The future is bright

When a city is supportive of a golf course, good things happen. A community is developed, and courses become a part of that community and their lives. When new things are brought to the course, it can have a positive effect and be successful.

J.C. Martin Golf Course, an Erie, Pennsylvania, 9-holer opened in 1919, and used to be called Glenwood. It is a par-32 and 2,284 yards from the back tees, and a par-33 and up to 2,100 yards from the forward tees.

The course has no cart paths and no overhead lighting. Being a compact, walking-only course with no lighting created an opportunity to introduce a new idea — glow golf. The setup of the course makes it “a lot easier for us than it would be for some other courses because of what our setup is like during the day,” says director of golf learning and general manager Ryan Bickel.

Bickel joined the course three years ago but grew up playing at J.C. Martin. “I always say our slogan here at J.C. Martin is Erie Golf Starts Here, because it really does,” Bickel says. “That’s where everybody kind of cuts their teeth growing up.”

Golf didn’t attract Bickel immediately. He played football, basketball, and baseball before finding golf in his early teens. Then, during his senior year, his high school created a golf team. Bickel needed an alternative to football.

“I’m not the biggest guy in the world and my body had been taking a beating and I thought this is a good fit for me,” he says. “My younger brother was a golfer and was probably the best golfer in the family. He asked me to come out for the team. That’s where I kind of got the bug at that point. I was hooked. I really enjoyed my senior year, being able to be part of a golf team for the very first time.”

Not only does he work on the course, but he is a teacher and girls golf coach at McDowell High School. The idea of adding glow golf came to mind while Bickel was on vacation in Myrtle Beach playing — you guessed it — golf.

“So, when we’re on vacation, golfing like we normally do, we checked out a course that was set up as a par 3,” he says, “but their golf at night there was overhead lighting, so you were hitting with kind of a lighted tee and green areas. It wasn’t a glow ball because of overhead lights.”

The course was looking for ways to raise revenue and increase opportunity. Bickel devised an idea to incorporate glow golf onto the course. He pitched the idea to Charles Zysk, the City of Erie’s director of public works, and assistant director of public works A.J. Antolik.

Like Bickel, Antolik grew up playing at J.C. Martin. Antolik met Bickel in January 2023 after restructuring golf under public works.

“We sat down, pragmatically, and we looked at the operations,” Antolik says. “What’s been successful, what hasn’t been successful, what can we do better? Where can we invest money? Where can we diversify our service, our product offering, to engage more customers? Essentially get more greens fees, build more revenue, make golf sustainable?”

Glow golf meshed with what they discussed in January. Bickel says with the shorter seasons and the weather in Erie, glow golf was one way to create additional playing opportunities. June, July, and August are the only months with average temperatures above 60 degrees. Snowfall can start in October and extend into April. Additional opportunities like glow golf are important for the course.

Not only was the city on board, but it “was very, very supportive right from Day One,” Bickel says.

Bickel began researching glow golf and the products to use. The course uses Premiere Glow for LED markers on the greens with 6½-foot lighted LED sticks. The LED stick stays in the entire time. Also on the green are lights specifically designed for golf cups that shine up from the bottom of the cup.

The course also has 14-inch LED stakes with directional white stakes for golfers to follow, green stakes outlining the greens, and red stakes for the tee areas. “When you’re teeing off, not only do you see the flagstick and the cup, but you see the outline of the green so you can roughly make out how big the green is,” Bickel says. The flagsticks run on AA batteries, while the stakes run on non-rechargeable AG 130 batteries.

The golf ball is a Night Eagle glow ball — unique because of how it’s turned on and off: Golfer shine a smartphone camera light onto a little circle on the ball and the ball will light up. The ball travels 15 to 20 percent less than a normal ball, so clubbing up might be useful.

The equipment costs were “not quite as expensive as you would think,” Bickel says. The city invested just under $2,000 for the nine holes. There are some additional maintenance fees such as devoting labor time to changing out batteries.

The course offers two pricing options for a round of glow golf: renting the glow ball for $26 for nine holes, or purchasing the ball along with a round for $29. Glow golf is open Thursdays through Saturdays and will run until the first weekend of September. When school starts, Bickel will cut back to Saturday only.

It takes about an hour to an hour and 10 minutes to set up the glow golf course. Bickel has two to three employees prepare the course, then disassemble it at the end of the night. The glow golf course is switched to an all par-3 course. The first tee time is 8:30 p.m., selling out nearly every night.

“We had 260 rounds played in our six nights,” Bickel says. “We were sold out Friday and Saturday night, both weeks. The very first Thursday, we had about 30 people play. We had just shy of 30 people the second Thursday night. So, we’ve got a good response from the community.”

Bickel adds, “It’s been a good partnership with the City of Erie and they’ve really supported it.”

Antolik receives play and financial numbers from Bickel. “He sends me the revenue numbers and we just can’t believe it,” he says. “$2,000 a night, $3,000 a night, $6,000 weekends. I mean, it’s just remarkable to us what this has done. And Mayor (Joe) Schember bought into the idea as well and he supported public works and the changes that we wanted to proactively make in golf.”

Antolik has already observed what Bickel means to the course. “He has so many ideas and it’s refreshing to work with somebody like him where he believes in what he does,” Antolik says. “He has the city’s interests at heart. He has youth interest at heart, and he wants to grow the game. And he has great ideas, like glow golf.”

Bickel currently teaches American government at McDowell High School, the largest school district in northwest Pennsylvania, where he has taught for the past 18 years. He has coached the girls golf team for 13 years and is “real proud of the effort that we put into that program and how it has grown through the years,” he says. “We’ve had multiple girls play college golf and we’ve been to the state final 11 times in the last 13 years.”

As a part of the course, Bickel sees kids grow up playing golf and loves it. “It’s kind of been a labor of love on the coaching side of things,” he says. “J.C. Martin has fit perfectly because this is a great course to have kids come and learn the game of golf and kind of expand their skillset.

“This is my third year, so I’ve had a lot of kids that are middle-school kids, sixth, seventh, eighth grade, that are now playing either for me or against me in the local high school scene, and it’s great to see those kids and how they progress and how we can be a small part of helping them get better.”

Introducing new ideas represents one way of keeping the course and youth vibrant at J.C. Martin. Bickel stresses the importance of bringing new ideas to a course. “I just think sometimes we’re innovative in the technology and the equipment, but I think it’s important to be innovative in terms of the offerings that we give people,” he says. “It’s a chance to bring new people to the game of golf. They might start and get hooked on something that’s different, new, and they’re here for the novelty of the lights and they have fun. But what they might realize is that they really like golf, and we’re hopeful that not only do they come at night, but we get some of them back during the day.”

Despite working three jobs, Bickel loves what he does. His wife, Tara, has been very supportive and he “couldn’t do it without (her).”

“When you love something and you enjoy it,” Bickel says, “it really doesn’t feel like work.”

Jacob Hansen is a Kent State University senior participating in Golf Course Industry’s summer internship program.