Night golf branding is now possible
NIGHT GOLF EVENTS CAN NOW BE ALOT MORE FUN
On the outside a night golf event or tournament is run like a normal daytime golf event, but when you produce a few it becomes clear that there are differences between night and day, kind of like…night and day. It’s really a whole new opportunity for the players, golf course and event promoters/charity fundraisers. In this article we will discuss the new opprtunities as well as the restrictions and differences playing at night bring.
Advantages of putting on a night golf event
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Night golf ball UV black light charger
OPPORTUNITY TO ACCESS MORE POTENTIAL PLAYERS: Since 90 percent of us work, the evening is the best time to get folks to come out and participate in a golf fundraiser, nigh golf league or golf event. Most people, either rich or pour simply cannot take off time from work to play a daytime event.
- ACCESS A YOUNGER GOLF DEMOGRAPHIC: There are a lot of young golfers, adult knock around recreational golfers and non-golfers looking for evening sports to play. So now you have an even wider range of recreational athletes you can reach through such sports website registration engines as active.com and golfnow.com, teemasters.com, ezlinks.com
- MORE REVENUE FOR THE GOLF COURSE/FUNDRAISER: Since it’s the evening you will find a
Tee boxes can be one to four glow chargers
significant increase in food and beverage sales, which can be a huge benefit to the bottom line of a golf charity event or to the golf course.
- GET MORE PLAYERS TO PARTICIPATE: By combining on course play with night ‘cosmic’ putting and even a cosmic skills competition, you now can bring in the families and friends, which make your golf event more than just a pure 74 player pay to play event. Especially cosmic putting brings in the kids and families.
Disadvantages of night golf
- TIME CONSTRAINTS: It’s the evening and people really are looking for a 2-3 hour experience
that is social and cool. The one thing to consider is the fact that night golf requires about twice the time as day golf because players are generally walking and it just takes more time. As a result limiting your on-course play to 5-7 holes is a really good idea to limit overall time and player attention fatigue. You can also put on a creative ‘urbangolf’ event. (See below) - DARKNESS HAS IT’S RESTRICTIONS: In the old days…last year…all you had were glow sticks and LED glow golf alls that hit like a rock and really didn’t give you enough light to be able to do more than brail around the golf course. Yes, new mobile lighting and black lighting makes a huge difference, but it’s still really dark out there. What this means is that it’s hard on the eyes more than playing during the day. The solution is to limit your events to no more than 7 holes.
- EXPECTATION MANAGEMENT: At night you have a different crowd that are looking for
Skills competition
razzle and dazz. So think about ways to light up their experience either as they leave, during the event or at the end. At night it’s more about the party than it is about playing precision golf. It’s about fun. Think of your golf course as being an event venue or night club more than a golf course.
NIGHT GOLF BEST PRACTICES: There are several things to consider when playing golf at night or creating an event.
- TIMING: You have less time than during the day. Most night golf events start at 7pm and should not go any further than 11:30. We’ve found that getting everyone back to the clubhouse or around the night putting green by 10:30 is optimum. This is why adding a cosmic putting event as a tie breaker can be very effective. It can extend the evening, change the pace and give you another competition while players are being social. It also adds to the energy vs. just having players out on the course.
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Flourescent clothing glows at night
TIGHTEN UP EVENT: Folks at night don’t want to play a full 9 holes. It’s just too much in the dark. We’ve found that older players quit around 6 holes, especially if you start after 8pm. They need their beauty sleep. As a result we recommend keeping your night golf events to a compact 6-7 holes.
- ADD NIGHT PUTTING: To create a more dynamic event and more involvement you can add cosmic night putting to your event mix with 6 – 9 holes. This is easy to set up and it’s a great way to bring in the family and kid contingent. Also, now players can compete over 6 holes in about 2 hours, then do a fast 9 hole putt off after they’ve checked in with their friends and had a nice cool ‘beverage’.
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Night disc golf hole with glow in the dark ring for urbangolf
URBANGOLF IDEAS: Consider a modified urbangolf/putting event using the Glowgear limited distance night balls or the Glow Tour V2. On-course urbangolf events revolve around bringing only two or three clubs and playing each hole from 100 yards and in. We recommend taking target lights and placing them on the fairway with a ring of cosmic putting track. So now every hole is a 100 yard and in scoring shot and then players just need to chip into the circle to hole out. At night, this distance is plenty far and it allows the hot shots to really dial in their game while allowing the beginners to stay away from the drivers and long irons they have difficulty hitting even in the day time. It also saves on lost balls because most players lose their night golf balls when hitting driver and long irons. Now golfers are able to walk the course safely and hit shot after shot without lose balls and searching around.
- HIT AND CHIP GOLF COURSE DESIGN: The other advantage of playing this form or hit
Cosmic night golf clothing rocks!!!
and chip target golf is that it can allow you to play more than 6-9 holes in an evening. Best of all it opens up your course to a whole new level of shot making creativity where you can avoid water hazards that tent to eat night golf balls, while giving your regular players a whole new series of holes and hazards to play against than your day course. Now you can have players hitting shots they never imagined as you create shots they would never play during the day.
- CREATE MEMORABLE EVENTS: Night golf photography, especially action shots can make your event memorable. By using GlowGear night golf lighting and cosmic black lights, your players can now see each other on the greens and tee box, so they can now photograph each other with their cell phones. Combine these photos with your event camera shots and you now have the needed photos to post on your facebook page and promote your next event. Traditional glow stick night golf events are pretty much like brailing around in the dark and as a result it’s very difficult to catch victory putts and all the antics that can happen with you get a crowd around the cosmic putting green.
Hole #1 fairway up to tee box
If you have any thoughts or opinions, tell us what you think. We are always looking for new ideas and opinions to make night golf better. Facebook us and let’s chat.