A golfer tees-off at a night golf facility in Bangi, near Kuala Lumpur last Friday. Night golf is lighting up the lives of the fast-growing legions of Malaysian golfers, many of them young workaholics too busy lining up business deals to tee-off during daylight hours.

KUALA LUMPUR - Night golf is lighting up the lives of the fast-growing legions of Malaysian golfers, many of them young workaholics too busy lining up business deals to tee-off during daylight hours.

Golf balls streaking across the darkening sky are adding to the usual features that mark a typical Malaysian night.

The innovation is a way for some of the country's roughly 200 golf courses to distinguish themselves from competitors, providing an added attraction for overseas tourists and helping to put Malaysia on the Asian golf map.

"You feel more relaxed because if you play during the day you get interrupted by phone calls," said businessman Steven How, tallying scorecards with his two playing partners in the restaurant of the Bangi Golf Resort near Kuala Lumpur.

Approaching the resort on the highway from the capital, the towering white lights seem to announce a football match. But enter the 18-hole course and you find the greens and fairways at daytime-like brightness.

"It's cooler and the atmosphere is nice," said Charles Meyer, standing next to the eighth tee in the twilight.

An expatriate living in Kuala Lumpur, Meyer and his playing partner Kuhn Werner usually shoot 36 holes per outing. Today is only their second-ever round of night golf.

"I would say you have to focus much more on the fairway. It's good discipline," said Werner.

Most night golfers say the course narrows under artificial light - hit more than a metre off the fairway and your ball is in darkness.

Lost balls can mean a long search - and startling discoveries.

"I was looking for this ball and suddenly I saw a snake. It climbed a tree as I ran past," said Andrew, an expatriate who played a recent night round in Kuala Lumpur.

Bangi illuminates 15 of its holes erecting seven or eight towers per hole, each containing 15 lights, according to the club's sports executive Hussin Abdullah.

The cost of extending the day artificially is enormous - 350 million ringgit ($92 million) to install cables and lights for just four holes.

About 20 of Malaysia's clubs light at least part of their courses, charging night levies of $3 to $20 with many offering night packages that include green fees and dinner.

The idea is also to entice golfers from overseas, who spend between $400 and $525 each day in the country.

The weather is one selling point, said Geraldine Loh, director of marketing communications at Hotel Equatorial, which built a hotel adjacent to Bangi Golf Resort.

The number of British players buying all-inclusive golf packages has doubled in two years, she said.

"It's just very, very cheap for them to come here," she added.

While the number of golf tourists grows, locals are donning the universal golfing uniform of spiked shoes, polo shirts and caps.

Malaysia has about 100,000 golfers in a population of 22 million. While the number of golfers is growing, Malaysia still has a long way to go to catch up with golf crazy Japan where 1 in 10 Japanese, or 13 million people, are said to play the game.

The numbers "have increased a vast amount over, say, three years ago," said Joachim Martin, assistant editor of Golf Malaysia magazine.

Club membership fees in Malaysia range from $2,600 to $15,800, with a single round going for about $25.

That, in a country where monthly average household income is about 2,600 ringgit ($684) according to official data for 1997, the latest available from the statistics department.

Singapore golfers buy up as many as 90 per cent of the golf club memberships in Johor, the Malaysian state bordering Singapore, one long-time player suggested.

They are attracted by cheaper membership fees compared with Singapore, the diversity of courses and an exchange rate that makes the Singapore dollar worth double the ringgit. (Agencies via Xinhua)