Shownotes
The primary focus of this podcast episode is the innovative approach to golf embodied by Shortland Golf, a par-three course featuring synthetic turf and advanced design elements aimed at enhancing the golfing experience. I engage in a comprehensive dialogue with Steve Merrill, the general manager of Shortland Golf, who elucidates the unique attributes of this facility, including its environmentally conscious design and the challenges it poses to golfers of varying skill levels. We delve into the intricacies of synthetic greens and sand traps, examining how they compare to traditional courses and their potential to revolutionize the golfing landscape. Additionally, we explore the burgeoning interest in such courses, which offer an accessible and enjoyable alternative to conventional golfing experiences. This episode serves as an insightful exploration of the future of golf, highlighting the intersection of innovation, sustainability, and recreation.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Shortland Golf
- Celebrity Greens
- Jackson Kahn
- Weston Kia
- Birdie Ball
- Squares Golf Shoes
- Painted Hills Beef
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcripts
It's time for Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:Join Jeff Tracy as he explores the golfing lifestyle and tries to keep it in the short grass for the hackers, dew sweepers and turf spankers.
Speaker A:Here's Jeff, Everybody.
Speaker A:Welcome to Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:I'm JT Happy Masters Week.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker A:You can't see my studio, at least the front part of it, but I've got it on the big screen right in front of me, so enjoy that.
Speaker A:The weather's great here in the Northwest.
Speaker A:I hope it is.
Speaker A:Wherever you're listening to us today, we're very fortunate.
Speaker A:We have Steve Merrill, the general manager of Shortland Golf.
Speaker A:If you don't live inside our region here, you might not be familiar with Shortland, but it's a par three course, basically synthetic turf, fantastic putting greens, silicon traps.
Speaker A:I'm going to let him explain that all, but it's.
Speaker A:It's fascinating and we're going to find out today if this is the future of golf or at least part of it.
Speaker A:Steve, welcome.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker A:First of all, how did.
Speaker A:I want to find out a little more.
Speaker A:I don't know that much about your history in the golf world.
Speaker B:Actually, it's very limited.
Speaker B:I'm coming out of the restaurant industry.
Speaker B:I met Mike was going to take just an ordinary job at the golf course and semi retire, and Mike said, hey, step in and let's.
Speaker B:Let's do this together.
Speaker B:And it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker B:It's been a real education.
Speaker B:We've been open for about a year, and during that process, the education is just unbelievable.
Speaker B:There's so much to this game.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah,.
Speaker B:A lot.
Speaker B:But we're learning and we're getting our way through it.
Speaker B:And, yeah, it's a very unique course.
Speaker B:I mean, it's something that there were only like four of them in the United States when we started building ours.
Speaker B:And the real reason that we have it this way is because Clackamas county had a lot of questions about how much water we were going to use.
Speaker B:And Greens, being the biggest user of water, they very much were adamant that we use synthetic greens.
Speaker B:So then we contacted Celebrity Greens, and the rest started rolling along.
Speaker A:It was the old Sandaly course.
Speaker B:Correct?
Speaker A:Because I used to live right down the road there.
Speaker A:And one of the things, I'll get this out of the way, but if you go to Shortland, if you stand out on the deck and you look way off to your left, you'll see what looks like out in the middle of a pasture, a green and A flag that's not part of Sandali now.
Speaker A:But the farmer who owned part of that property, I think, or had access to it.
Speaker A:I don't know that story.
Speaker A:But he got his own hole to practice with out of the deal.
Speaker B:Yes, he did.
Speaker B:And yeah, she was there for 52 years.
Speaker B:Sandal Lee was a well used golf course in Portland area.
Speaker B:It was kind of a country course.
Speaker B:It was quite a bit bigger than what we have.
Speaker B:We took only 28 of the 52 acres that are.
Speaker B:That were available at first.
Speaker B:She'd already sold some off.
Speaker B:And then we started redesigning.
Speaker B:And there's a company called Jackson Kahn here in Portland that contacted us and they did the design work.
Speaker B:Person named Connor Daugherty works for them, did all the design work.
Speaker B:And, and we started building the course.
Speaker A:And how has it been received, Steve?
Speaker B:Oh, unbelievable.
Speaker B:We always believe that if we can get people out to try it, we win them.
Speaker B:When I first started, me personally, I drove out to this course and I thought, par three.
Speaker B:You know, I had this vision in my head about what par threes look like.
