Night Lights at Bandon

[Emile Bonfiglio]

Headed to Bandon today and we have a tee time on Bandon Dunes that will push us right up to the days last light to finish our round in 4 hours. It got me thinking has anyone ever done flood lights to guide a golfer home. BD would work nicely with 17 & 18. So, not worth the expense to get a couple more rounds in or an idea worth exploring at the right venue?

[Tom Kelly]

The Faldo course in Dubai is fully floodlit and open for play at night, I am sure there are some courses over in Asia that are the same.

http://www.dubaigolf.com/emirates-golf-club/play/the-faldo-course/night-golf.aspx

[Adam Clayman]

What an eyesore those fixtures would be.

Pebble has a flood light on their 18th green. The fixture is hidden in the original "stupid tree" Chipoat loves to rail about.

[Ed Oden]

While playing until dark at Bandon may not be ideal, it can lead to some nice photo ops...

[Garland Bayley]

I have always wondered why they don't let you go back out to the hole where darkness fell on you, and let you finish the round, if you can make it before your first tee time of the next day.

[Rick Shefchik]

I wouldn't want to see it at Bandon, but it wouldn't surprise me if it happens. My wife and I sat in the bar at dusk several nights in a row, guessing how many groups would still come through 18, trying to finish after dark. There was always at least one more than either of us would have guessed.

[Greg Gilson]

4 courses at Mission Hills in Shenzhen are fully flooodlit....night golf is a bit of fun. The towers don't look great but there's plenty of trees to hide them in!

[Adam Lawrence]

If they have enough solar panels to generate an equivalent amount of electricity, I can just about tolerate floodlit golf in a desert environment like the UAE (I visited one course project there, it was 47C, and the guys building it told me it had been 55 the previous week). Anywhere else, it strikes me as pretty much the definition of unsustainability, and an open goal to golf's enemies.

[Nate Oxman]

I remember a long time ago someone telling me that the Country Club of Salem (NLE) in South Jersey offered night play, but I never got the chance to check it out. Below is info. from golfcourseranking.com. That site says the course was designed by Donald Ross, but it's not listed on donaldross.org.

Country Club of Salem is a Private 9 hole golf course located in Salem, New Jersey.

The Country Club of Salem opened in 1898. The course was designed by Donald J. Ross. The Salem Country Club course was built near the Delaware River. The course has plenty of trees to grab errant drives. Water comes into play on four holes. The greens are fast. The course has lights, so you can play at night. There is an additional set of tees that can be used when double looping for an eighteen hole round.

Par for the course is 36. From the back tees the course plays to 3173 yards. From the forward tees the course measures 2762 yards. The longest hole on the course is # 1, a par-5 that plays to 617 yards. The shortest hole on the course is # 3, a par-3 that plays to 126 yards from the back tees.

Watch out for # 1, the 617 yard par-5 challenge is also the #1 handicap hole on the course. The easiest hole Salem Country Club is # 3, the 126 yard par-3.

The Country Club of Salem closed in 2005.

[JLahrman]

I have always wondered why they don't let you go back out to the hole where darkness fell on you, and let you finish the round, if you can make it before your first tee time of the next day.

Too much maintenance going on?

Plus, you'd need a system to make sure the guys had paid the day before and weren't just trying to sneak out for nine free holes.

[Garland Bayley]

I have always wondered why they don't let you go back out to the hole where darkness fell on you, and let you finish the round, if you can make it before your first tee time of the next day.

Too much maintenance going on?

Plus, you'd need a system to make sure the guys had paid the day before and weren't just trying to sneak out for nine free holes.

They have plenty of marshals that can drive down the last few holes handing out vouchers for the next morning. And marshals that can check the vouchers the next morning. During the winter months, they could extend tee times later and charge full fare, as the people that won't get done know they can finish up in the morning. If they have a late tee time. it probably means the made the tee time recently and they aren't getting started much earlier the next morning.

[JLahrman]

They have plenty of marshals that can drive down the last few holes handing out vouchers for the next morning. And marshals that can check the vouchers the next morning. During the winter months, they could extend tee times later and charge full fare, as the people that won't get done know they can finish up in the morning. If they have a late tee time. it probably means the made the tee time recently and they aren't getting started much earlier the next morning.

Perhaps feasible...though if you're going to charge players full fare, then you'll have to provide full service which means the marshals drive the players (in...gasp...carts) off the course in the evening and back out in the morning. Could take quite a few marshals. I'm not walking in from 12 green on Trails and back out to 13 tee the next morning.

