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Night Golf

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Let me tell you how I got started playing night golf. It was back in 1989 and Christmas time at a friends place. I still think he had a careful plan on how to get me to try playing night golf. My friend Bill explained to me how he was playing night golf with another friend of ours. He told me how they used a special Night Golf Ball. He explained that the night golf ball is clear with a hole through the golf ball. He showed me everything he was using. You use the hole with, what is called a night glow stick. The night glow stick does glow in the dark, and hey you can see it at night. He went on the tell me how you use a flashlight to see the hole Once you are on the green and some of the other tricks they used to play golf at night. To make a long story short, a couple of weeks later I found myself playing night golf. We would meet at whatever time the sun went down and it was dark. This was the winter in Ohio, so dark was quite early. There was more to worry about than just hitting a golf ball and hopefully finding it in the dark. You always had to be concerned with the weather.

The weather never really bothered me so I had no problem playing golf at night and in the winter. We played golf twice a week for the rest of the night golf year, that first year. We considered the Night Golf Season to start with the clock change in late October and then run all the way through the winter until the next clock change for daylight savings time at the end of March. The night golf season for us was 5 months.

Yes, there was night golf in the summer, but we never tried it then. We chose the winter because first most people put their golf clubs away in the basement for the winter and never touched them again until the spring. Well, we just loved to play golf and did not want to loose 5 months of golf every year, so we played what we called Winter Night Golf.

I have seen some of the local golf courses during the summer have a special summer night golf tournament. They would advertise some kind of special lighting, but you still used the same night golf balls. Summer night golf just starts too late. It gets dark anywhere from 8:30pm to 9:30pm. That is really kind of late if you have to be up by 6am to get going for work the next morning. Therefore we played our own Winter Night Golf.

I would like to explain how we played winter night golf. I guess the first thing we did was always be prepared prior to even getting out of the car. I always had my golf bag full of the essentials for night golf. This would include an extra winter hat, an extra sweater, 2 or more pairs of what we called winter golf gloves. Sure we had our favorite beverage in there too. I also had one extra night golf ball, just in case the worst would happen and plenty of the night sticks. You just had to be prepared or find yourself leaving the golf course early because of getting cold or wet from whatever the weather gods had planned for you. I personally never got fully dressed until I got to the golf course. Bill on the other hand used to be fully dressed and had his car heater turned up hot to get himself as warm as possible. So we were different with this preparation. I always started with just one pair of gloves on and depending on the cold, I might I have to go to 2 gloves on each hand. I am lucky in the fact that I can handle cold better than most. My feet would never get cold and all I wore were tennis shoes and nothing special for socks. Bill had to have waterproof golf shoes with very heavy socks to keep his feet warm.

The actual equipment we used to play Winter Night Golf:

Night Golf Ball
Special Golf Ball. Clear with a hole that runs through the middle of the golf ball from side to side. This hole is used to hold a night glow stick. When hitting the Night Golf Ball, you must always first position the ball so the face of your club is not hitting the holes of where the night glow stick is located. You can knock the stick out of the hole of the golf ball if you don’t position the ball right.

Night Stick
The night stick is plastic, as long as a golf ball is wide. The stick will glow in the dark When cracked. The color of the glow is usually green. The glow sticks will start off very bright and slowly loose their brightness as you hit the ball more times. The danger of the glow sticks are they could be hit out of the ball if the ball is not positioned correctly. The glow stick can actually crack from the force of the club hitting the ball in the cold weather.

Flashlight
The flashlight is used when either on the green or very close to the green. Your golf partner will hold the flashlight directly above the hole, aimed down lighting the hole up for the person, putting or chipping.

Golf Tee
We used a golf tee like the kind you would find at the driving range, when you are hitting off the mats. This was always cut to the height we desired. We used this type of tee because the ground was almost always frozen.

The rules and ways we played night golf were almost the same as golf during the day. The rules are the same, we just added one simple modification, and this had nothing to do with night time or daylight. It was our winter golf rule. If the green is covered with snow, then we applied what we called a 2 putt rule. This means we could never have anything higher than a 2 putt. If you have never tried to putt with snow on the green, then you need to try it sometime. No need to really aim, just get it started in the right direction and the ball will go where it wants to go. So we created the 2 putt maximum rule.