Speaker B:And it was going to be real easy and real simple and it'd take me about an hour to get around it.
Speaker B:And I thought, wow, this is, this is totally different.
Speaker B:Just pulling up on it, I'm sure you had the same opinion when I did.
Speaker B:It's a gorgeous gol course.
Speaker B:It just sits down there off the road in such a way.
Speaker B:You get to see it coming in in full, in.
Speaker B:In its fullness and it.
Speaker B:And it's, it's just unique.
Speaker B:The course itself, we went through a lot of gyrations.
Speaker B:I mean, we took apart Sandily and Sandily.
Speaker B:We had to remove all of the different dirt and everything around the course to take it from being a regular, pretty much a par four course down into a par three course.
Speaker B:And then of course, we replaced all, everything from, from irrigation to.
Speaker B:You name it, we did it.
Speaker B:We built a second building.
Speaker B:Well, we actually built two buildings, an equipment building.
Speaker B:And then we did something very unique.
Speaker B:In the middle of the golf courses, we put up slams.
Speaker B:And what is slam slams is a bar slash restaurant slash restrooms.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:And it's a beautiful building and it's right in the middle of the course.
Speaker B:So you walk by it about three or four times during the course of your round.
Speaker B:At that point you can buy or purchase anything you'd like to snack on or drink.
Speaker B:We have, it's fully loaded with soda pop, Gatorade, beer, you name it in.
Speaker A:There, I like it.
Speaker A:It is beautiful.
Speaker A:And I think one of the things that sets it off is when you, when you pull in and you first see it, the, the beauty of the different shades of green and white on the course.
Speaker A:I mean, I mentioned at the top of the show, I'm looking at it right now.
Speaker A:There's a picture of the 13th hole at Augusta.
Speaker A:And no, you don't have the azaleas in between each fairway, but it's just this really striking image when you first get there and you go, wow, this is.
Speaker A:I think that's part of the hook you're talking about.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:And it works really well.
Speaker B:Everybody comes in and says, what?
Speaker B:How do you make those sand traps so white?
Speaker B:And the real key to it is they're synthetic and they're a special cut of this, of turf that is made in such a way that the club feels like it's being drugged through the sand at the same time.
Speaker B:But you never have to rake it, you never have to take it out of your shoes.
Speaker B:It is, it is a marvelous thing.
Speaker B:And it could be approached two different ways.
Speaker B:You can open the club face up as you would approach a normal sand filled green trap.
Speaker B:You would enter it the same way and hit it the same way.
Speaker B:Or for the newer golfer, it also can, most of the time, considering your lie, you would be able to just chip it out.
Speaker B:So it's got some.
Speaker B:The course is meant to challenge everybody from the guy who plays scratch golf down to the person who's just having their first visits.
Speaker B:And so that degree, the sand traps help that the greens are definitely unrelated.
Speaker B:And yeah, got a lot of break and things to him.
Speaker A:Did you play golf?
Speaker B:Yes, I played a lot of golf.
Speaker B:That's exactly why I got enticed to come back into golf.
Speaker B:I'm not like the owner, Mike Fritz, who's a scratch golfer, but I hold my own.
Speaker B:And I really like this course because the worst part of my game was always my short game.
Speaker B:And this helps me sharpen it up.
Speaker A:That's pretty normal.
Speaker A:I think.
Speaker B:Everybody says it when they walk in.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:So when Mike and you started talking and he had this kind of vision, if you will, were you kind of scratching your head at first?
Speaker A:Could you really get your thought process around this vision?
Speaker A:Or did you have to go out and see the land?
Speaker A:And you know, there's stuff on TV like Tiger's TGL and there's Southern California, there's night courses, it's all synthetic, you know, various, various, what do I want to say, selections on, on this type of thing.
Speaker A:But like you said, also, there's only a handful of these types of courses across the country.
Speaker A:So if you're not really thinking in that way, it must be somewhat challenging to get your noggin around this when somebody's trying to explain it to you for the very first time and you have nothing to compare it to.
Speaker B:Yeah, you're exactly right.
Speaker B:When I drove in the first time, I expected what I'd seen before.
Speaker B:And this is what everybody's vision is of somebody having a little green in their backyard.
Speaker B:And usually it's poured on concrete and it's a really thin mat and you just putt on and it's not very exciting.
Speaker B:This was after coming to the site itself, you'll walk away and say, this is amazing because the, the greens are all on 8 inch beds of sand.
