The Olympic cauldron wasn't hot enough to warm a bowl of soup before we started seeing "Wins & Upsets" in the golf competition. A huge win with Dechambeau being ejected from the games and a huge upset with Patrick Reed taking his place.

🥇 Jon Rahm has COVID for the second time...out of the Olympics

⚔️ Mandatory military service unless they win an Olympic Medal

💰 Phil not only owns money games but he also owns Twitter (not literally)

🍺 How many clubs did Al Czervik have in his bag?

PGA TOUR

Who Likes Short Shorts For A Course?

In our last newsletter, or what we consider a newsletter, we pointed out the 9-hole loop called the Mulligan 9 at The Starfire Club in Scottsdale. What does this have to do with anything...it doesn’t.

Other than short courses are popping up like candy from a Pez dispenser.

Let’s start right off by stating that these aren’t the par 3 “pitch ‘n’ putts” you played when you were on a beach vacation as a child.

There are some well-designed short courses at some premium golf destinations. Short on distance doesn’t mean short on quality, be it the layouts or the agronomy or the designers:

• Sand Box (Sand Valley - Coore Crenshaw Design)
• Cabot’s Nest (Cabot Links - WAC Golf)
• Bandon Preserve (Bandon Dunes - Coore Crenshaw Design)
• Bootlegger Short (Forest Dunes - Keith Rhebb and Riley Johns (Winter Park 9))
• Mountain Top (Big Cedar Lodge - Gary Player)
• The Hay (Pebble Beach - Tiger Woods Design)

Hardly an exhaustive listing, but a good start to a short course bucket list.

These courses provide a different experience than the “dozen balls lost, blood pressure elevated” game you enjoy off the wrong tees at the full-length courses. Advantages of these smaller gems:

• Inclusive - less distance brings more variety of golfers to the mix
• Fun - side games, gambling, less pressure
• Quick - most are 9-13 holes, time will evaporate quickly on these condensed courses
• Cheap(er)  - of course, this depends on where you are and what you are comparing it to

If you are tired of full swings, or can’t bear the thought of sending another bladed wedge towards your playing partners, there are even alternatives to these short courses.

Enter the cartoonishly fun “putting courses” that require only a putter, a ball, and enough creativity to fill Hal Sutton’s ten-gallon hat from the 2004 Ryder Cup.

• Himalayas Putting course at St. Andrews
• Cascade Putting Course at Gamble Sands
• Tom Watson Putting Course at Big Cedar Lodge

But our favorite has to be Welter’s Folly which is a putting course in behind a rundown manufacturing facility turned distillery. Gives a whole new meaning to Putt-Putt.

GIMME

• Caddyshack Anniversary: Caddyshack celebrated its 41st Anniversary on July 25th. Here are some moments from the movie that are actually relatable to country club life. "Hey, orange balls! I'll have a box of those and give me a box of those naked-lady tees..."
• Leona Maguire fires a 61: in the final round of a major! Eat that for breakfast, Johnny Miller. Maguire started her round with three straight birdies and finished with four straight birdies with a smattering of birdies somewhere in between. How do you spell MOMENTUM going into the Olympics? No, wait, I think we speled it right. Naled it!
• Left, right, left: this is very much our golf game but it's also the fates of both Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim if they don't take home Olympic medals. Article 39 of the South Korean constitution, states that “all citizens shall have the duty of national defense under the conditions as prescribed by Act"...a mandatory 2-year military stint. Our golf games could use an overly aggressive Drill Sergeant.
• 82-year-old in US Women's Senior Open: JoAnne Carner will be cutting it up with the likes of Annika Snore'nstam at Brooklawn Country Club. Please see the Pic of the Day and you'll have a new appreciation for professional golfers.
• Bryson is out Patrick is in: Dechambeau tested positive for Covid and is out of the Olympics. Patrick Reed tested positive for being a cheat and is replacing DeChambeau. Jon Rahm tested positive for Covid for the 2nd time in two months and is also out of the Olympics. Remember when it was a big deal when someone tested positive for smoking marijuana and got kicked out of the Olympics? We miss those simpler times.
• Golf balls made from Soybeans: we understand that we should have a little self-respect and say "no" to our 4th hot dog at the turn but keep your soybeans away from our golf balls! A team in Kansas has more time on their hands than Bryson in covid quarantine and has decided to make golf balls from soybean. Dear god.
• Top 30 Municipal Golf Courses in America: here are some courses on a list that you can actually play.

PIC OF THE DAY

JoAnne Carner is cooler than the menthol she's sucking back in this photo. 82 years old and striping it down the fairways of the US Senior Women's Open. Suck your healthy ways Gary Player, we're team JoAnne "Got a Lighter" Carner.

W(was)ITB

Al Czervik had golf clubs in his bag (only about 7 or 8 total) but we have no idea what they were. It's everything besides the clubs that was more interesting:

• Beer tap
• TV
• Radio
• Phone
• Boxing glove head covers

INSIDE THE ROPES

Phil is the King of Tuesday money games on tour and he is quickly earning the crown of King of Twitter. Here he takes down Harry Higgs with one tweet.

GOLF GEAR

Bushnell Golf  TAKE OUR MONEY!!!!!

Sorry, that escalated quickly. Bushnell Golf has announced a partnership with Foresight Sports and the release of a personal/portable launch monitor.

It's coming this fall and you can drop your email here for updates. Or you can stay subscribed to this newsletter and we'll update you once they respond to the daily emails we keep pestering sending.

Will this help your golf game? Absolutely not. Will you be the coolest guy to walk strut around the driving range face of the earth? 100%.

*not a sponsored post

If you're enjoying The Starter Shack share with a friend....we would appreciate it as much as a members bounce.

Did a smart good-looking friend share this? Want to read more?

---

Today's email was brought to you by: Nolan Filipenko & Colby Johannson

JOBS    CONTACT US