It’s grand-opening time for Shortland Golf Club

Sundown at the Portland area’s newest course (courtesy Mike Fritz)

WEST LINN — For awhile now, Mike Fritz has thought it would be cool to put a par-three golf course in his backyard. Not literally in his backyard in Lake Oswego, but figuratively in land not far from home.

Fritz has done that with Shortland Golf Club, a 19-hole — that’s right, 19 — course with which “unique” is the operative word.

Located on the property that was formerly Sandelie Golf Course, which closed in 2022, Shortland may be the only full par-3 course in the country with synthetic tee boxes, greens and bunkers.

That’s right, bunkers. More on that in a minute.

Play began on May 5, and enough rounds have been played to produce 68 holes-in-one in only three months. And that has been achieved while playing on only 14 holes, since the full course hasn’t been available to play.

But starting at noon Thursday, 19 holes will be open as part of grand-opening ceremonies that will run through Sunday. For walk-ons from noon to 5 p.m., greens fees are $19. Through the weekend, there will be plenty of promotional activities.

“We will have drawings going on, the food truck will have some specials, and if you make a hole-in-one on No. 19, you get a $100 gift certificate,” says Fritz, Shortland’s owner. “We will have a bunch of fun activities.”

Shortland is located in a bucolic setting on the west side of Pete’s Mountain, in an area of mostly farm land between West Linn and Wilsonville and an easy drive from the south and southeast Portland region. The course lies on a 31-acre tract, with holes ranging from 40 to 104 yards long. A venture to Shortland can be a family affair.

“We are trying to make sure it is fun for good golfers and for beginners, too,” says Fritz, a Lake Oswego resident. “We want the whole family to come in and enjoy it. Our goal is to make money, of course, but this is a passion project, no doubt.”

Owner Mike Fritz has made his Shortland Golf Club par-3 course “fun for good golfers and for beginners, too"

Fritz played on the soccer team at Lakeridge High (class of 1984), but it was in golf that he excelled. He was one of the top players on John Fossetti-coached Pacer teams that won state 3A championships in ’83 and ’84. Fritz — a scratch golfer today — graduated from Oregon State in 1988, then worked 11 years at Nike, the last four as product development manager in the golf footwear division.

In 1999, Fritz left Nike to work in the family business, DWFritz Automation. “We did custom automation for advanced manufacturing — engineering services, basically,” he says.

The Fritzes sold the company in 2021, and Mike departed the business in ’22, then started looking for something to do. A friend mentioned to him that the Sandelie property was for sale.

“I have always liked the Pub (3-par) course at (McMenamin’s) Edgefield, and thought there should be something like it out here,” says Fritz, 59, who will celebrate his 35th anniversary with wife Kristin later this month.

Fritz scouted out the property and found a plot of land that was “a good fit for what we wanted to do,” he says.

He purchased the property in 2023 and began laying plans for a course that he wanted to be “fun and a little different.”

Fritz visited the Skamania Lodge course in Stevenson, Wash., a nine-hole track with tee boxes and greens made of artificial turf. He began to study the idea of implementing such a system at Shortland. He met with officials from Celebrity Greens, an Arizona-based company that had installed product in backyard greens but hadn’t done a real course for the public.

“I worked with the owner on a consulting arrangement, then went directly to their manufacturer and hired Jackson Kahn to do our course design,” Fritz says.

Jackson Kahn is an architectural firm headquartered in Chapel Hill, N.C. The company has done golf design for such courses as Scottsdale (Ariz.) National, Monterey Peninsula in Pebble Beach, Calif., and Vintage Club in Indian Wells, Calif. The “Bad Little Nine” at Scottsdale National is reputed to be the most difficult par-3 layout in the world.

Shortland is shorter and much easier, but Fritz chose to go with Jackson Kahn’s expertise. One of the company’s associate designers is Connor Doherty, a Portland resident and a member at Columbia Edgewater. Doherty oversaw the grading and prep work for Shortland.

Ah yes, Shortland. Where did the name come from? It was a suggestion by one of Fritz’s three sons, Carson. Mike likes “Shorty’s” at Bandon Dunes, “a killer par-3 course,” he says. (And a 19-hole layout). So he was thinking of naming the course “Shorty’s” until at dinner one night, Carson piped up with, “You should call it Shortland Golf Club.”

As in, Shortland, a short course in Portland. Genius.

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“The more I thought about it,” Mike says, “I liked that as a more formal name. And we use ‘Shorty’s’ as a nickname for the course.”

Answering another question: Why 19 holes?

Well, there is Shorty’s. Also, Fritz played a Tiger Woods-designed par-3 course called Paynes Valley in Ridgedale, Mo., with a unique 19th hole called “The Big Rock.”

“It is a spectacular 120-yard par-3,” Fritz says. So he included a 19th hole at Shortland, a 55-yard gem with the green surrounded by bunkers right in front of a deck overlooking the course from the pro shop — a great place for a gallery.