Speaker B:They, they hold the ball exactly like a wood, a regular green.
Speaker B:They're built almost like a regular GRE for that aspect of it.
Speaker B:Everything I thought was going to happen, the ball was going to react differently and it doesn't.
Speaker B:Everybody walks in and pretty much amazed at how they, they hold up.
Speaker B:So yeah, it was hard to wrap around.
Speaker B:It was also hard to try to figure out how to lay out.
Speaker B:That's the first time I've ever seen a small course.
Speaker B:It's like trying to put it into a 28 acre piece was, was a real issue because you have to, you have to build them around, you have to make them exciting, you have to make them different.
Speaker B:There's no two holes that look the same.
Speaker B:So yeah, it was, it was a lot of work and it was a lot of, of imagination.
Speaker B:Mike had it and they, and so did celebrity greens.
Speaker B:They had built these other ones around the country, so they were a big help.
Speaker B:But we definitely got Mike's signature on this one.
Speaker B:Mike wanted the greens to be a certain way and be large and to be able to have movement of flags.
Speaker B:Most people ask, do we move the flags?
Speaker B:And yes, we do.
Speaker B:There's five different holes in every one of the greens, so daily we move them.
Speaker A:Very cool.
Speaker A:We're talking with Steve Merrill, who is the general manager up at Shortland Golf in West Lynn Stafford area.
Speaker A:If you're familiar with the Portland area, and if not, it's right off of i205.
Speaker A:Anyway, Steve and I are going to take a break and we're going to be right back in a moment.
Speaker A:Stay with us.
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Speaker A:Welcome back to Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:Hey, I want to say thanks to our friends at Birdie Ball.
Speaker A:John Breaker and his family talk about synthetic putting greens and all that.
Speaker A:I happen to have a birdie ball putting green in my backyard.
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Speaker A:So go to birdieball.com we're talking with Steve Merrill, the general manager of short golf.
Speaker A:You got a lot of good press coverage when, when it opened.
Speaker A:I know I came up and I've been up there twice.
Speaker A:I think I, I haven't played yet, but we'll, we'll remedy that one of these days.
Speaker A:But it is such.
Speaker A:Well, it's pretty too.
Speaker A:It's beautiful.
Speaker A:You know, a lot of courses I think you pull into and there you've got the, you know, the first fairway is just this long, straight, not much kind of innocuous look to it.
Speaker A:That's a lot of courses.
Speaker A:This isn't that way.
Speaker A:You know, I'm sure, I'm sure if you took a, a drone and, and got up high enough and looked down, it would look like somebody dropped little white bombs around for all the, all the traps.
Speaker B:Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker B:We have done a lot of drone pictures of it.
Speaker B:There's been a lot of people, you're right.
Speaker B:The, the acceptance of it has been great.
Speaker B:We way exceeded our expectations on number of rounds the first year and we were only open basically nine months and May 1st last year was the first time we opened and we only opened with 11 holes and then 14 and then we have the full 19 open and we also opened a 19 hole putting course right next door to it.
Speaker B:So, yeah, it's, it's been a lot.
Speaker A:The one thing that of course, being here in the Northwest, particularly where we live, because we're surrounded by rivers here, oceans 90 miles away, we get A lot of weather.
Speaker B:A lot of weather.
Speaker A:And I don't think you have much of a drainage problem there.
Speaker B:Do you know, it's the most exciting part of getting a course like this, where you had a chance to review it and the lows and the highs.
Speaker B:Don't get me wrong, in golf, you're always chasing water.
Speaker B:The water is going to percolate, you're going to, you're going to get it moved away from here, but it's going to show up over here.
Speaker B:And we are a little bit in a lull and down in the bottom.
Speaker B:But this is exciting because we were able to build it with enough sand and rock.
Speaker B:It's on that.
Speaker B:So that drains away within about a half an hour of a rainstorm.
Speaker B:A pretty good sized rainstorm.
Speaker B:The greens are almost dry.
Speaker B:There won't be any puddling.
Speaker B:There won't be, you know, the greens really, in 30 minutes are dry enough to play and play well.
Speaker B:The only thing is that, that the course does have, that's exactly like a regular golf course is the fairways.
Speaker B:All the fairways are just regular grass, natural grass.
Speaker B:And the only things that are synthetic are our greens, our traps and our tee box areas.
Speaker B:Although the tee box areas, we have two different kinds of grass on them.
