This new par-3 course is not what it appears — however it’s endlessly enjoyable

Fake grass has an actual and rising function in golf.

Once largely reserved for yard short-game setups, it has unfold its attain into every kind of public venues. The most outstanding of these tasks is SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., the indoor dwelling of TGL. But the artificial pattern has taken (synthetic) root at lower-profile playgrounds coast to coast.

The newest? Shortland Golf Club in Portland, Ore.

Shortland is the brainchild of Mike Fritz, a longtime golf junky and former footwear developer for Nike Golf who noticed a void in his hometown market. To the east of Portland, some 45 minutes into the suburbs, was a candy par-3 course, offering fast and quick access to the sport.

“But there was nothing really like that on the west side of town,” Fritz says.

What to do about it was one other matter. Land for a brand new course was scarce and costly.

“I figured the only way to pull it off was to find something that was closing or ready to be sold,” he says.

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Fritz discovered simply that within the outdated footprint of Sandelie Golf Course, a modest 18-hole format, half-hour from downtown, that had gone belly-up in late 2022. The land had since been parceled and was on the blocks. Fritz acquired a 31-acre quadrant and put a plan in place.

On a plot that dimension, there wasn’t room for a full-scale course, and Fritz didn’t need one, anyway. He knew sufficient to know that constructing and working such a spot was just like opening a restaurant: sounds enjoyable till you truly do it. Even for those who obtained by design and building, upkeep and labor had been long-term obligations that would drain your checking account and drive you mad.

Fritz had been round and performed loads of programs. Among his memorable rounds was on a player-friendly par-3 course at Skamania Lodge, simply over the Oregon border in Washington, that featured synthetic greens and tees. Another was a loop on the Bad Little Nine, a wickedly participating par-3 format at Scottsdale National Golf Club in Arizona. 

What about one thing of a hybrid of the 2? A brief course that mixed the subtleties and technique of tremendous design with the advantages of artificial turf.

For assist, Fritz turned to Jackson Kahn Design, the structure agency behind the Bad Little Nine, amongst different broadly praised tasks. It so occurred that one in every of Jackson Kahn’s lead associates, Connor Dougherty, was Portland-based. With his colleagues at Jackson Kahn, Dougherty had expertise with yard short-game setups, and although this was his first stab at a public-access course with artificial turf, he had a good suggestion of what he needed to create.

“The goal was to put a lot of character and movement into the greens and make them interesting to hit to,” he says. “We wanted a couple that would allow for creativity and to be a playable experience for everyone.”

It helped that pretend grass was no lengthy the inferior turf of generations previous. Like golf gear, it had superior by leaps and bounds within the trendy period in order that it now performed pretty true to life, bouncing, rolling and receiving photographs in a fashion near that of actual grass.

It was as much as Dougherty to do the remainder.

The design he dreamed up is a 19-hole par-3 format that loops, clover-like, round a sq. parcel, with a clubhouse and meals cart at its middle that the routing touches thrice alongside the way in which. Holes vary from 59 to 104 yards, with beneficiant greens that change of their form and contouring, posing a grab-bag of calls for. The nineteenth gap is neglected by a clubhouse veranda aptly often called the “heckler’s deck,” which isn’t as intimidating because it sounds. After all, most golfers know higher than to heckle a newbie, and most seasoned gamers can deal with a good-natured ribbing. If not, they might have switched to a different sport.

All the tees, bunkers and placing surfaces at Shortland showcase artificial turf from Celebrity Greens (the “sand” isn’t sand however 2-inch turf, painted white). That means no want for raking, watering, mowing or fixing ball marks. The placing surfaces, although, nonetheless name for care; they’re rolled and sanded to maintain them working clean and country-club slick. Transition areas characteristic pure grass, mown to the peak of a pleasant pitch and putt. Miss the inexperienced and there’s an opportunity to get better.

Shortland has been busy since its early August opening, and final week, it added one other draw: a 19-hole placing and chipping course referred to as the Nest that may be performed with a flat-stick or a wedge. Take your decide. The grass is pretend, however the expertise is actual.

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