24 hour golf course!!!

["Richard"]

If you've ever been to the 19th tee past 9pm you would have noticed that they have these huge lights on the driving range that help you see your ball when its dark outside. I was playing a course in toronto and my cousin said "why don't they just put lights down the fairway so you can finnish your twilight round" then I said, "why not just keep it open 24 hours." Here are the crazy ideas he had, I'll post mine after his.

1) putt lamp posts all along the fairway
2) have the lights in the ground in the fairway, lining the fairways and pointing straight up

problem with these ideas

1) if you put posts along the fairway people will hit them with their tee shots, it would be like lining every single fairway with trees!

2) Light travels in a straight line.. if you pointed it straight up into the air you would have a completely dark golf course except for a few beems of light shooting straight up

My one and only idea

Just make a couse that has lots of trees, then where ever you have trees you putt a lamp post with lights on it from the bottom to the top... all angled away from the tee box so you are always infront of a lamp post that is pointing at you. This way it cant effect your shot by blinding you because there is no light pointing at you. You wouls also have to design the couse in such a way that if you are going north on hole 1 and south on hole to that you aren't blinded by the lights on hole 1 which isn't a problem because just put big tall trees in the fairway that divides the two holes.

the 3rd person we were playing with said... why don't you just get 200-300 weather balloons and put a very very strong light on them and have them point down at the golf course.

Two questions for you, is there such thing as a 24 hour golf course? also, what is the stupidest thing you have actually discussed and seriosuly contemplated on a golf course? Dbleber, hope you enjoy the thread haha

[Hacker]

I don't think that they are open 24 hours a day, but Thunderbird golf course definately has night golf and for someone like me who wears glasses, not having the horizon to help with depth perception can really mess up your game - it is really a hoot, you should try it sometime.

[Shivas Irons]

i think it would be easier to move to Yellowknife.

[John]

That would be so incredibly expensive to run all of those lights the rounds would be absurdely expensive!!

["Richard"]

how much cost could there possibly be to lighting a course and making it the only 24 hour golf course in ottawa. They would more than make up for the cost with the green fees they could charge. They could do it bare bone after dark. One card girl, one markshall and one person in the proshop

[sharkshooter]

... One card girl, one markshall and one person in the proshop

You could just leave the cards by the cash register, then you won't need a card girl to hand them out.

[SGH]

For a guys supposedly good with numbers you have some outlandish ideas, hahah. Lighting even so much as a baseball diamond is an extremely expensive venture. Due to light travelling in straight lines (as you mentioned) the lights have to be placed very high in the air to cover any ground. This is a very expensive process, and the sole reason many rural baseball diamonds don't have lighting.

Also, how many people do you honestly think would be golfing at 2 or 3 a.m.? I know I wouldn't be. There is the shift work crowd I suppose, but even then, I find it unlikely. You would be appealing only to the die-hards - not thos who golf because it's an enjoyable thing to do on a nice summer's day. Really narrowing your potential demographic there.

Regardless, it's a fun thought, and may be a possibility sometime in the future. Maybe you're the guy to get this thing started.

[Txxxxxxx]

That would be so incredibly expensive to run all of those lights the rounds would be absurdely expensive!!

It's not that expensive...Compare it to night skiing. They cover acres and acres with lights for night skiing.

[John]

How many people would really do it after midnight, not too many. How the heck can you say it's not that expensive, that's crazy man. You would need dozens of huge lights which would cost an insane amount onf money to install and maintain and then there's your hydro bill. I think the idea is great but come on, it would be expensive.

[sharkshooter]

You could make up some of the cost by selling all the extra lost balls.

[Hank Hill]

It's not that expensive...Compare it to night skiing. They cover acres and acres with lights for night skiing.

Ahh but the white snow helps reflect the light and spread it out.

["Richard"]

I am fantastic with numbers but I'm not a handy man, I have no clue how much lighting would cost to set up, how much it would cost to run the lights for 9 hours a day. Who would go?? How many people play twilight and try to rush through to finnish 18 holes and play the last 3 holes in the dark? Lots of those guys would play, people who work afternoon and evening s would play. I don't think anyone will do it but if they did I would be one of the first to try it out to see if its a good sub for morning golf. How many people show up at bent grass and golf-o-max at 1am to play 9 holes?

[Txxxxxxx]

How many people would really do it after midnight, not too many. How the heck can you say it's not that expensive, that's crazy man. You would need dozens of huge lights which would cost an insane amount onf money to install and maintain and then there's your hydro bill. I think the idea is great but come on, it would be expensive.

After midnight? I am not saying the course needs to be open 24 hours a day, but they do have golf courses around the world that are open at night and have lights. The theory does work 100% and the people who play love it.

What about in the Fall when you want to play but it gets dark at 6:30? That's where the lights come into play.

It's not that expensive if you work the cost into your green fee. How do you think a ski hill operates at night? Do you think that they get the hydro for free?