Speaker B:So you synthetic grass that you can, you can, you know, launch off of, or you can step to the side of that, put a green or a tee in the ground and hit it like you would any other golf course.
Speaker B:So we try to make it work for everybody.
Speaker B:The people that are new at it and the people who have been around for a while.
Speaker A:You said a few minutes ago you were talking about the balls hit the green, and I don't remember exactly what you said, but they don't just hold.
Speaker A:They go with the flow of the, of the green, the slope and stuff like that.
Speaker A:Is there a difference being synthetic, about how the balls, you know, if you try to hit it soft, do they.
Speaker A:Do they actually sit and stick?
Speaker A:I'm sure if you skull one, because when I was there, one of the times I watched these two guys playing and the one guy sculled one and it went a fur piece as they found out, you know, it hit that synthetic turf and it went flying.
Speaker A:He kind of stood there with his mouth gaping, you know, it was like, well, that only makes sense to do that.
Speaker B:Well, let me explain a little bit about the greens and maybe that'll help.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:It comparison to a regular green, number one, we have a lot of sand and so does a regular green.
Speaker B:That's what stops the ball.
Speaker B:But that's only part of what stops the ball.
Speaker B:When you fly into a regular green or regular natural grass green, you're going to leave a ball mark.
Speaker B:That ball mark is a debit, a form of a debit.
Speaker B:And what happens is that slows the ball down as well.
Speaker B:Our greens don't have, don't let you take divots.
Speaker B:So what happens is you've got to fly the ball in is you can either spin the ball if you've got that kind of skill set or you've got to allow more run out room because it's still going to try to hold it as best it can, but it's still going to slide a little bit.
Speaker B:So farther forward.
Speaker B:So we tell everybody as they go out, if you're not, if you're just going to hit a regular shot, back up a little bit.
Speaker B:This is really a thinking man's course.
Speaker B:It truly is.
Speaker B:And what you have to do is you have to say where do I want to land on the green?
Speaker B:You can't just walk up to the hole and say give me my 70 yard club because that's what the sign says.
Speaker B:You may only want to hit it 60, you may only want to hit 65.
Speaker B:You may not want to go for the flag stick on the fly.
Speaker B:You may want to hit it in the short or the short grass in front of it and let it roll up because that gives you your best putt.
Speaker A:So for Steve, are you using when you play it and being the general manager, you probably don't get to play it that much because you're working.
Speaker A:You know the old saying, we covered it many times here on this show.
Speaker A:If you, if you want to play more golf, don't go to work in the golf industry.
Speaker A:But are you using people ask you for recommendations, a softer ball or is it doesn't matter to do two things.
Speaker B:One is absolutely use the softest ball.
Speaker B:You can get a lot of titles golf balls out there that are being used constantly.
Speaker B:We actually provide some in the clubhouse used ones so that you can get the use of a softer ball.
Speaker B:But, but the ball itself will, will stop if you spin it, it'll stop just like regularly and you can back it up if you have that kind of skill set.
Speaker B:But the greens themselves, you just gotta, you just gotta allow for more thinking.
Speaker B:You gotta say where do I want this ball to land?
Speaker B:And then you asked me about what clubs I carry.
Speaker B:I carry a 60 degree wedge, I carry a sand wedge.
Speaker B:I also carry, believe it or not I carry an eight iron.
Speaker B:And some people will say, why do you carry an eight iron?
Speaker B:These greens acceptable really well on a bump and run.
Speaker B:So I happen to be a big fan of that.
Speaker B:So I carry an eight iron with me just for those occasions where I want to just bump it up because I can better judge where that ball is going to stop and that'll give me my best putt for par, birdie, whatever.
Speaker B:In my case, maybe a double bogey.
Speaker B:But it, it definitely is a good tool to have.
Speaker B:We also provide small bags, where they call them Sunday bags, so you don't have to bring your full bag, your full setup.
Speaker B:We can loan you a bag.
Speaker B:We have carts that you can pull.
Speaker B:We have all the same kind of tools that are available in any golf course.
Speaker A:Excellent.
Speaker A:We're talking with Steve Merrill, general manager of Shortland Golf in the Stafford West Lynn area in the Portland area.
Speaker A:And Steve and I will be back after this break.
Speaker A:You're listening to Grilling at the Green on Golf News Network, among other places.
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Speaker A:Welcome back to Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:I'm JT Today we're talking with Steve Merrill, general manager of Shortland Golf.
