Playing Golf Under the Lights?

This past Monday night was the Battle at the Bridges, a yearly golfing exhibition match featuring Tiger Woods in some form of match play. In this installment, Woods teamed with long-baller John Daly to take on the team of Phil Mickelson and Retief Goosen in a best ball team format.

As a golf fan, the match was admittedly boring and difficult to watch. With no real prestige, a secondary effort by the players, and a guaranteed paycheck, there was no real compelling reason to tune in to the match. Even for people who love to watch these four men play, something just did not click about this exhibition. As a result, ratings were down 7% this year from 2004's version.

It turns out, though, that this Battle at the Bridges was the last under the contract Tiger Woods and ABC signed seven years ago. Woods and his representation at IMG have publicly said they would like to put the series on hold to allow Tiger to concentrate on winning more majors and breaking more records. That seems perfectly respectable, especially now that Woods has crossed the halfway mark toward Jack Nicklaus' impossible mark of 18 professional majors.

But, despite the downward trend in intrigue and quality of play in recent years, the Battle at the Bridges does still have some cool features. Of particular intrigue to me is that if the match extends to the 15th hole and beyond, the fans get an opportunity to watch golf under the lights. Enormous lighting fixtures, powered by generators, are placed on the final four holes to allow for night golfing. I love this concept and get a kick out of watching the fellas play in the dark. I just wish I had the facilities to do that myself.

So, I was trying to think of a way to exploit this awesome niche in the event for a positive gain for the game of golf. And then it hit me: have an entire event played completely under the lights in the dark. You could call it the Midnight Open or something catchy. It would be a limited-field event, meaning that only maybe 50 players could get into the event. Sponsors could jack up the purse and the Tour could even convert the event into one of the World Golf Championships events. It could be held in May, just after the Masters, but just before the spot where the Players will be come 2007.

In terms of televising the event, the Midnight Open could bring huge numbers of casual fans to golf telecasts. Let's face it: people don't watch golf on Thursday and Friday afternoon because they're working. Only the unemployed and rich get to see the opening rounds. People tend not to watch golf on the weekends because they're doing other things in the afternoon like lawn work, drinking, or something else.

So, by having an event played only at night, the event would have to be televised live and in primetime. You could take the drawing power of the night game in other sports and make it viable for golf for four straight nights. While it might be difficult to get primetime network coverage for the event, ESPN would almost surely pick up a guaranteed ratings gem like this. They could have SportsCenter at the Midnight Open and all the other self-promoting crap the worldwide leader does. Besides, the World Series of Poker would still be several months away, and I think everyone could use a four-day break from the six-month-long NBA payoffs.

It makes sense. Golf at night, bringing in viewers, playing the pros big bucks, and exposing the game to a segment of fans that are dying for sports alternatives in May. Yeah, it's crazy, but I'd watch it. Would you?