Just like the real thing?

Up in the Pacific Northwest, an audacious new 19-holer aims to expand what synthetic greens can offer.

Shortland Golf Club is not the first outdoor track to install synthetic tees and greens. There have been others before. There will be others to come. But if the new Oregon project works out how its owner, architects and superintendent think it could, the 19-hole short course might develop a new niche and provide another blueprint for success in an expanding golf landscape.

Located south of downtown Portland, Oregon, plenty separates Shortland — which is scheduled to open throughout this spring and summer, first the front nine holes, then the back 10, then a 19-hole chipping and putting course, and finally an 11,000-square-foot natural putting green — from other courses with synthetic tees and greens.