Now we always stood behind each other when we hit the ball. This gave us the best chance to get a good direction of the golf ball. The ball does light up, but it can be very hard to see from off to the side. So, we always made sure we did this. How often did we loose a ball at night you must be asking yourself, we played night golf for I think 7 years and yes we lost only one ball in that 7 years. We mainly only stood behind the other one when on the tee. Most other shots you could follow easily for yourself.

Hazards of Winter Night Golf:

Full Moon
The full moon was one of the worst nights of the year to play night golf, this also includes all the nights the moon is almost full. The moon can be just bright enough to make it very difficult to follow the ball in the air and also finding the ball on the ground. We always hoped for a good cloudy week when the moon was due to be full.

Snow
Snow on the ground is probably the biggest danger of loosing your golf ball. We never played when the snow was too deep, so we never lost a ball because of snow. We had trouble finding the ball because of snow, but never lost one in the snow. Some snow was just unavoidable. Many nights when we played it snowed after we started, and I have to admit, we hardly ever left early because of the weather.

Cold
Getting cold was probably the worst hazard we could have. It is a must to keep your feet, hands, and head of your body warm to keep from getting cold. If you could keep these 3 areas warm then you simply would not get cold enough to want to make you quit. I do not ever remember quitting because of cold.

Intruders
You might be surprised how many different things can intrude upon the golf course in the night while you are playing that may you trouble. People stop just to mess around at night on a golf course. This did not happen often, but yes we had people just drive up and walk out onto the golf course. You might be surprised by some of the animals you might run across at night on a golf course. The worst we ran across was a skunk a number of times. No, we never got it by a skunk. Thrown golf clubs is always a danger. We never threw any golf clubs on purpose. But standing behind someone while they are hitting the ball can be dangerous. With so many different weather conditions from rain to snow to ice to freezing rain, there were times when it was quite hard to hold onto the club the way you are used to. Once again we were lucky neither of us ever got hit by one. Last and most trouble of all hazards was the police. Maybe this is a good time to mention that getting approval from the golf course is a good idea. We really did not have the approval of the golf course so avoiding the police was priority number one. We have so many funny stories where the police almost found us. Funny now that we never did get caught.

We played over 5,000 holes of Winter Night Golf in those 7-8 years. Oh yes we did keep track on paper. One year we played over 1,000 holes during the one winter season. That was our goal, 1,000 holes in one season. It might not sound like a lot of holes, but most players will not play 1,000 holes of golf in one entire season during the summer. If you played every Sunday 18 holes of golf from spring time change all the way through till the fall time change, we will say that is 30 weeks. You also played in one league during the week during the summer. This would give you a grand total of 712 holes of golf for your summer season. So that really was a lot of holes to play for us during a 20 period.

It really is a much different game at night. The biggest difference really isn’t the light or should I say lack of light. The biggest difference for me at least, was the golf ball. The night golf ball is a solid hard plastic golf ball with dimples, of course, but it also has a hole through the middle of it for the night glow stick. If the ball flew over your head you would hear the familiar sound of the whistle of the ball. The ball simply didn’t travel as far as you were used to. I don’t remember just how much distance you lost, but it was enough to make you think about your club selection. The golf course is quite different during the winter compared to the summer. The ground was frozen many times giving you fits when approaching a green. This is the same problem though as in the daylight. Finding your golf ball is quite easier than you might think at night, except on those clear nights around the full moon. Other than the full moon and snow, the ball was very easy to find. We even found the ball stuck in a pine tree one night. It just glowed and was very easy to spot. Oh yes I did go into the tree and get it back.

We had so much fun playing winter night golf. We have so many funny and crazy stories to tell. It is great for your golf game too. Playing all year and in some of the worst weather conditions. It really will toughen you up as a golfer. You wouldn’t believe just how many shooting stars you can see if you keep your eyes open above. The sky is just great on a clear night with so many stars above. My Winter Night Golf experience was something I will never forget. It might not be for everyone, and that is fine too. You have to love the game of golf and you must be willing try almost anything to enjoy Winter Night Golf.

We would love to hear from anyone that has tried Winter Night Golf. If you have any questions or comments, please write and let us know.


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Dave and Maggie

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