Woodbine Main Street plans Glow Golf Tournament for Sept. 19
Don Harrold, Executive Editor
editor@enterprisepub.com
Woodbine Main Street will hold its Glow Golf Tournament Sept. 19, a nine-hole nighttime event with illuminated golf balls, glow decorations and prizes for best-dressed golfer and best-decorated cart.
“This is the first time I've ever done a Glow Golf. I've never golfed in a glow tournament. I've never put a tournament on, so I'm kind of going into this just as blind as it's a lot of people,” said Randy C. Bruck, vice president and branch manager of Farmers Trust & Savings Bank in Woodbine. “But I wanted to do something different, something that Woodbine hasn't done for a while.”
“Essentially, it's you start golfing when it's dark out and your ball lights up and you can see it go down the fairway, hopefully,” Bruck said. “It's kind of the idea. It's all at night. You've got different glow stuff throughout the course.”
The event emphasizes entertainment over competition. “It's basically just supposed to be more of entertainment than it is the goal and score of a golf game,” Bruck said.
Bruck and Woodbine Main Street President Scott Breyfogle are chairing the fundraiser for Woodbine Main Street. “Woodbine Main Street, they're the ones that are kind of putting the event on,” Bruck said. “Scott Breyfogle and myself, we're the chairs that are kind of spearheading it, but the end benefactor is the Woodbine Main Street organization. Fundraiser event just to raise money for our nonprofit operating.”
Bruck said Main Street focuses primarily on Woodbine redevelopment. “I've always said the main goal of the entire Main Street organization, 'cause I was the ex-president. Scott Breyfogle, my chair on the Glow Golf, he's the new president. It's all about redevelopment back in the Woodbine community,” Bruck said. “The end benefactor of this is the entire business district back of Woodbine.”
The tournament will award $100 each for the best-dressed participant and best-decorated cart, which Bruck said also increases visibility after dark. “Ideally, the biggest concern that some people have in doing a glow tournament is safety, because it's dark and I want to make sure I can't get hit,” Bruck said. “I said, ‘Let's make it fun and interesting,’ and the more glow and neon people have, the more they're going to be able to be seen. I said, ‘Let's just throw a cash prize. Whoever is the best dressed on the course and whoever has the brightest, shiniest cart.’”
Bruck said the format has drawn golfers with varying experience. “It's both sides. I've got one person that signed a team up. She said, she goes, ‘I have golfed one time before in my life. I never enjoyed it at that time.’ She goes, ‘But I'm signing a team up because it's glow and it's different,’” Bruck said. “I've had other people that golf multiple times a week, have asked them to sign up, and they said, ‘I won't golf in a glow tournament.’”
The nine-hole tournament will have a slower pace because it is played at night. “It's different from most tournaments. Most tournaments are going to be an 18-hole tournament. Glow Golf is nine,” Bruck said. “Your slow of play is so much slower than a typical pace of golf or a tournament style because it's at night.”
Bruck said the emphasis is on the experience. “What I've told people is I said, ‘It's an entertainment evening. It's not your — yes, it's a fundraiser event,’ but I said, ‘It's truly a different entertainment experience,’” he said. “And that's what I told people to shoot for. It's come out for a good time. I want it to be a large success in everything from that standpoint, but I said more overly, I said, ‘I want people to go home talking about it, saying they had an absolute blast.’”
Check-in begins at 7 p.m., with play at 8 p.m. The $300 team cost includes a taco bar, glow necklace, flashlight, two glow balls, carts and mulligans. Additional carts and mulligans cost $20 each, with additional glow balls available for purchase. Registration is through Woodbine Main Street.
When asked, Bruck described Woodbine's business climate as strong, citing volunteers, school and housing growth and demand for downtown commercial space.
“Woodbine, I always said it's a very interesting town compared to the others along Highway 30,” Bruck said. “I think we've got a lot of very dedicated volunteers. We've got growth within our school district. We have growth within the housing development out, going west of town.”
Bruck, who has been in Woodbine eight years, said people considering housing or business locations have commented on its growth.
“They said Woodbine always has a lot more of an aggressive track record as far as growth, progress, brings people to Woodbine,” he said. “Overall business, I would say, is extremely well. Our downtown commercial storefronts, we had, like, a waiting list of people wanting a property downtown with no space to give them access to.”
Bruck said he initially questioned how quickly 40 low- to moderate-income houses in a development west of town would sell. “I didn't see that it was going to be as successful as what it was,” Bruck said. “I said, ‘There's going to be some houses that are built. They're going to sit on the market for almost a year before they get sold.’”
All 40 sold before construction was completed.
“Ironically, they were all sold before they were all completed. Love to say that I was wrong in that. I mean, that is awesome to see,” he said. “Anytime that something comes to Woodbine, people are the naysayers of, ‘I don't know if this is possible or what,’ and I said we've continued to prove them wrong time and time again, and a lot of people say it works because it's Woodbine.”
