I had one final golf-related stop to make on my way back from Williamsburg! I got over to Richmond a little before 8pm and one of the golfing things I wanted to do this year was to play a lighted course!

Windy Hill has two courses and I played the Lake Course back in 2017. They also have a lighted Par-3 Course that I had hoped to play while I was here then, but that didn’t work out because it was closed that evening.

The Par-3 Course is only lighted from April to October and only during certain days so it hasn’t been the most convenient for me to stop and play it at night. However, I made it work out on Saturday!

I teed off a few minutes after 8pm, just as it was getting dark. I knew that I’d have to hustle to finish before 9pm, when the lights got turned off! A threesome held me up some so I had to kill a bit of time between holes. I got to the 8th green at 8:55pm and boom, everything got completely dark as the lights turned off!

The proshop said that the lights usually turn off around 9:05pm, so I got a little unlucky in that regards (I think). Still, it was kinda fun playing the last hole in complete darkness and trying to find the ball based on sound and feel alone! Somehow I found my tee shot on the 9th hole, where I teed off with just my cell phone flashlight lighting the way.

Playing under the lights was a lot of fun. Each par-3 here had three to four lights on it, which provided just enough light to see where you needed to go. It was still plenty dark though and my pictures would have you believing it was brighter than it really was!

There are some challenges when golfing at night! Following the ball, judging the lies and reading the greens all were much more tricky than during the day. Plus, I had to be more careful about twisting an ankle on the hills.

The course itself is a fun one and worth hacking around during the daytime, if night golf doesn’t interest you. The par-3’s range from 90 to 145 yards and the course plays exactly 1,000 yards. Most holes are around that 100 yard range and give you a chance to work on your wedges. There is some nice elevation change and the greens are tiny. If your wedge game is like mine then you’ll get lots of chipping practice!

It cost $15 to walk and I felt that was just fine considering the neat experience. If you are looking to play some night golf, play with the family or just work on your short game then the Par-3 Course at Windy Hill gets my vote.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):