Will A Night Golf Tournament Ruin Your Course?

The first thing you have to remember about your Night Golf event is that it is not a PGA Major event. It is simply a different way to play golf than you normally do. With that in mind, how you set up your course is up to YOU! Some ideas include:

? Move your tees - use an area normally not used for your tee box. Move it to a patch of grass in front of the normal tee, to the left or right of the forward tees - anywhere to minimize wear and tear on the tees. If you must use the tees for the Night Golf event, make sure there is divot mix for the players to use.

? Get the maintenance staff out early! - The morning after your Night Golf event, send someone out with a divot mix bucket (make sure they are labeled if you use different types of grass on your tees than you do in your fairway). Have the staff cover each hole you played the previous night - make sure that they have trash bags and ball mark repair tools for the greens.

? Limit the refreshments until after the Night Golf event - Admittedly, this practice helps to increase laughs on the course during the event. However, it could be the catalyst which lets the guard down for care of the course. You might want to think about letting the players have 1 or 2 beverages prior to the start, and then the participants will want to hang around afterwards talking about their experience. In addition, make every attempt to not allow alcoholic beverages on the course the players.

? Take Hazards out of play - Be sure to mark bridges, creeks, lakes and other potential hazards with light sticks or other methods (Candle bags, pumpkins, etc.).Light sticks come in plenty of colors so maybe you use red or blue to mark hazards. As in the aforementioned point, if there is a lake or creek in front of your normal tee box, simply move it to the other side for the Night Golf event.

? Limit your exposure - You don't have to use every hole in your course or feel obligated to start at Hole #1. 4 or 5 of the easier holes that lack hazards and can bring the players back to the club house after the Night Golf event is fine. Another thought is keeping some of the staff available to join groups for the event if they are not familiar with your course.

In summary, just use some basic Common Sense when setting up your course for Night Golf. This will increase the fun factor and the participants inquiring the date for the next tournament.

Kevin Adelsberg is a writer for NightGolfProducts.com. For additional articles and an extensive resource for everything about night golf, please visit us at http://www.nightgolfproducts.com