To most, goat is simply the name for a horned ruminant mammal. For those in sporting circles, it’s a four-letter acronym bestowed upon the greatest of all time.
Venture through the myriad pine forests and winding creeks into the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon though, and both apply simultaneously.
Silvies Valley Ranch offers a slice of Wild West luxury to travelers and – for the golfers among them – the opportunity to be caddied for by a rigorously trained team of goats.
A world first when launched in 2018, the current team is the best to ever do it, as far as Silvies owner Dr. Scott Campbell is concerned – and they have even convinced some initial skeptics.
“A lot of people said it was a stupid idea,” Campbell told CNN.
“They thought it would make people call us a goat track. Nothing could be further from the truth. Everybody has a good time … People come from all over the world.”
New career path
The radical setup was born from a practical problem.
McVeigh’s Gauntlet – Silvies’ seven-hole challenge course – was far too steep for golf carts to safely traverse. With players only requiring a few clubs to play the course, carrying such a load was well within the capabilities of the ranch’s 3,000 grazers, whose ancestors were transporting cargo long before golfers were planting tees.
“The goats were asking for different career opportunities, and as an equal opportunity employer, we developed a new career path for them,” Campbell joked.
A three-month evaluation process sees potential caddies as young as six months old scouted on their friendliness and physical aptitude. Those that progress to the next stage are fitted with a custom-made golf bag – tailored by Oregon-based company Seamus Golf – to see if they’re comfortable carrying it.
The bag is near-empty for training, but for full-time caddies contains six clubs, extra balls and tees, six drink cans and their daily wage: a few dozen peanuts.
Chosen candidates are taught the course and put on a carefully monitored physical and nutrition regime before starting their new role from two years old, working six-hour shifts three to four days a week. An on-site vet visits the caddy shack – situated next to the club house and open to visitors throughout the day – on a weekly basis.
Eight goats make up today’s caddie team – Chunky, Mulligan, Harry, Bogey, Birdie, Charlie, Carrot and Jack – with nine yearlings in training and 10 three-month-old prospects waiting in the wings.
None of them were among the founding four bagholders, formerly led by pioneering Caddy Master Bruce LeGoat. Roundabout LaDoe and Peanut LeGoat are on maternity leave, with the former giving birth to triplets last month, while Bruce and second-in-command Mike LeChevon have since retired at eight years old.
Fear not, “retired” is not a euphemism for a permanent transfer to the ranch’s gourmet kitchen. Instead, they see out their twilight years as pets to golfers, with Silvies taking online applications to join the adoption waiting list.
It’s a testament to the popularity of the caddies, who can also now be hired for the ranch’s nine-hole Chief Egan family course, even if the hardcore golfing contingent have been a little harder to win over.
“The real, real serious golfers, they kind of scoff at it,” Campbell said. “But they still get their picture taken with the goats.
“It’s been a lot of fun, it really has.”
Some animal welfare activists challenged the program when it launched, arguing that goats “were never made to carry golf bags,” but Campbell insists the caddies enjoy their work.
“These goats want to be around people,” he added. “They want you to give them a peanut. They want to go out and have a good time with you.”
Hole reversal
Protecting the rich diversity of flora and fauna across the 140,000-acre ranch is at “the heart of everything” at Silvies, Campbell says. Around 26,000 cubic yards of soil were moved to sculpt the resort’s two 18-hole links-style championship courses a decade ago, a fraction of the 1 - 1.5 million cubic yards that Campbell estimated is dug up for standard courses.
“We figured when we built it that we had the lowest carbon footprint of any modern course,” Campbell added.
The majority of the championship course’s water supply flows down naturally from a large nearby spring, with the remaining third covered by sprinkler pumps. The inhabitants of the some 7,000 bird houses around the fairways are handed the sole responsibility of insect control, meaning no insecticides are used on the courses.
That’s plural courses, but golfers may be confused why they can only see one when they pitch up at the Silvies clubhouse. The brainchild of Oregon-based course designer Dan Hixson, they are – according to Silvies – the first reversible golf courses seen anywhere in the world since the fabled Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, opened almost five centuries ago.
Course direction is reversed daily, with all but one of the fairways containing multiple tee grounds, “creating the opportunity for thousands of unique rounds,” according to their website.
It’s another way of reducing the overall carbon footprint, aided by ground staff allowing turf to acclimate to heat and drought in the summer. Occasionally, they will allow the fairways, roughs, and greens to dry out to the point that the grass becomes dormant, before eventually reviving when the soil rehydrates.
The goats also play their part in natural course maintenance, chewing their way through the Scottish thistle and gorse that makes up the course’s rough and outer brush. Though they do eat grass, weeds are their preferred snack, meaning they pose little threat to greens and fairways.
Not all courses situated within flourishing natural settings are so fortunate – one Arizona club’s run-in with a squadron of pig-like creatures last year cost it upwards of $200,000 in damages.
“Fortunately, we don’t have any wild pigs because those are the worst,” Campbell said.
Though pronghorn antelope occasionally roam the course, potentially destructive and dangerous elk, black bears and cougars are kept out by a 10-foot fence around the fairway perimeter.
The habitats of such animals are preserved by the Oregon Natural Desert Association, a nonprofit supported by tips from golfers to Silvies’ very-own goat caddies.