Speaker A:We'd like to thank the folks at Squares Golf Shoes.
Speaker A:Yep, I've got a couple pairs of squares.
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Speaker A:Your feet change.
Speaker A:In my case, it's probably from carrying a heavy load for many years.
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Speaker A:And for me it works out well.
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Speaker A:And as I said, we're talking with Steve Merrill, the general manager of Shortland Golf.
Speaker A:What's the average comment when somebody comes off the course, Steve?
Speaker A:I mean, you're in the clubhouse and you're buzzing around doing stuff, but I'm sure you talk to a lot of the players when they come off, especially the first timers.
Speaker A:What's their take?
Speaker B:Yeah, most definitely we do.
Speaker B:And I want to say a couple of things.
Speaker B:One is before we send anybody out to golf course, we always try to give them some tips because there is a difference between synthetic greens and the non synthetic greens.
Speaker B:And so we try to give them tips, we tell them where to play the ball, we talk about how to score the best, we really give them some direction.
Speaker B:So certainly when they come back in, they want to tell us what they learn.
Speaker B:When I say the greens are faster than some, they come in and say, yeah, the greens were faster, you know, or they come in and say, boy, the ball breaks a lot.
Speaker B:But it's so beautiful to watch because there's nothing to impede its, its travel.
Speaker B:So it never falls off to another ball mark or anything.
Speaker B:So yeah, they, they come in a lot and say that most of the time the number one comment is, I never thought a par 3 would challenge me like this one does.
Speaker B:It makes you use all your tools and, and really the biggest one that really evades me is you gotta use your head.
Speaker B:You gotta say to yourself, where do I want to land the ball?
Speaker B:Where does my next shot gonna come from and how do I want to score?
Speaker B:And you know, one of the nice features about this golf course is you get 19 chances at a hole in one every time you play it.
Speaker B:So we do have quite a few hole in ones.
Speaker B:There's a lot, quite frankly, but there's 19 chances at it.
Speaker B:But I'll tell you, when somebody gets a hole in one at our golf course, it doesn't make any difference to them what kind course they're on.
Speaker B:It's a hole in one and it's my first one or my second one or.
Speaker B:I don't think that ever gets old.
Speaker B:I, I don't happen to have enough to know it, but I'll talk to somebody who does.
Speaker A:I've never had one.
Speaker A:I've come close a Bunch of times.
Speaker A:But I've never actually put one in the jar, so.
Speaker B:Yeah, well, me either.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Yeah, well, I think we're in the majority.
Speaker A:I don't.
Speaker B:I think so too.
Speaker B:But I'll tell you what's nice about this course is we were.
Speaker B:One of the stories I like the best is we were watching.
Speaker B:It was a Saturday, the deck was full and those who haven't been out to the golf course, the 19th hole plays right out right in front of you.
Speaker B:Big sand traps, big, big danger everywhere on this hole and so everybody gets to watch you.
Speaker B:And this dad gets up to the tee box and he hits and he puts one on the green and mom gets up and she puts one pretty close to the green.
Speaker B:18 Year old kid gets up and he hits the his shot.
Speaker B:And it wasn't pretty, to be honest.
Speaker B:It wasn't one that you'd say that's going in the hole.
Speaker B:But it rolled up on the side of the hill and it started to come back down and it rolled in the hole.
Speaker B:The crowd went nuts on the deck.
Speaker B:There was a big applause.
Speaker B:This kid must have jumped about 20ft in the air.
Speaker B:He ran to the green, he got a flag.
Speaker B:His dad bought a flag from us and he took it out and he had everybody on the deck sign it.
Speaker B:That's the kind of fun that goes with.
Speaker A:Oh, that's great.
Speaker A:That, that is great.
Speaker A:Are there any plans to add more?
Speaker A:I mean you've added a lot on there because we haven't talked about the, the putting course yet and stuff.
Speaker A:But do you have room to add more holes or another feature?
Speaker B:We're pretty landlocked right now.
Speaker B:We pretty much got the use of it.
Speaker B:We put the 18 hole or the 19 hole putting course into it to fill up the little bit of room that we had left.
Speaker B:I don't think we have any room for, for driving range.
Speaker B:We are putting an 18 hole natural putting green.
Speaker B:In fact, yesterday it was completed.
Speaker B:We seeded on Monday.
Speaker B:Hopefully by mid, by mid summer we're going to be playing on it and that'll give another chance for everybody.