["Richard"]

In that case, lets paint the fairways white and use black golf balls! Next time I'm at 19th tee I'm going to ask them how much it was to set up those lights and what kind of $$$ they spend per hour lighting the place. On those 45* days who wouldn't rather play at night if they could!

Ahh but the white snow helps reflect the light and spread it out.

[Indio]

There is such a course in Prince George B.C. It is a Par 3 course and every hole has Baseball stsdium style lights on it. Not open 24 hours but it does go to the weee hours of the morning. I played it and it was a hoot.

["Richard"]

BOB, was it like "real" golf or was it wierd with all the lights?

[SGH]

hahaha, it was a friendly jab. I think you're on to something, but unless advances in technology make it cheaper, I don't see it happening. Then again, brave men have done more with less.

The Battle at Bighorn was a fine example that this idea is possible, but the $$$$ would be unreal.

[Indio]

BOB, was it like "real" golf or was it wierd with all the lights?

It took lots of getting used to. You have very few landmarks that you can see to help you judge distances. You have to believe in the distance you can hit your various clubs and the measurements on the course. I found I came up short for most of the round

[Eldred]

I think thotho may set this thread up for his next one "Does your reflective hat match your reflective shirts?"

I save my night time to make up with the wife, so I could have my 7:30 am tee time...

[John]

I've got to agree with you SGH. I don't think your thinking economically here Edmonton, it would be very very expensive. Regardless if it is just dusk the installation upkeep and monthly costs would be very expensive and i don't think Ottawa would be able to support it. Believe me i would love it, it would be fun as hell but i just don't think it would work. If it would work then i wonder why we don't have one here yet. There's some smart business people in the golf world and i'm sure if it was pheasable it would have happened already here.

[Kilroy]

As mentioned Thunderbird already does this. They originally planned to be open 24 hrs, but had no customers after 11:00. You can play it under the lights, just not at 3:00 am. I tried it and did not like it at all. Hard to follow the flight of the ball. Very hard to find balls that are just outside the lit areas. Mosquitoes were unbelievably fierce. Never did it again.

["Richard"]

if I won the 6/49 I would by "canadian" or loch march and make it a 24 golf course

[John]

I'm talking an 18 hole course not a par 3 though.

[John]

Richard you are the man.

[Indio]

if I won the 6/49 I would by "canadian" or loch march and make it a 24 golf course

Yup, and if Mommy had she would be daddy

[Eldred]

There was an advertisement in the paper about 24 hours charity golf at Thunderbird in September... Something about you need a team of 8.

[SGH]

Not to beat a dead horse here, but with night skiing, it is normally offered as a loss leader. By this I mean, by offering it at a huge cost, resorts keep people sleeping in their chalets, eating in their restaurants and partying at their bars. Night skiing doesn't always bring in a lot money directly; however, the indirect inflows makes the whole concept economical. However, with golf courses, green fees would be the only source of income from 10 PM until 7 AM.

[Kilroy]

Some pics

[Txxxxxxx]

Not to beat a dead horse here, but with night skiing, it is normally offered as a loss leader. By this I mean, by offering it at a huge cost, resorts keep people sleeping in their chalets, eating in their restaurants and partying at their bars. Night skiing doesn't always bring in a lot money directly; however, the indirect inflows makes the whole concept economical. However, with golf courses, green fees would be the only source of income from 10 PM until 7 AM.

I'll disagree with you on that one. I don't know how much of a skier you are or where you've been, but big name mountains do not have night skiing, nor do bigger name hills. For example, Tremblant does not offer it and they are owned by the biggest company in Canada for ski resorts...the same people who own Whistler/Blackcomb.

This pretty much negates the other income factor as Vorlage and Edelweiss do not have huge resorts or nice restaurants to bring in the money. They solely have income from lift passes and poutine.

["Richard"]

I'm also talking 18 holes. How much light could you really need to light a 200acre course? I have another idea.
If we were to launch a series of mirrors into space and position them in such a way that they reflect the sun light from one side of the earth to the other. I think 3 mirrors should do it. Let’s say Ottawa is the middle of the planet. At the darkest point (midnight) we would need a mirror at 90* clockwise and counter clockwise that was grabbing sunlight and reflecting it to the mirror directly over Ottawa and it would shoot the light down to my 24 hr golf course. It’s pretty simple! Anything before midnight and the mirror we are closer to would feed us the light, anything after midnight and the other mirror would feed us. The mirrors would have to be in orbit obviously since the earth moves around the sun. I'll calculate the size of mirror we would need and how high of an orbit it would have to be in to keep its full orbit at 24 hours. Maybe the mirror could be slightly concaved or is it convex... one would give us light and the other would fry us like ants under a magnifying glass. The mirror couldn't be flat or we would need a 200 acre mirror... hence the idea of having it concave or convex