Why name the new Par-3 course,

shorty's?

“On a recent walk reviewing the routing for the new Par 3, I was inspired by my first memory of meeting Shorty Dow. Everyone knows of the vista near 14 tee on Bandon Trails where Shorty first took our group, but he also hiked us along the Ridge Trail to tour a location where I could have a clear view of the dunes that lay underneath all the encroaching gorse. Looking out over the same set of dunes on that recent walk I thought, ‘This is the land that Shorty would want to oversee.’”

—Mike Keiser

Who was Shorty Dow?

Excerpt from Stephen Goodwin during Shorty’s Dedication Plaque Ceremony in 2016

"Often, when I meet people who’ve read Dream Golf, the first thing I hear is, I would love to meet Shorty Dow, the self-appointed “mayor, governor, and sheriff” of the wild place that became Bandon Dunes.

Shorty had the kind of personality that could steal any show. For a writer, he was an ideal source. Not only did he seem to remember everything, but the stories he told had so much energy and vigor that all I had to do was write them down.

The plaque on Bandon Trails No. 14 that is dedicated to Shorty acknowledges the important role that he and his wife, Charlotte, played in the development of Bandon Dunes Resort. On a decisive day, Shorty made sure that Mike Keiser saw the property in all its grandeur and rugged beauty – and in a larger sense, Shorty’s legacy is that golfers from all over the world have now been able to enjoy the same experience. Shorty’s love of the place, his humor, his optimism, his sheer and irresistible joyfulness—I believe that all of those qualities helped to shape the vision of the resort, and those qualities are still alive today. And while Shorty is no longer alive, his spirit surely is, and it’s out there among the dunes he loved, maybe chasing that elusive bear that he never saw though he swore up and down that it existed."

—Stephen Goodwin