Speaker B:And it's, it's a challenging course.
Speaker B:It's not flat.
Speaker B:It's not like you're going to walk up to, you know, a practice green where it's flat and there nothing breaks.
Speaker B:This will have plenty break in it.
Speaker B:It's going to challenge you, but it's going to be a different setting.
Speaker B:It's going to be on natural, on natural grass.
Speaker A:I would guess that you probably have a lot of inquiries about putters just saying because it's, you know, it's.
Speaker A: d about, you know, the latest: Speaker A:But of course, it's predominantly short game and.
Speaker A:But I would think that you would.
Speaker A:You were just starting to get some putters and stuff in when I was there, and this has been a year ago, so I would imagine the salesmen are coming around saying, hey, we got the best new putter like that.
Speaker B:Yeah, Lab has been out and we are looking at having a day where you can come and practice with one.
Speaker B:You can go play the putting course with one.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So, yeah, there's, there's a lot of interest in, in this and there's a lot of people that want to know more about putters because putters are changing.
Speaker B:They always have.
Speaker B:I mean, this is nothing new.
Speaker B:Every, every pro player tries something new, whether it's a belly held putter or whether it's a ballot or whether it's a blade.
Speaker B:Yeah, there's a lot of, of that going on and there's a lot of people that want to know the difference in balls.
Speaker B:You brought it up earlier in this conversation, but a good softball landing ball is very valuable at Shortland.
Speaker B:It makes the whole thing roll.
Speaker B:It just goes easier.
Speaker B:I think it takes a little speed off the putt itself.
Speaker B:I just think that making sure you have the right equipment is a smart play.
Speaker A:Yeah, I'm a guy who actually changes during the course of the season what ball I'm using.
Speaker A:Just because of our weather and the way our greens are around here, it just makes sense to me to do that.
Speaker A:But something like Shortland, I'd be like, I don't care what time of year it is.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:We're probably more like, anytime you can use something soft like that, that'll stop the ball.
Speaker B:That'll.
Speaker B:That'll keep it from rolling fast.
Speaker B:On any sort of putt, you're going to help your game.
Speaker B:But they're still going to challenge it because they've got, you know, hills and, and valleys in them.
Speaker B:They're going to challenge you.
Speaker B:Depending on where we put the flag stick.
Speaker B:That's the other unique thing about these screens is out of those five holes I referred to earlier, we can move, we can set the course up like we're having a lot of events now, and they want it set up medium so we make sure every hole is situated in a way that they're kind of reachable.
Speaker B:Now when Mike brings out his friends from other clubs.
Speaker B:He wants it hard and so I can set it up.
Speaker B:And, and everybody, everybody cries about where they are, but that's how the course gets its teeth.
Speaker A:You ever think you'd do something like Augusta, where they put warm air under, under the greens?
Speaker B:I could certainly.
Speaker B:I now know what their problems are, let's put it that way.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Oh my goodness.
Speaker A:That's, that's, We've said it before on the show many times, Steve, but you know, people see it, the Masters on TV and it all looks flat.
Speaker A:It is not flat.
Speaker A:Friend of mine who got his son got tickets to a practice round and he, he went with him and texted me yesterday, said we're on our way home.
Speaker A:He said, but boy, are my legs tired.
Speaker A:I walked all 18 holes there.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's great.
Speaker A:Go ahead.
Speaker A:Sorry.
Speaker B:Well, I was just going to say, you know, everybody says why these pro golfers are tired by the end of their round.
Speaker B:It looks really flat.
Speaker B:You would swear that Augusta is really a flat golf course, but it really moves up and down.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, it, it does.
Speaker A:Did you think five years ago, before you decided to, I'm assuming, retire out of the restaurant and food business, did you think this is what I'm going to be doing?
Speaker B:Not a chance.
Speaker B:And I, first off, I thought I would be home working on my house or something like that.
Speaker B:And then my wife and after me being out of work for about a year said, geez, wouldn't it be nice if you had a part time job?
Speaker A:That's a nice way to put it.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, it was.
Speaker B:And, and so I, I went to work and because I loved it, you know, that's, that's what I tried to pick out for another job.
Speaker B:Part time job was a part time gig is to be able to go do something I enjoyed.
Speaker B:And I will tell you this, that one of our taglines that we use a lot is Shortlands is putting the fun back in golf.
Speaker B:And that's really what I want to emphasize.