And I'm still not sure it's possible given that the earliest hours are usually reserved so that the maitenance crews can get their work done.

[Geoff Chin]

Marina Bay Golf Course in Singapore is floodlit. It is a bit of fun with the humidity and temperatures at more manageable levels during the evening. No trees to hide the towers here!

[Dominic Meese]

Geoff, is it harder to judge distance control under artificial light? Without ever playing night golf, I would imagine shadows could cause problems especially on the greens. Rather than having one shadow, there'd potentially be several with lights shining from different angles.

Given the heat and humidity as you stated, is night golf popular there?

[HarryBrinkerhoffDoyleIV_aka_Barry]

There is a municipal course in the east bay in Northern California, called Sunol Valley - Palm Course, that used to allow night golf, that had lights that were placed on the trunks of the palm trees.  This was a total novelty to me, I had never seen this before.  They do not turn them on any longer for night golf, but many of the lights still exist on the palm trees.  Not sure what happened with the overall night golf plan, I was only in Northern California for 11 years (2000-2011), and they were already turned off by the time I came to know about the course.

Here is an excerpt from a comment on oobgolf:
When the course opened in April 27th, 1968, it was at the time the fourth longest course in the nation measuring 7,408 yards. What made it completely unique was that the owner spent $325,000 to illuminate the entire course so that night golf can exist. All the lights were placed on the trunks of the palm trees. The owner was quoted saying" We'll hold tournaments at night. And I can see the time when fellas will organize night golf leagues like they do in bowling." They let people tee off as late as 9 PM and play until 2 o'clock in the morning. The head pro at the time said "You can follow the tee shot all the way. The ball really shows up at night. It's real white."
http://www.oobgolf.com/courses/course/1599/Sunol_Valley_Golf_Courses.html

[archie_struthers]

  :

Nate , having been a SJ resident for a long time could you have your courses confused .  Tall Pines in Sewell , NJ was lit back in the late 60's and early 70 's .  Could this be the one you remember?

Just did a little research as I know Tall Pines was lit up . The owner Pete McEvoy , who I had the pleasure of meeting , threw the switch in 1963. At the time the General Electric Company said it was the first regulation golf club that was fully lighted. It was nine holes with alternate tees, and approximately 3250 yards per nine.

[Alex Lagowitz]

WAY to gimmicky for Bandon.
By the way, my dad is heading out to Bandon on saturday with a group of guys from our club Essex County CC.
If you see them, give 'em a hollar!  He knows a little bout about golf architecture and those guys should be fun to talk with.

[Emile Bonfiglio]

WAY to gimmicky for Bandon.
By the way, my dad is heading out to Bandon on saturday with a group of guys from our club Essex County CC.
If you see them, give 'em a hollar!  He knows a little bout about golf architecture and those guys should be fun to talk with.

I'll be on Old Mac that day.... tomorrow could be a horrible day, heavy rain and 50+MPH winds

[Tom_Doak]

We were just discussing today whether to put lights on the new putting green.  The answer is maybe, but probably not immediately.

[Sven Nilsen]

Yountakah CC in NJ was the first course to install electric lights for play.  Not sure if this means other courses had non-electric lights prior to Yountakah.

[Joe_Tucholski]

It seems like a fairly common thing for par 3 courses to do.  I also noticed flood lights at Riviera that looked like they might illuminate the green on their practice hole (?) between 1 and 2.

[Alex Lagowitz]

WAY to gimmicky for Bandon.
By the way, my dad is heading out to Bandon on saturday with a group of guys from our club Essex County CC.
If you see them, give 'em a hollar!  He knows a little bout about golf architecture and those guys should be fun to talk with.

I'll be on Old Mac that day.... tomorrow could be a horrible day, heavy rain and 50+MPH winds

Sounds like a fun day of links golf!

[archie_struthers]

 

Sven did they have lights before 1962. Was it regulation length

[William_G]

Played a course in San Diego that was "night golf" all lit up when I was a kid in the 70's, pretty fun

but at Bandon, definitely not "golf as it was meant to be"

[Sven Nilsen]

Sven did they have lights before 1962. Was it regulation length

Archie:

I'm pretty sure I got that information from a 1925 Golf Illustrated article, which for some reason I am no longer able to access on the LA84 site (their collection currently only goes up to 1922).  The course had 18 holes, but without the article I can't tell you how many holes were lit up.

Sven

Edit:  Strike that, I believe Jim Kennedy noted that Yountakah added the lights in 1908 in a post from a few years ago.