Goat Track Social Club has transformed the formerly nameless clubhouse at Rundle Park Golf Course into the latest smashburger attraction, called Shortees.
The restaurant is open 7am to 7:30pm daily for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bar service. It’s just the latest venture from Goat Track, which works to make golf more inclusive and a bit less uptight with a clothing line, events, and charity work.
Garrett Hadfield and Cody Heath, both professional golf players, started Goat Track in 2020 as a modern clothing brand for golfers. The name comes from golfer slang for an unkempt course. Hadfield has worked for Henry Singer and at golf shops, where he said he made connections in the garment industry. Goat Track’s motto is “golf is for everyone,” and one part of that is challenging clothing norms, he said.
“I just think it’s silly that golf is still the only sport where they get to tell you what you have to wear,” Hadfield told Taproot. “If you are playing golf (in Goat Track clothing), you don’t have to go home and change before you meet your wife for dinner or something. You could just go straight there, because you’re actually enjoying what you’re wearing. It’s not a loud polo with hot dogs all over it.”
Goat Track’s polos are currently available in black and lilac, feature a small goat emblem on the left side, and are designed to be worn untucked. The company also makes hats, sweatshirts, shorts, accessories, youth clothing, and more. Goat Track has also collaborated with brands such as Adidas Golf on products.
“My entire life, I have only cared about what I’m wearing,” Hadfield said. “My mom has famously said that she has three sons, but at least one of them cares about what he wears … I couldn’t leave the house unless the ’fit looked nice.”
A similar taste for detail has gone into Shortees, the re-imagining of the canteen that Hadfield spearheaded, including the aforementioned smashburgers. “What I like about ours is that we have our own version of a sauce,” Hadfield said. “We also do shredded lettuce and pickles. Most smashburgers that I’ve seen, it’s meat, cheese, bun, go. We give you a little bit more.”
The restaurant features drink options that include a bespoke beer from Sea Change Brewing, called The Footwedge Lager.
Goat Track operates the Rundle course on behalf of the City of Edmonton, and also hosts events there that are designed to make players feel welcome in a sport that has an exclusionary history. The events are partly inspired by an experience Hadfield, who has many tattoos, had at a private club, he said.
“I’m wearing everything to dress code, and I’m wearing sunglasses, and I can see these two members pointing at me, and laughing, and rolling their eyes,” he remembered. “I’m a straight, white guy with tattoos, and if I felt like that, imagine what people who actually are different (from the stereotypical golfer) go through.”
The Rundle Park Golf Course is now home to Shortees, a smashburger eatery run by Goat Track Social Club. (Supplied)
To bolster inclusion in golf, Goat Track is hosting its second annual Golf Gal Day event at Rundle on May 31. The event focuses on women and girls in golf, and it is already sold out. The next Goat Track event is on June 20. It’s the latest in its 18 Holes on a FriYAY Night series, where players can win prizes and are encouraged to bring a donation for Edmonton’s Food Bank.
Hadfield, who turned pro in 2009, said he has seen signs that golf is becoming more welcoming, but that money remains a hurdle.
“Golf has made a ton of strides in the right direction to become more inclusive,” Hadfield said. “Money will always be the biggest deterrent in golf, which is why Rundle Park is the best, because our most expensive green fee on the weekend for an adult is $34 for 18 holes.”
Hadfield said his privilege is an opportunity to shift the sport’s culture for people.
“Straight white men in golf are at the top of golf, and they’ve always been the decision makers in golf. So we can be the ones that can ruffle feathers,” Hadfield said. “We’re in a position to say something, so we’re saying something.”
Goat Track sponsors Irene Crowchild, who was the first Indigenous competitor in the Canadian women’s long-drive championship, and has won the competition twice. Hadfield said she is also a “very proud advocate for the LGBTQ community.”
Hadfield said Goat Track also allots portions of its proceeds to buy golf equipment for young players who may otherwise be unable to afford it.
“We purchased a whack of junior golf clubs. The saying we have is, ‘If they fit, they’re free,’” Hadfield said. “Mom and dad just pay for the green fee.”