Speaker B:We, we have families, we have foursomes of guys that are coming from other golf courses and coming to, to try the course out.
Speaker B:We have, we have kids, we have tournaments for kids.
Speaker B:We, it's just meant for fun.
Speaker B:It's not, it's not a serious, it's not this serious.
Speaker B:Hey, we've never had problems with the course running slow.
Speaker B:People still walk around and get it done in two, two and a half hours and then find themselves on the putting course trying to figure out if they can get better at their putty.
Speaker B:So yeah, No, I didn't expect this and I didn't expect that I would enjoy it.
Speaker B:I love being in the clubhouse.
Speaker B:I love hearing the whole one stories.
Speaker B:I love hearing how hard it was or how fast my greens were or whatever they have to say, because that's what it's about.
Speaker A:And I bet your wife is happy.
Speaker B:She's thrilled.
Speaker B:Although it has turned into a full time.
Speaker B:No, it's more than a full time job.
Speaker B:As you're well aware of golf, the golf business is much harder than I ever gave it credit for.
Speaker B:There's so much going on.
Speaker B:And when mother Nature is your partner, as she is with every golf course, it's, it's tough because you're always working around water issues.
Speaker B:You're right around weather issues.
Speaker B:We're having Glow Golf this week and we're praying that the weather stays this nice and the.
Speaker B:It's a nice beautiful evening to hit golf balls.
Speaker A:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker A:Steve and I are going to be back.
Speaker A:We got to take another break.
Speaker A:Don't forget Grilling at the Green is proud part of Golf News Network, among other things.
Speaker A:But we will return in just a moment.
Speaker A:Hey, everybody, J.T.
Speaker A:Here.
Speaker A:If you need something to practice with in the inclement weather, try birdie ball.
Speaker A:Go to birdieball.com check out the actual birdie balls, their packages, their putting greens, which I happen to have a couple of those, and they work great.
Speaker A:Birdieball.com.
Speaker A:Welcome back to Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:I'm JT Today we've been talking with Steve Merrill, the general manager of Shortland Gol.
Speaker A:If you're in the Portland area and you live here, take adventure right out off I 205 and Stafford Road and it's down on Advance Road.
Speaker B:It is.
Speaker A:You can find it right there.
Speaker A:And you will know it when you see it.
Speaker A:I will tell you that you will know it when you see it.
Speaker A:And if you're another part of the country and you, you're here on business or something, take an afternoon and get out there and say hi to Steve and go out there and play nine holes and have a good time with that.
Speaker A:Do you think that.
Speaker A:Well, the numbers are this and you probably know them better than I do.
Speaker A:But right now the estimates between actual on course stuff, simulator stuff, so on and so forth is about 60 million people participating in golf.
Speaker A:30 Million, give or take a little, are actually guys like me that go out and play on green grass.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And then there's a big chunk of simulators.
Speaker A:And because they have leagues and stuff now and just a caveat there, we saw a lot of simulators start up right after Covid or during COVID but I think they had the wrong business model because a lot of them closed.
Speaker A:But now simulators are reopening.
Speaker A:But now they seem to be busy.
Speaker A:So I don't know exactly what changes they made in their model, but they seem to be busy.
Speaker A:But then you've got shortland and facilities like that.
Speaker A:Do you think they're.
Speaker A:Overall, that's going to be something that grows, you know, not just shortland, but that type of facility across the country?
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:And I'll tell you why.
Speaker B:You know, there's so many people today, kids today I'll specify kids that go to TOPGOLF to learn golf.
Speaker B:They stand up there, they get to hit a ball, and they hit it out as far as they can hit it and they don't have to chase it or find it.
Speaker B:And they love it.
Speaker B:And topgolf has prospered dramatically.
Speaker B:So I think short land or something like it is the next step.
Speaker B:It is your first time on a golf course and you're not going to be looking at a par five that's going to take you 12 shots to get to the green.
Speaker B:All of my greens can be reached fairly easily.
Speaker B:And so I think that there's a big calling for that.
Speaker B:People want to go somewhere where they're.
Speaker B:They feel relaxed and that's what happens on Shoreline.
Speaker B:I don't know about whether it's the greens and the.
Speaker B:You bring up the beauty of the course.
Speaker B:Nothing is prettier than this golf course.
Speaker B:At about seven o' clock at night, it is just beautiful.
Speaker B:I got a chance to play a few holes the other night and I said, I forgot how beautiful it is back here.
