State reform; graduating grandchildren; a look at the U.S. Open

Serving on Gov. Matt Blunt's State Government Reform Commission has averaged about one meeting a week over the last 12 weeks. It also is requiring a great deal of reading, which is informative and time- consuming.

Some of the better recommendations we will make could be easily implemented by a business or industry but will probably take longer for legislative action.

Blunt, by executive order, has already started Missouri on a better path to efficiency and cost savings by putting all of the state information systems under one umbrella in the Office of Administration.

Under the direction of Dan Ross, an impressive, dedicated public servant, it will probably take two to four years to complete this much-needed consolidation.

Right now getting accurate information and sharing it is much harder than it should be. Much, much more on the commission later. Now we are continuing input hearings (the next public one is in St. Louis today) to gather the knowledge and information so as to make the best recommendations possible.

Kentucky issued a blue-ribbon report in 2003, and California (as well as most states) have or will shortly review their governance structures. Missouri's last major review was 31 years ago. I served on that conference committee while representing this district in the Missouri Legislature.

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A brief sidebar on the commission is our review of the Coordinating Board for Higher Education. The question has always been whether the board has enough teeth to enforce its rulings or too much power.

This is quite timely as this area awaits the board's ruling on the disagreement between Southeast Missouri State University and Three Rivers Community College.

Also, a number of Kansas City leaders testified that they felt the University of Missouri-Kansas City would raise much more money and grow faster if it wasn't under the umbrella of the University of Missouri system.

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Wendy and I enjoyed being grandparents recently when two of our grandchildren, Alex Terry (Alan and Penny's son) and Erik Rust (Wynn and Kim's son), graduated from separate high schools in North Carolina.

Three days later we attended the graduation of our granddaughter, Julia Rust (Gary II and Suzuyo's daughter) from Whitfield School in St. Louis.

Because of poor flying conditions, we ended up driving to North Carolina while listening to "The Men in Black" (on CDs) about the past and present history of the U.S. Supreme Court.

I also listened to "Flyboys" about action seen in World War II by American aviators at Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Japan.

It was estimated that the U.S. military would have had one to three million soldiers killed or wounded if we had invaded Japan, and Hirohito's Japanese (he asked civilian and military to fight to the death) could have lost or wounded an estimated five million.

The torture of some of our downed American pilots was described in gruesome detail.

The book helped explain President Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb.

What I didn't know is that we were already killing more Japanese with our incendiary bombs than the total of the two atomic bombs.

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I don't play golf, but while in Pinehurst, N.C., where Alan, Penny, Alex and Katie Terry live, a special tour of the Pinehurst No. 2 Golf Course was arranged (the course was closed in preparation of the U.S. Open now in progress).

The following are notes by Penny Rust Terry of some comments by our friendly host driver who drove the 18-hole course for us:

On Saturday, June 4, Stephen Boyd, Pinehurst media liaison, toured us in a chronological fashion as to how a visitor would begin their day at the Open.

Two satellite parking lots (red and blue). Tournament spectators from off-site parking lots will be picked up by 160 special air-conditioned U.S. Open buses that will feature special video footage of the previous days highlights as well as info on Pinehurst and the Open. After being deposited at the Pinehurst Race Track, approximately 45,000 spectators per day will be screened by magnetometers before they are conveniently routed through the 40,000-square-foot U.S. Open merchandise tent. Estimates based on sales from the past four years are guestimated to be over $10 million for 2005. Open items range from apparel to balls, commemorative coins, playing cards and blankets.

Around 28,000 bleacher seats have been installed in addition to countless other elaborate special-interest tents complete with air conditioning, flooring, TVs, food and drink services. Thousands of trees, shrubs, flowers and plants have been trucked in to create instant landscaping surrounding the event tents. Following the 2005 Open many of the plants, which are planted in their containers in the ground, will be dug up for resale to the public.

Around 67 high-end corporate tents ranging from $175,000 to over $200,000 plus will be available for entertaining at the specially created Corporate Village located on one of the Pinehurst courses. (An estimated $12 million plus.)

According to Stephen Boyd, they have broken all records with this U.S. Open. "We've raised the bar on this one." Around 200 corporate jets have reserved landing times at the Pinehurst Airport.

The USGA is exposing Pinehurst to 107 countries. "This is the largest fan trip we can hopefully hold."

We saw Phil Mickelson practicing on Hole No. 3 with his swing coach Rick Smith and short game coach Dave Pelz. Rumor has it that he would practice 40 minutes to one hour on each hole. Trying to discern which wedge to use from 64, 78 and 72 yards out.

Pinehurst course only has one token body of water (small pond) that doesn't come into play.

Pinehurst's No. 2 course is noted for its inverted saucer or turtleback greens that make play particularly challenging. Greens are designed for convenient walking of the course from the greens to the next tee.

Future U.S. Open tournaments are booked until 2011.

There were 350,000 rounds of golf played this past year on all eight Pinehurst courses. (There are reportedly 30 golf courses in the immediate area.)

Gary Rust is chairman of Rust Communications.