Smashing golf norms sees Goat Track Social Club turn to smashburgers
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."
