The 2025 LIV Golf Season begins Thursday! The first event, LIV Golf Riyadh, February 6-8, 2025, at Riyadh Golf Club in Saudi Arabia. Interested? Some are, some are not … and that is completely up to you.
What caught my eye, owing to LIV’s shotgun start format, is they are teeing off at 6:15 PM local time on Thursday and Friday, and 6:05 PM for Saturday’s Final Round. Yes, they are teeing off after sunset.
Golf under the lights!
I am interested now. What is more is that, with the time change and LIV’s new television agreement with Fox, I can watch each round live each morning instead of the usual reruns, morning talking heads, and before too much breaks that news channels start reporting.
It has been done before. The Ladies European Tour played the 2019 Omega Dubai Moonlight Classic at Emirates Golf Club with Nuria Iturrioz winning.
Even if you are opposed to LIV, you must give them credit for finding a television window, which can attract the US market.
Also, give LIV Golf credit for creating a product that is unique and different.
Golf on TV under the lights has become a bit more common over the last twenty-five or so years. From 1999-2005, ABC and IMG teamed up to stage Monday Night Golf. In these events, Tiger Woods played a one-on-one or was part of a team in a made-for-tv match played somewhere on or near the West Coast. The match started in the late afternoon and was planned so the last few holes would play where organizers had installed portable lights, hence the Night verbiage.
The idea would fade until 2018 when The Match between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson took place at Shadow Creek Golf Club in Las Vegas. Various matches have sporadically taken place since with different formats, players, and at various venues.
Golf under the lights is common in some areas of the world, specifically the Middle East and Asia, but is sporadic at best here in the US. I have played three golf courses with lights; two par three courses and one par 29: two in the Florida panhandle and one at PGA Frisco in Texas.
I have enjoyed the experience each time, especially since the summer heat had cooled off. It is a treat to watch the ball fly through the sky with the dark background, like the tracer technology found on telecasts. On the other hand, the lighting can be a bit uneven over the course of a round with some chip shots and some putts being tough to judge.
Thinking how the lighting itself would work, teeing areas and greens are fully lit since players will find themselves there on each hole. The fairways get a lot of lighting albeit from long distance, followed by roughs just off the fairways, followed by areas where players have a bigger miss like bunkers that will catch shots.
Top your tee shot, hit a tree, or hit one WAY offline? Planners are not likely to put lights in the far-flung corners of a course, so to say it mildly, your work is cut out for you.
Why are there so few courses with lights? It is expensive of course. Sure, a course can charge more for green fees and let players play later in the day to offset the electricity and light infrastructure. How much more will golfers pony up?
What about liability? How safe can a golf course be at night with golf carts? With additional steps like headlights on golf carts or additional lights around cart paths.
What about just making the course walking only, at least after sunset? That would be easier for liability but is there a big enough market?
The bigger question to me is where is the target market? In desert areas like Arizona, Palm Springs, and Las Vegas, I could see the idea working. Summer highs in the triple digits are a turnoff for most but 80 degrees at 8:30 PM? The same could be said for Florida and other beach destinations. Is there a market though for players playing a round of golf lasting until midnight?
What about the spring or fall seasons? If the weather is nice in the daytime, would you prefer to play less to play in the daylight or more to play at night? Occasionally at night, and since it gets dark earlier than in the summer, it would not last too late into the night.
What about the winter? Sure, it gets dark at 5:00 PM, and night golf would last until just past dinnertime, but who wants to play in the chilly air of the night? To me, the target market goes back to Arizona, Palm Springs, Las Vegas, and Florida.
I hope I am wrong, and that night golf can take off, especially as LEDs and alternative power sources become more common, which lower expenses and green fees.
For now, the handful of courses around the world, Top Golf, Popstroke, and others will have the US market covered after the sun goes down.