Speaker B:So I think that there is going to be.
Speaker B:I think I know for fact that we get tons of calls all the time.
Speaker B:I just had a group of guys come in from New Zealand and they're going to build greens, these greens in New Zealand and Australia.
Speaker B:Why they're doing it because they can't keep their greens alive in the heat, in the moisture, in the humidity.
Speaker B:They're losing greens every year and this is going to allow them to do that.
Speaker B:And I also think that the municipals like Clackamas are going to push people.
Speaker B:If you're going to build a new golf course or you're going to redesign it, they're going to encourage you, if not demand that you put in synthetic greens.
Speaker B:It's just going to happen.
Speaker A:Well, and it's so Tough, because, you know, and God bless the superintendents and their crews, but they work their butt off.
Speaker A:So all winter and stuff to prep and around here, you know, the middle of April, the end of March, you can get, and it's not a total anomaly.
Speaker A:You can get 80, 90 degree days for five or six days and that affects that growth, you know, over the course of the summer.
Speaker A:And sometimes they get burn marks or whatever.
Speaker A:You know exactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker A:Because we play in this area and then they're fighting that the rest of the year.
Speaker A:So I think this is kind of a remarkable thing that's coming about.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I think that it handles the northwest weather.
Speaker B:You bring up a good point.
Speaker B:It handles the northwest weather so much better than the natural greens because we can drain them.
Speaker B:They're draining extreme extremely well.
Speaker B:And we have so many people that go out there and want to rub them to see if they're that dry and they are.
Speaker B:So I think this is something that's here to stay.
Speaker B:I also, I don't think you're going to have a steady amount of it.
Speaker B:I, I talk to a lot of golfers that maybe one day a week they're trying to hit the driving range and then they're going to play this week in our big course, but they take an afternoon and slide out to see us in two and a half hours.
Speaker B:They get a whole round of golf of, of putting and all the short games strategy you can want.
Speaker B:So I think that, I think that there's a real.
Speaker B:I think there's going to be a lot of these.
Speaker B:Quite frankly, I say that.
Speaker B:And what I also have to say, building new golf courses is expensive.
Speaker B:Very, very expensive.
Speaker B:And these synthetic greens are not cheap, especially the ones that we have because we tried to buy the best.
Speaker B:We're actually taking out some tee boxes now and trying out some new turf because, you know, celebrity Greens was kind enough to come out and say, hey, we've got, we've tried some new stuff.
Speaker B:Let's try it on your course.
Speaker B:So, you know, I think that it's, I think it's challenging, I think it's fun.
Speaker B:I think it's going to go into your weekly routine.
Speaker B:It may not be your course you're going to play two or three times a week, but you're going to play at least once because you're going to like the results in your short game.
Speaker B:My game is much, much better now than it's ever been because of this course.
Speaker A:I guess I better get my butt up.
Speaker B:I didn't want to say that, but I was trying to insinuate that.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it.
Speaker B:We have something for you real quick, Steve.
Speaker B:How.
Speaker A:Where is your presence online with Shortland?
Speaker A:I mean, you've got ShortlandGolf.com and you've got some platforms, I'm sure.
Speaker B:Yeah, we do some stuff on social media.
Speaker B:Quite a bit on social media.
Speaker B:We send out a newsletter.
Speaker B:We have our own app that you can.
Speaker B:You can go to Shortland.com or.
Speaker B:And there's our.
Speaker B:There's that QR code right there that you can flash your phone at.
Speaker B:And suddenly you're going to have our app.
Speaker B:It's going to tell you what's going on.
Speaker B:And we do a lot of different things.
Speaker B:Like we had put Paloozo a week before, which is just a putting thing.
Speaker B:We have kids, we have leagues.
Speaker B:There's always something going on at Shortland.
Speaker B:And this will give you all of that.
Speaker A:Excellent.
Speaker A:Steve Merrill, general manager at Shortland Golf, thank you.
Speaker A:Steve is sticking around for after hours for the abuse.
Speaker A:So that's coming up next.
Speaker A:But I thank you for everybody out there.
Speaker A:Thanks for sharing your time with us.
Speaker A:We really appreciate it.
Speaker A:And as I always say, go out, play some golf, have some fun.
Speaker A:But most of all, be kind.
Speaker A:Take care, everybody.
Speaker A:Grilling at the Green is produced by JTSD Productions, LLC in association with Salem Media Group.
Speaker A:All rights reserve.
