necessarily to convince others that I am right, but just to focus on good news.

So, here is my list of pluses.

A HIGH-QUALITY GOLF COURSE:  Illahe, after more than 60 years of existence, is starting to be recognized as one of the top-quality private tracks in the region.  So much so that GolfWeek Magazine recently listed Illahe as one of the 10 best private courses in the state.  It was the first time in my memory that Illahe made the list.

It ranked ninth and some who read the GolfWeek story thought Illahe should have been higher.

RELATIVELY EASY ACCESS:  As some private tracks in our region have limited access, if only because of a large number of members who want to play golf at those facilities, access at Illahe is, overall, excellent.

I use the word “overall” because, on occasion, the course is closed to charity or other events and, if members are not allowed to play at such times, angst results.

But, I am among those who advocate taking a “big picture” look at access.  If you do – and avoid “snapshots,” which can deliver an inaccurate picture – then those of us at Illahe are very fortunate.

It is not unusual to head out in the mid-afternoon on a good-weather summer day and find yourself almost alone on the course.  No need for a tee time.

To buttress this point, I kept track of my last 10 days of golf:

• August 1 – 10:30 a.m. for five holes; 2 p.m. for seven holes

• August 2 – 2:08 p.m. for 9 holes

• August 3 – 8:08 a.m. for 18 holes

• August 4 – 3:04 p.m. for 9 holes

• August 5 – 7:40 a.m. for 18 holes; 9 more holes for 27

• August 6 – Could not play because of my own schedule

• August 7 – 12 noon for 18 holes

• August 8 – 10:08 a.m. for 18 holes

• August 9 – 12 noon for 18 holes

• August 10 – 8:16 a.m. for 18 holes

• August 11 – 9:44 a.m. for 9 holes

By the way, I should add that I have talked with a number of friends about the access issue and I always enjoy the discussion in the spirit that there is “no right” answer; just various perspectives.

What’s required is to do what is often difficult, which is to strike the right “balance” between member play and outsider play.  And, this also means that the right answer might change from time to time.  As long as all of us can talk civilly about the issue, good.

STAFF WHO WORK HARD AND CARE:  We have a great staff at the course, including those who serve in the Clubhouse, those who take care of golf clubs, those who take care of the course, and those who organize golf for members.

The golf course maintenance staff is supervised by one of the best superintendents around, Steve Beyer, who leads his staff by working hard himself. 

Long-time golf pro, Steve Bowen, uses his experience to make playing run smoothly.

Don Austin runs the “back-shop” where golf carts and clubs are stored.  He does his work selflessly.

BEYOND GOLF, MULTIPLE ACTIVITIES:  Beyond many comparable golf clubs, Illahe has a lot of activities for members.  The list:

• A large swimming pool

• Two new bocce ball courts

• Multiple new pickle ball courts

• Two indoor tennis courts

So, as I have tried to look on the bright side, I relish my family’s good fortune to be members at Illahe Golf and Country Club and enjoying the Club for more than 30 years.

And, oh yeah, one more thing:  At this time of year, there are many blackberry bushes within easy reach on the course, which means I get free desserts from time-to-time.

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Full disclosure:  Regarding golf course access, I am often an advocate for allowing Illahe to be used by the Oregon Golf Association and the Pacific Northwest Golf Association, so those who criticize the lack of access have me at least partially to blame.