My favorite recipes - Meet Dave Scharnhorst, Colton

Jana Mathia | Mar 18, 20100

In the town of Colton is a little sign with an arrow pointing the way down a little street to Dave’s Golf Shop. If you follow the sign, you’ll find the not so little golf shop and its tall owner, Dave Scharnhorst.

“It was a shot in the dark,” said Dave of his decision to open a golf shop in the rural Whitman County town.

Dave grew up in Colton and worked the family farm. When he met his wife Carisa, they started to go golfing and early on they had experiences with good and bad clubs. He realized how the right club can make a huge difference in your game and started to make his own. His hobby grew as he made clubs for family and friends and eventually he had a business.

As early as 1990 Dave was selling golf stuff. During the day he worked on the farm and at night he worked on golf clubs. He opened a small shop in the old bunkhouse on his family’s farmstead. When he grew out of that, he moved to a pole building in town two houses down from his, next door to his parents.

While Dave put more hours in at the shop, he lost hours of sleep and weight. Finally, his wife made him choose, golf or farming.

If Dave was going to choose golf, he had to have one other person on board, his friend Marlon Eng, Moscow, who was also working in a family business at the time. But, Marlon was trustworthy and a good people-person and if Dave was going down this road, he wanted Marlon riding shotgun.

“Without him, I wouldn’t have anything,” Dave said, crediting Marlon with doing 90 percent of the work around the shop.

With a full-time shop, Dave needed a bigger store. In 2007 he, another employee, and various friends started work on his current, 14,000 square foot building on the site of the pole building. It took two years to complete. The main floor is packed with thousands of clubs and golf accessories. From tees to golf carts, Dave has them in stock and on the floor. Currently, only the main floor holds merchandise, but Dave plans to open up part of the basement.

His emphasis is still on getting the golfer the right club. He carries more than 15 brands of clubs with thousands of combinations of heads and shafts of different materials. To help find the right fit, Dave has two golf swing simulator computers in the back. A person swings their club and the computer can tell all the aspects of what that club does and how the person swings it. This information helps Dave match the person with the club that fits them best.

“I truly want the clubs to work for you,” Dave said. He would rather not sell a club to a person than sell the wrong one.

With spring on the way, Dave’s Golf Shop is ready for its busiest season as people head back to the courses. Dave pointed out that Colton turned out to be a good location as he is centrally located among Lewiston, Pullman, Colfax, Moscow and Clarkston. All the high schools and colleges from those towns come to him to have the kids fit for clubs.

“We do a lot of tournaments every year,” Dave added, as he is able to get all the gear in for area golf tournaments.

Dave also has things for less serious or hard-core golfers like secondhand clubs and equipment and Sponge Bob Squarepants golf balls. The lighter touches aren’t surprising given Dave’s own jovial attitude and playfulness.

“I honestly feel like I retired two years ago,” he said. Every morning when he wakes up, he is excited to go to work and enjoys helping people and throwing foam golf balls back and forth at Marlon.

Come Sunday, the shop is closed and Dave’s attention is on his family. He, Carisa, and their sons Chris, 21 and Adam, 7, take that day to go to movies, out to eat, shooting sports and other activities. Recently they’ve started taking Adam to par three golf courses. Dave said his family is very supportive about the shop.

“I’ve got the greatest wife in the world,” he said. Carisa has been behind him the whole time and helps in the store when needed.

Dave’s dream is for the store to evolve to where he can hire more people and then maybe he can get back to golfing himself.

“When I retire, I’ll golf a lot,” he said.

Down-on-the-Farm Chicken Casserole

Hash Brown Layer-

1 pkg. (30 oz.) frozen hash browns, thawed

1 can cream of celery condensed soup

1 cup light sour cream

1/2 cup grated onion

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Chicken Layer-

3 cups cooked skinless bite size chicken pieces (boneless)