FOUNTAIN VALLEY : A Place for Tee in the Evening

Golf, admittedly, is a difficult game, a psychological roller coaster where frustrations can surge at the slightest miscue.

After all, putting a tiny ball in a tiny hole from distances of several hundred yards wasn’t meant to be easy.

Now try the same feat at night and it’s about as hard as hitting a hole-in-one--for some golfers, anyway.

“My boss is making me play,” lamented Tom Chatterton, 30, of Garden Grove, who was shooting a game with some friends one recent night at David L. Baker Golf Course in Fountain Valley. “My work is having a tournament next Sunday and I don’t want to look totally pathetic.”

The golf course, at Edinger and Ward streets, is just one of two that offers night golf in Orange County, the other being Newport Beach Golf Course, near John Wayne Airport.

But what kind of person would willingly walk around a golf course in chilly temperatures under bright halogen lights to have a whack at a Topflite?

“The guy who works all day and doesn’t have a chance to play during the day, naturally,” said Joe Cannon, the manager and head professional at Baker, which, was named after the Fountain Valley councilman who came up with the idea of bringing a night golf course to town.

Baker persuaded the county, which owns the property, to put the land up for lease. But he never lived to see the project become reality. The course was named in his honor on May 6, 1986, when the first round of night golf was played, said Jim Caspio, the assistant manager of the course.

Ever since, night golf has become a popular event that is played as late as 9 p.m., when the lights go out.

“It gets a little bit cold at night, so we don’t have that many people playing in the winter,” Caspio said. “But in the summertime we’ve gotten as many 100 players at night. A lot of people tee off late, just before sunset, then keep on playing once the lights kick on.”

Golf aficionados have been known to turn out in droves at the Newport Beach Golf Course, at Irvine Avenue and Mesa Drive. It’s open from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

“There isn’t a light system in the world that’s going to compete with the sun, but this is the next best thing,” said one employee at the course.

Night golf isn’t a new concept--it’s been around since the late 1940s. Generally, golf courses with lights are only par threes and fours, known as executive golf courses.

“It’s a good way to work on your shorter clubs,” says Pat Petty, the boss who was forcing Chatterton to play in the tournament for the sake of employee pride. “I don’t hit my woods out here.”

Don Moberly, 51, of Fountain Valley, who just took up the game and played a few nocturnal rounds at Baker, had a tip for those considering night golf: “If you don’t know where the lakes are and you hook left or right, you might as well forget your ball.”