Fore! Dewey Beach gets its first country club. (It's a bar.)

Up until Memorial Day weekend, playing a round of golf in Dewey Beach meant one thing: bar golf.

For years, the only golfing in the 19-block long strip of a beach town was through annual pub crawls that counted each bar in town as a "hole."

These days, Dewey's duffers now have a more proper home: the brand new Dewey Beach Country Club.

But, no, a golf course wasn't somehow built in the off-season in the tiny town that only takes up a third of a square mile.

Dewey Beach Country Club is the town's newest bar/restaurant and it's already caused some confusion, which is part of the fun-loving reason behind the unusual name.

"Delivery guys keep coming in, thinking they're in the wrong place," says owner and beach native Greg Plummer, 36.

The spot stands out not only for its unusually easy-going theme in a hard-charging party beach town, but also because of Plummer, its fun-loving owner and beach native.

Whether you're a golfer or just a fan of "Happy Gilmore," you'll get a kick out of Plummer's decorating decisions.

A long, front bar table that sits under an open garage door with a view of Del. 1 is made with more than 20 golf clubs, cocktail tables have golf bags as their column and base, and golf lockers stand near a front dining table.

On the walls you'll find everything from a framed "Caddyshack" poster signed by Chevy Chase and a couple of mounted deer heads to golf shoes and a framed golf flag from The Masters signed by famed golfer (and drinker) John Daly. 

It's enough to make a golf fan feel at home and for people who know Plummer to get a good laugh.

"I don't think anyone is less of a golfer than Greg Plummer, but I think that's part of the fun in naming it the Dewey Beach Country Club and mocking it a little," laughs Steve "Monty" Montgomery, co-owner of The Starboard and Starboard Raw, where Plummer has worked in the past. "He's all about having fun."

Plummer, who admits he's only played golf once in his life, says Dewey Beach Country Club's inspiration stems from a trip to Naples, Florida, for a wedding -- one of the wealthiest cities in America packed with stuffy bars filled with snooty people, especially by Dewey standards.

He and a buddy were turned off by the scene and decided to go hunting for dive bars in the area, soon finding a little neighborhood bar called North Naples Country Club with a "Where membership has no privileges" slogan.

Not long later, Dewey Beach Country Club was born.

His bar at 1705 Del. 1 is the former home of Surfside Bar and Grill, but was better known as McShea's Beach Pub & Grill before that, servicing both locals and weekend warriors who would often stop in just for an Irish Car Bomb shot before stumbling to their next stop.

Before the golf theme moved into the bar, bartender Steve Capik was already there. A veteran Dewey drink slinger, Capik has held been a staple at the bar and remains pouring there today there as golf jokes now fly around him. 

Green is everywhere in Dewey Beach Country Club, surrounding the same island bar that anchored McShea's and Surfside in the middle of the room.

While golf and drinks dominate, Dewey Beach Country Club also has a full, newly-refurbished kitchen stacked with cooks who have spent time at eateries such as Striper Bites in Lewes and La Fable in Rehoboth Beach.

If you want to pretend you're at the 19th hole of a real golf course, you can grab a hamburger with crinkle cut fries to go with that frosty beer. If you want something a bit more adventurous, there's plenty to choose from.

Recent specials have included everything from a pulled pork sandwich ($10) to a seafood ramen bowl of shrimp, lobster and mahi served in a seafood broth with leek, ramen noodles and banana peppers ($20).

Ten years ago when Plummer opened Hammerheads, food was almost an afterthought. In the decade since, Dewey's dining options have flourished, even hosting its first Dewey Beach Restaurant Week earlier this spring.

"My guys in the kitchen probably shouldn't be working in Dewey," Plummer says. "But these days, if you don't have good food in Dewey, you don't have a crowd. It's easier to replace bartenders than cooks, so we just got the best ones we can up front, paid them some money and hopefully it pays out in the end." 

Musical acts can be found rocking under the garage door along the sidewalk on Friday and Saturday nights, enticing passersby with cover tunes. Last weekend, Rehoboth Beach-based Lower Case Blues brought their searing electric blues act to the bar.

You won't find DJs or college-aged partiers with glow sticks in this bar: "It's a nice chill spot to hang out hand have a drink. The food is good, the beer is cold and the bathroom is clean," Plummer says.

In a town where DJs, laser light shows and fist-pumps dominate during the summer, don't let the easygoing golf motif fool you. Dewey Beach Country Club was built with amusement in mind. One look at the bar's beer koozies with the message "Let's Par Tee!" can tell you that.

Plummer knows how to create an entertaining environment that people return to again and again, Montgomery says. And he should know. He's one of the main forces that have turned The Starboard into one of the beach's best-known brands.

"Whether you're laughing at him or he's laughing at you, you're having fun," Montgomery says. "He's really good at what he does and I mean that wholeheartedly."

Before bars, Plummer was a welder with his family's business, George W. Plummer & Son. But in 2008, he noticed the former Sea Shell Shop in Dewey Beach was unoccupied and decided to open Hammerheads at the age of 26 with a few partners.

He went on to open Hammerheads Dockside at Delaware Seashore State Park in 2013 before leaving the group two years later.

After several years of working at Big Chill Surf Cantina and Starboard Raw, he decided to get into the bar business again -- this time with a few silent partners, allowing him to follow his vision unfettered for Dewey Beach Country Club.

"I was just taking it easy and then my wife started yelling at me and I got back in it," he says, joking about his wife Amy Pietlock, a longtime Starboard employee.

Through his previous runs at the two Hammerheads locations, the Dewey Beach resident has built a following, especially among locals looking to avoid tourist-filled haunts and have a beer with a familiar face.

While national politics is one area that Montgomery and his bar purposely avoids, Plummer has a more mischievous streak when it comes to his brand of humor.

You see it in his choice of merchandise for his new bar, which counts a plain red ball cap with the phrase "Make Dewey Great Again" as its best-selling item.

Plummer's first order of 25 hats sold out on the first day he opened his doors on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. More are coming.

While the beaches tend to be a bit more politically progressive than the rest of the more conservative Sussex County, the hats are attention-getters for President Trump haters and lovers alike.

And with a big locals following, chances are that Trump's popularity rating is likely higher among members of the Dewey Beach Country Club than the Orange Crush slurpers in the town's other tourist-filled watering holes.

Altogether, it was too good of a goof to pass up.

"Obviously, some people get bent out of shape, including The News Journal," Plummer says of the current political climate and president. "So you can offend some people without offending them and poke the bear a little bit, you sell a lot of hats. It's weird." 

Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).

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