Night Golf

[Zippo]

Long ago, back when I was a good looking young man as opposed to a handsome, somewhat elderly fellow, I seem to recall hearing about a local golf course that had an after dark tournament played with some kind of lighted (or glowing) golf balls. I see that now you can buy LED lit golf balls but I'm pretty sure they didn't have those back in the day. Anyway, have any of you folk ever played night golf with illuminated golf balls? Talk about slow play - I bet you'd want to hold such an event to 9 holes only.

[Vinsk]

28 minutes ago, Zippo said:

Long ago, back when I was a good looking young man as opposed to a handsome, somewhat elderly fellow, I seem to recall hearing about a local golf course that had an after dark tournament played with some kind of lighted (or glowing) golf balls. I see that now you can buy LED lit golf balls but I'm pretty sure they didn't have those back in the day. Anyway, have any of you folk ever played night golf with illuminated golf balls? Talk about slow play - I bet you'd want to hold such an event to 9 holes only.

I played it once years ago around the early 90’s..maybe late 80’s. They were just glow balls that went quite a bit less on distance. We had flashlights to ‘charge the balls’ when needed and to get around the course. It was a good time but was more about having beers and just doing something different.

[pganapathy]

4 hours ago, Vinsk said:

I played it once years ago around the early 90’s..maybe late 80’s. They were just glow balls that went quite a bit less on distance. We had flashlights to ‘charge the balls’ when needed and to get around the course. It was a good time but was more about having beers and just doing something different.

Not sure why they would be shorter though.  It essentially needs fluoroscent/luminescent paint on the cover and you are done.  Maybe the manufacturer tried to be extra smart or the glow was done a different way

[ChetlovesMer]

9 hours ago, Zippo said:

Long ago, back when I was a good looking young man as opposed to a handsome, somewhat elderly fellow, I seem to recall hearing about a local golf course that had an after dark tournament played with some kind of lighted (or glowing) golf balls. I see that now you can buy LED lit golf balls but I'm pretty sure they didn't have those back in the day. Anyway, have any of you folk ever played night golf with illuminated golf balls? Talk about slow play - I bet you'd want to hold such an event to 9 holes only.

I remember doing this as a mid season regular event at a course in Illinois back in the early 90's. 

When we did it there were clear-ish golf balls with a hole drilled through them. You would crack a little bitty glow stick and jam it into the ball. 

They also put lights on the greens and tee boxes. I would estimate the ball flew about 85% as far as a "regular" golf ball. It was kind of cool for two reasons. One, because it actually made it pretty easy to find you ball. The other thing was it was really difficult to slice or hook those balls. They pretty much went straight. 
 

As I recall the biggest concern was turning an ankle as you walked around the course. You may or may not see a sprinkler head or what not. 

[StuM]

15 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

The other thing was it was really difficult to slice or hook those balls. They pretty much went straight. 

A little shocked that they would fly straight, you would think the hole and then the glow-stick would impact the balance of the ball and cause it to wobble and not fly straight.  Maybe manufactures just need to make a ball with a small weight, similar to the glow-stick' in the ball and Presto, hooks & sliced are gone.  All they would need to do is ignore the specifications in the rules.

I've not tried the night golf but always thought it would be a fun night out.  I agree, I think 9 holes would be enough, especially if beer is involved. 🍺

[ChetlovesMer]

3 minutes ago, StuM said:

A little shocked that they would fly straight, you would think the hole and then the glow-stick would impact the balance of the ball and cause it to wobble and not fly straight.  Maybe manufactures just need to make a ball with a small weight, similar to the glow-stick' in the ball and Presto, hooks & sliced are gone.  All they would need to do is ignore the specifications in the rules.

I've not tried the night golf but always thought it would be a fun night out.  I agree, I think 9 holes would be enough, especially if beer is involved. 🍺

Every time I've done it, it has been 9 holes. AND just a ton of fun. 

[Vinsk]

5 hours ago, pganapathy said:

Not sure why they would be shorter though.  It essentially needs fluoroscent/luminescent paint on the cover and you are done.  Maybe the manufacturer tried to be extra smart or the glow was done a different way

They were like a hard plastic. Like my range uses floater balls that are listed as 20% shorter than a premium ball.

