Night golf is pretty much the same as golf, but it’s played at night using various forms of night golf balls. Some, like the GlowV2 are lit by charging up their photoluminescent skin with UV light from a flashlight. Others glow with an LED and others glow with a glow stick stuck in them.

Night golf can be played in several different ways. You can play your traditional golf course with all the clubs in your bag. You can also play a modified version of the game where you only use one or two clubs as well as your putter. This ‘short course’ version of the game allows you to mix things up and design a course that jumps around the golf course with 80-150 yard holes. For a private club, this is a great format because players are so used to playing the same course, a creative short course is a great way to mix things up and keep the golf experience fresh.

Recently we’ve introduced a series of skills competitions like Flop Shot limbo, tic tac toe, glass break and cosmic putting that gives players a chance to test their true abilities. Check out our various skills pages. Combine skills with a 9 hole short course and you have an awesome and very creative night golf event.

The rules of night golf are pretty much the same as in traditional daytime golf. The only difference is that with night golf you can pretty much modify the rules any way you would like because…its at night and generally just for fun, not competition.

THE PERFORMANCE DIFFERENCE: The GlowTour V2 is made like a real golf ball so it performs like a real golf ball. Most night golf balls are made in China with an LED inside that creates a serious compression problem. The core material has to be very hard to protect the electronics inside, and most Chinese LED golf balls have an old, oversized battery. As a result LED night golf balls have a very thin mantle of hardened plastic that leaves no room for traditional golf ball mantles so you are basically hitting a hard battery wrapped in a thin skin outer skin. As a result it’s like hitting a rock. In fact it has been proven to be dangerous to your drivers because the hardness and unforgiving nature of these old school LED balls can break your club face because they are so unforgiving. This is not the case with the GlowTour V2 because it’s a real golf ball with real bounce.

WHAT THE SECRET TO OUR GLOW IN THE DARK GOLF BALL: Our secret is to go to the cosmic glow edge of existing ball skin technology by putting our proprietary glow pigment in the skin so that the ball lasts a solid 8-10 minutes between charges, while being able to glow virtually all night long (6 hours). So now you can hit the best feeling ball in night golf and when you get up to your second shot, just pull out your UV flashlight and give it a recharge. A small price to pay for unmatched feel and performance.

CLUB SAFETY AND FEEL: No longer will you risk breaking your driver because of a rock hard LED core or glow stick core. Just pure soft feel and performance.

DISTANCE: The GlowTour V2 flies just like tour quality daytime golf balls. Unlike LED night golf balls, we have a 90 compression performance core, performance mantle and skin so the ball flies just like the best balls on tour. As a result this ball allows you to hit the same shots you hit during the day with the exact same yardage. No need to club up and hope your ball makes it to the green.

TRUE GOLF BALL SPIN: Since the Glow Tour v2 is made with a performance core and full compression mantle, it is the only night golf ball you can actually back up on the green. Now most golfers will never get to that place in their night golf game, but so what. Why not give them the performance opportunity.

The GlowV2 night golf ball glows by infusing the balls skin with an ultra high level of proprietary glow pigment. This pigment is activated by the sun or with one of our UV flashlights or our UV Glow Charger (at each tee box) The key strength of our night golf ball is the fact that it is a legitimate full compression performance golf ball that hits and feels like your favorite “daytime” golf ball. Unlike glow stick golf balls or LED golf balls that are hard as a rock and can break your clubs, the GlowV2 allows a golfer to feel confident that the club distances and performance they are used to during the day transfer into the night.

NIGHT GOLF BEST PRACTICES: There are several things to consider when playing golf at night or creating an event.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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’.
4. URBANGOLF IDEAS: Consider a modified urbangolf/putting event using the Glowgear limited distance night balls or our regulation 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.
5. HIT AND CHIP GOLF COURSE DESIGN: The other advantage of playing this form or hit 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 at you create shots they would never play during the day.
6. CREATE MEMORABLE EVENTS: 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.

On the outside a night golf event is run like a normal daytime golf event, but when you produce a few and understand the new opportunities and the restrictions of night time play, evening golf events can be a very different animals indeed.

Advantages of putting on a night golf event

1. They are convenient: Since 90 percent of us work, the evening is the best time to get folks to come out and participate in a golf fundraiser, golf league or golf event. Most people, either rich or pour simply cannot take off time from work to play a daytime event.
2. Opens golf up to more people: There are a lot of young golfers, adult knock around 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
3. More profitable for the golf course: Since it’s the evening you will find a 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
4. Opens golf up to a wider demographic of players and non-players: 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

Lighting up a night golf event is very important. In the past people could only light up the course with glow sticks that were barely visible. This made night golf both dangerous and pretty much like brailing in the dark. But with the inception of the laserglow lighting system and glow gear belts, now players and the course are marked with enough light to create both safety and sizzle.

Our course markers are 10” high and provide 15 shades of color and 4 flashing modes. You use these to either line each fairway or to create a clear dotted line down the middle of the fairway.

Our target lights are bright and provide the 15 shades in the cone as well as a wide green light on the bottom that creates a 2ft circle around the hole. These lights are bright enough to see from hundreds of yards away.

The 3ft high glow charger marks your tee box, and charges up your GlowV2 night golf ball with a powerful UV light in the top. This light is also 15 color shades and great for putting a branding sticker on when you have a sponsor

We also provide two kinds of remote, battery powered lights. The UV GlowBlaster, that packs 3 watts of UV blacklight in a compact rechargeable case. This light is great for glowing out cosmic putting track and players wearing neon duds. We also carry the super powerful Colorblaster in blue and green. These are great to light up the tee box, green and party areas at night with cool evening glow.

Raising money through traditional golf events have several pitfalls primarily revolving around that fact that most of us out in the world, be we rich or pour, tend to work. So having a Monday-Wednesday fundraiser can become a nightmare when it comes to getting players to participate. The other issue revolves around creating any kind of cool because during the week you will find it nearly impossible to attract young professionals to your event who are busy working an building their careers because facebook and linkdin have pretty much replaced golf courses as an effective way to network with other professionals

Night golf fundraisers can now open up your event to multiple formats like 2 club short course events, cosmic skills competitions and cosmic putting competitions. Another advantage to doing night golf is the fact that it’s a whole lot easier to get players, because they are not working. But the biggest advantage is your ability to garner revenue through food and beverage sales. Simply put, golfers drink and eat a whole lot more in the evening than they do during the day. As a result you can have a low cost of entry but get your major charity revenue from food and beverage.

Another best practice is to create cosmic skills around the clubhouse along with fun ‘non-golfer’ activities like corn hole/bag toss so that you keep friends and family close to the food and party.

Don’t forget a DJ for your night golf fundraiser because it’s a great way to entertain and create the needed vibe to keep young people partying and donating to your various challenges.

Finally, all our cosmic skills, putting etc. are great ways to have players ‘pay up’ and donate extra dollars to try and win each competition.