Golfing in the Darkness

Well, I have chalked up another first while we are here in Doha. Night Golfing, yes night golfing. Now everyone out there that is a golfer has tried using a "glow ball" to hit around at night, but have you ever golfed under stadium lights before?

When I was first asked to golf, I wasn't too sure. During the day time, the temperature sometimes hits over 50C. I don't think there is enough Gatorade to help me through that. So my immediate reaction was, "Really, are you crazy?". And the response was that we would be playing at night. Again, "Really, are you crazy?".

Well, I must be crazy because I loved it. What a cool experience. The Academy course isn't that long in comparison to the courses I have played back in Canada. There four par 3's, four par 4's and one par 5. I think the yardage was 2800 yards and for all you math majors out there it is a par 34. The grass is some kind of bermuda. It appears light and fluffy, but when in the heavy stuff it is like steel wool. I have yet to play the championship course, but from what I hear it is awesome.

Here's the link to the Doha Golf Club.

http://www.dohagolfclub.com/courses-/academy-course-36.htm

The green fee I paid was discounted as I am now a part of a Golf "Club", so we paid QAR 190 ($52.20 USD) for nine holes with a cart. Check out the link and go to the rates section under each course. Golf is not cheap...

Anyway, getting back to the round. I was teamed up with a couple Brits and a fellow Canadian (a Calgarian no less). We all arrived at the first tee box just as the lights were warming up and the sun was going down. This was something else, let me tell you. We watched the group in front tee off and I couldn't see a thing. It was like playing golf in the twilight hours back in Canada at around 8:00pm except this was 5:45pm... The ball just seemed to disappear into the hazy light. The only thing you could do was guess where it was going and listen for a sound of grass, gravel, or trees.

After the first hole was over, the sun was finally gone and the lights were shining bright as ever. The course was lit up like a runway waiting for one of the many Qatar Airways jets to land. The tees and greens were lit up the brightest with lights on all sides. The one local rule about the lights is that if you hit a light post you get to have a mulligan. Trust me when I say, if you hit a light post, a mulligan is the least of your concerns.

Once my eyes adjusted seeing the ball wasn't a problem anymore. The thing that was getting me was the humidity. The heat wasn't bad at around 35C, but with almost 90% humidity I was soaked. By soaked, I don't mean I was sweating in the usual places. There was sweat coming out of my eyelids. I should have been wearing swimming shorts, that's how wet I was. There was one guy in our group that started with a grey shirt and by the third hole it was black, every inch of it.

Well, like I said, it was a great experience. Now that I am a part of the weekly event, I hope that the shock factor of playing at night wears off and I can play a little better golf.