“My friends call it ‘the heckle-deck,’ ” Fritz says with a smile.

Ah yes, those bunkers, which are featured on 10 of the holes. They look like real sand bunkers. How can they be synthetic?

Grand opening for Shortland Golf Club, a par-3 course with synthetic tee boxes, greens and bunkers in West Linn, is set for Thursday through Sunday (courtesy Mike Fritz)

“Well, they are,” Fritz says, smiling again.

I played Shortland’s available 14 holes on Wednesday, and hit into only one trap. It took me three tries to get out, but mostly because I was trying to treat the shot like a sand shot.

“You get consistent lies most of the time, and it is the same shot as the turf around the bunker,” Fritz says. “We tell people, you don’t need to play it as you normally would a bunker shot. Play it like a regular chip; you don’t need to hit down into it. Once you know that it is easier, unless you have a terrible lie.”

Each of the holes is shaped differently, and yes, there is real grass in the fairway of every hole.

I managed four pars, including the 104-yard No. 4, in which I hit my pitching wedge tee shot short, then chipped my second shot a bit long. It rolled up to a ridge, then rolled back down to within a foot of the pin. Lucky me.

“There are bowls on certain greens,” Fritz says with a nod. “The ball will roll up and then back down.”

On the other hand, a couple of times I thought I hit excellent tee shots, only to walk up to the green and find the ball had rolled off the green. On other holes, I was further from the hole on my second putt than I was on my first. There is plenty of undulation on many of the greens, and they are tricky. To say they were fast Wednesday is an understatement. I kidded Fritz that I clocked them at 15 on the Stimpmeter.

“They are different from a regular green, but they are very consistent,” Fritz says. “They get faster with more play, and we have had a lot of play. Brushing them up raises (the green surface) up. We are going to be brushing them every day, which should drop it down to 10 1/2 or 11.”

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A bird’s eye view of Shortland (courtesy Mike Fritz)

Construction for the course began last summer and has neared completion, though some finishing touches continue to be administered. A lake, surrounded by holes 12 through 16, “is close to being filled,” Fritz says. A 19-hole synthetic putting course called “The Nest” should be ready soon, and a real-grass practice putting green is scheduled for completion by next spring.

Fritz sets the tone for an informal atmosphere at Shortland. It isn’t a country club.

“We encourage people to drop a second ball now and then,” He says. “We don’t want anybody hitting eight balls or anything, but throw one down and hit another shot, especially when there is no one around. We see that especially with families. The kids might hit two or three shots, pick up the ball, put it on the green and putt out.”

There are food and beverage offerings — including those of the adult variety — in the pro shop and at “Slam’s,” a mid-course rest stop with bathroom facilities. Customers can schedule a tee time through Shortland’s app or on its website (shortlandgolfclub.com) or by phone (833 746-7819).

 “We have already had eight special events,” Fritz says. “It is a great place to have team events. Nike will have three events this month where they bring 60 or 70 people.”

Fritz isn’t sure how many rounds of golf have already been played at Shortland.

“I do know that we ordered 10,000 scorecards to begin with, and we just made a reorder,” he says. “We should get at least 25,000 rounds in our first year.”

Shortland should be able to handle near-year-round golf. Snow would halt things, but there will be no frost delays, and rain shouldn’t be a problem.

“There are a lot of ravines in the course,” Fritz says. “We did all new irrigation and installed a ton of drainage to move water off. The greens are built in a way they should shed water easily. I am hoping we get a lot of play in the winter.”

When I ask Fritz what he was hoping to accomplish with Shortland, he says this:

“My goal would be, this is a golf Mecca. People can go out there, play 19 holes on the big course, hit a few putts on the practice green, then go play the putting course and hang out here all afternoon.”

Fritz pauses.

“Two weeks ago, a mom and three kids — actually, two sets of them in a row — came out in the afternoon,” he says. “The kids were learning how to swing. It was cool to see them getting started. You go to Topgolf, you go to the range, you get a little feel for what you are doing, and now you want to go out and give it a try on a short track.”

Full disclosure: Shortland and Mike Fritz are the newest supporting sponsors for kerryeggers.com, so I am biased. But I see this as a win-win spot for ownership and its clientele. The course is a challenge, but not too much of one. I hate to be on a golf course for four to five hours these days, and that won’t happen at Shortland. I finished 14 holes in an hour and 20 minutes, so a 19-hole round should take two hours. Rates are inexpensive — $29 on weekdays, $32 on weekends for adults; $25 and $28, respectively, for juniors and seniors.

Shortland is located within a 15-to-20-minute drive of places such as Wilsonville, Tualatin, Lake Oswego and West Linn, and not much further from other surrounding suburban sites. Course maintenance can be done with a staff of three or four as opposed to maybe 25 on a full-grass course. That means Fritz cuts his costs and passes it on to the consumer.

You could call it a match made in golf heaven.

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Learn more about Shortland Golf Club, see their food and and beverage menu, and book tee times here. You can find Shortland Golf Club on Instagram and Facebook.

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