ORLANDO – For many of us, golf is a night game. This website is owned by a company called 8AM GOLF and that’s a great image right there, on the first tee at 8am, the birds singing, getting into the coffee, all that promise ahead. But what about the other side of the day, especially now with the extra hour of twilight light? What about night golf? My press tent pal Bill Fields has a new book out called A quick nine before dark. Exactly.
When play resumed on Saturday afternoon after an hour’s rain delay, here in the third round of Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill InvitationalCollin Morikawa and his caddy, Mark Urbanek, found themselves doing some math. When they made the turn, they realized they still had two hours of daylight left, on a difficult road that doesn’t lend itself to fast play. The good news was that Morikawa’s playing partner was Rickie Fowlerone of the fastest players on Tour. They were the last group to enter, to complete the third round.
Morikawa is nine under, with Cam Young and Sepp Straka. They have played 54 holes in this Signature event and everyone will be able to sleep in on Sunday morning. The two players ahead of them, Akshay Bhatia (11 under) and Daniel Berger (13 under) will be on the court at 8am on Sunday when play resumes. Sunday will be a long night drive for both of them. Less so for other followers.
;)
Michael Bamberger
Morikawor was asked if he enjoyed golfing at dusk, especially as a child.
“I think those days, when you were out there for a long time, you got a lot out of it,” he said. “Not just exercising, but having fun. You’re probably out there with some friends, rolling, putting in a few more chips, a few more shots, just to get it out of the system.”
Turns out this is good practice for competing in PGA Tour events as well.
Fowler and Morikawa left on the 18th around 6:35 p.m., then walked through a dark tunnel under a grandstand. They crossed a road on their way to score and finished their day’s work, or almost did. All that remained was to sign autographs, which Morikawa did with great speed. Fowler signed off at a leisurely pace, chatting with kids, posing for pictures, all in a way that would have made Arnold Palmer proud. Morikawa had borrowed a Sharpie from Fowler and when he was done with it he returned it to its original place, in Fowler’s left back pocket. They said good night to each other, in a colloquial way.
Later, mate.
Yes.
Something like that. The kids were still calling Ricky by name.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@golf.com.