[klineka]

On a golf trip earlier this year my friend brought light up balls for everyone and glowsticks and we went out onto one of the greens at night and did chipping and putting contests, we had music playing and a few drinks, it was a blast. We used glowsticks to outline the green and a couple white glowsticks in the cup so you could see the hole. It was much darker than the picture makes it look, that was with night mode on my phone camera. I am also playing in a 9 hole scramble outing here in a few weeks for night golf too, looking forward to that.

[Zippo]

Nice! That all sounds like a ton of fun and the beer wouldn't be bad, either! I'll have to keep an eye out and see if a course around here has an event like that again.

[phillyk]

2 hours ago, Zippo said:

Nice! That all sounds like a ton of fun and the beer wouldn't be bad, either! I'll have to keep an eye out and see if a course around here has an event like that again.

We did it at one point for employees at Padden.  I know Skagit G&CC has had it before.  It is fun.  Although, for our employee night, we had about 30 people all playing the hole together.  Surprisingly, no one got hit with a ball or tipped a cart over. 🤣 

The balls we used were light up balls.  So, they were harder than a top flite, and flew significantly less distance.  We used rental clubs to make sure we didn’t dent our drivers.

[Typhoon92]

14 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

I remember doing this as a mid season regular event at a course in Illinois back in the early 90's. 

When we did it there were clear-ish golf balls with a hole drilled through them. You would crack a little bitty glow stick and jam it into the ball. 

They also put lights on the greens and tee boxes. I would estimate the ball flew about 85% as far as a "regular" golf ball. It was kind of cool for two reasons. One, because it actually made it pretty easy to find you ball. The other thing was it was really difficult to slice or hook those balls. They pretty much went straight. 
 

As I recall the biggest concern was turning an ankle as you walked around the course. You may or may not see a sprinkler head or what not. 

I played in a bunch of those Night Scrambles.  I think I still have a ball or 2 still in the package with the sticks.  Those were the first ones of their kind.  Now with the LED balls it’s closer to a real ball.

When we used to play it was a full moon for extra light.  We would hit 2 of the glow balls and 2 real balls../ we could usually find the real balls all the time and use those.  Sometimes the sticks would come out of the glow balls.  You could also bring flashlights… we had a 1 million candlepower spotlight hooked up to a car battery from a bud that we mounted on a pull cart and dragged it around with us.  We could light up the entire hole and blind the guys on the green.

We won every one the course had.  The owner was pissed.  He would change the rules Everytime trying to get a new winner but everyone was so bad it was comical.  We had a great time playing, eating and drinking when it was all over.

[ChetlovesMer]

6 hours ago, Typhoon92 said:

I played in a bunch of those Night Scrambles.  I think I still have a ball or 2 still in the package with the sticks.  Those were the first ones of their kind.  Now with the LED balls it’s closer to a real ball.

When we used to play it was a full moon for extra light.  We would hit 2 of the glow balls and 2 real balls../ we could usually find the real balls all the time and use those.  Sometimes the sticks would come out of the glow balls.  You could also bring flashlights… we had a 1 million candlepower spotlight hooked up to a car battery from a bud that we mounted on a pull cart and dragged it around with us.  We could light up the entire hole and blind the guys on the green.

We won every one the course had.  The owner was pissed.  He would change the rules Everytime trying to get a new winner but everyone was so bad it was comical.  We had a great time playing, eating and drinking when it was all over.

That sounds like a great time. The course that hosted ours always hosted it as a best ball, not a scramble. My team consisted of my dad, and 2 buddies of mine. Of which me and one buddy were by far the best golfers in our group. Needless to say, we never won. It was a great time. My dad especially enjoyed it. He would talk about it all year. My dad is/was a terrible golfer. But he loved all the specialty tournaments. Night Golf, Hickory Tournaments, The Chili Open (A golf tournament played in mid-January... usually in the snow.) 

[Zippo]

Those really do sound like fun. I'll have to keep an eye out for one in my area. Thanks for the stories!