Gimcheon City, South Korea: For the first time ever, members of the Korea Professional Golfers Association (KPGA) hit the fairways for a night-time tournament, made possible by a new state-of-the-art sports lighting system at Podo Country Club.

The ‘Musco Moonlight’ KPGA Senior Open featured 136 professional golfers including Kim Doo-hwan, Kim Tae-jin, Chu Jeong-sik, and the event’s winner, Park Sung-pil.

Park secured his first career title with rounds of four-under-par 68 and a closing 69.

Night golf has been rapidly growing in popularity around the world, and particularly in South Korea where demand for tee-times during daytime hours has exceeded supply.

Installing lights at golf courses brings significant challenges, however, especially in terms of preventing glare and spill light from affecting golfers as well as homes and roads neighbouring the facility.

The system that lit the event at Podo Country Club was custom designed and engineered by Musco Lighting, which partnered with the KPGA to stage the ‘Musco Moonlight’ tournament.

Musco has specialised in sports lighting systems for 45 years, and has installed its solutions at nearly 150 golf courses in Korea, as well as courses in several other countries across the globe.

“The majority of golf courses in Korea are in mountainous regions, but the terrain at this course is relatively flat,” said Jeff Rogers, President of Musco, an Executive Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation.

“In terms of lighting, that helps when it comes to creating good night-time visibility. But it also brings challenges to preventing spill light from impacting the surrounding areas,” he added.

The lighting at Podo Country Club features patented light control and visoring that prevents players and neighbours from being affected by glare, as well as innovative technology that lights the underside of the golf ball in flight, allowing players and spectators to track its entire flight.

“I was convinced we made the right decision to move ahead with Musco’s lighting solution when I heard from one of my friends that our course had the best night golf lighting in the region,” said Kim Joo-young, Chairperson at Podo Country Club.

Players who participated in the tournament said they enjoyed the experience and look forward to playing again next year.

The event garnered significant interest from Korea’s professional golf community and media, including television coverage by JTBC Golf TV, which broadcast the tournament’s second round nationwide.

“It was a competition that received a lot of attention,” said Kim Byung-jun, President of KPGA. “We are thinking of expanding the night competition next year.”

Rogers added: “KPGA has been an outstanding partner. Their team brought a lot of vision and hard work to make this unique event happen.”