Now that the clocks have been set back an hour, most WNC courses have already gone dark by 5:30 p.m. In Fletcher, the lights are just coming on at Broadmoor Golf Links, where 40 covered Toptracer bays make up what the club calls UNDER THE LIGHTS. In the fall and winter, the range stays open until 9 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday and 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

It’s a new look for Broadmoor. Toptracer arrived in July and the lights followed in August, says Byron McCall, who joined the club in January. The tracking is included with any bucket, which runs $10 for about 35 balls, $16 for about 75, or $23 for about 115, and each bay shows ball flight, shot data, games, and virtual rounds.

None of this existed before the storm. Hurricane Helene put the property underwater in 2024, and we covered the rebuild in June. McCall credits owner Zeke Cooper with the idea that shaped what came next: Bring Broadmoor back as a place people spend an evening, not just a place to play 18.

“It’s a place to gather rather than just a place to play golf,” McCall says. For anyone who can’t spare a full round, the pitch is simple: “If you don’t have four hours, that’s okay.” A bucket, a drink, and 90 minutes under the lights is the whole idea.

The bays are built for lingering, with soft lounge seating and a TV with DirecTV in each one, plus cornhole for a break between swings. “It’s not just the guys coming out to hit golf balls,” McCall says. “It’s families, it’s kids, hanging out in the evening, having a good time.”

We stopped by on Monday night, and it felt less like a driving range than a social night out. Groups gathered around the fire pits, and there was plenty of room to wander, mingle, and drift back for another bucket.

A food truck from the Bevy Bar & Grill is parked by the range, and servers and range ambassadors work the line. Wednesday is the night to see it at full speed: Wing Wednesday runs from 6 to 8 p.m. with 75-cent wings and $1 off domestic drafts, and it’s the busiest night of the week. On Thursdays, a Toptracer league that started in October pairs partners for 18 holes without ever leaving the range; sign up through the golf shop.

Weather doesn’t send people home, either. With all 40 bays under cover, a soggy weekend this fall still drew a crowd, McCall says: “Instead of closing our doors, we can remain open.”

Colder, windier nights are next on the list: Broadmoor has started work to fully enclose 20 of its 40 bays with garage doors and heat, so that half of the line can be used year-round and stay playable on the windiest days. “We’re never going to be done,” McCall says. “We always keep working on it.”

Just off the range, GG & Riv’s Run turns the short game into a nightcap. The lit, 20,000-square-foot putting course, modeled on the Himalayas at St Andrews, plays as 18 holes and costs nothing. Bring the kids, or bring a rival and a couple of dollars, and settle it before the next bucket.

Bringing a group? Call the golf shop at (828) 687-1500 to reserve a block of UNDER THE LIGHTS bays (online booking is coming soon). Hours can shift with the season, so check the range page or call ahead before a cold night out.

Broadmoor isn’t the only place in the mountains keeping the lights on this fall. Three more spots have their own answers to the early dark, from a midnight range in Brevard to a short course in Cashiers.

On Old Hendersonville Highway in Brevard, the lights at ForeU Golf stay on until midnight every night of the year, rain, snow, or shine. Most of the operation runs itself, so a late session may be just you and a bucket. “That’s why we’re able to keep the hours that we have,” says owner David Melton.

Toptracer runs on all 11 bays and is included with any bucket. Four sit under cover with lights straight overhead, but Melton says many night regulars head for the seven open bays, where it’s darker, “kind of hidden under the stars.” The grass tees and short-game area stay dark, so after sunset the game moves to the mats.

The site has been a driving range since the early 2000s, Melton says. ForeU took over in the summer of 2022, had lights up by that fall, and added Toptracer in September 2023.

Who’s out there depends on the season. College and high school students tend to close the place down, after-work players fill in as the days shrink, and summer brings visiting families fresh off a day in the forest. Wednesday is Brevard College night during the school year, and Melton says plenty of customers make the drive from Asheville and Weaverville.

Between buckets, a covered pavilion with outdoor furniture and two TVs anchors the hangout, along with cornhole and oversized lawn games. Buckets run $10 for 45 balls, $15 for 85, and $20 for 120, with loaner clubs available with any purchase. The bigger goal, Melton says, is growing the game and showing newcomers that golf isn’t reserved for one kind of player.

In Waynesville, the night game happens on the greens. The 18,000-square-foot Himalayan putting course at Waynesville Inn & Golf Club, part of the Bobby Weed redesign that reopened the club in 2023, stays lit as late as 11 p.m. It rolls and shelves rather than sitting flat, so even a short lag takes some reading.

The club is membership-based, and the putting course is free for members and for guests of the inn and its cottages. Those guests can also pay to play the golf course.

“The Himalayan putting green is a great added value for groups that we do get in town,” says director of golf Conor Reddick. Parties of golfers check in for a few nights, play by day, eat dinner at the club, and finish with a putting contest under the lights. “That’s kind of what we’re set up perfectly for,” he says.

The Brookside section of the hotel sits about 30 yards from the green, and at night the putting course is set up with a routing. Reddick says the club is building packages for Ryder Cup–style group trips.

Only the putting course is lit for play after dark. By day, the main event is the club’s 18-hole championship course, which Bobby Weed rebuilt around Donald Ross’ original nine, along with the Wedge Park, about a half-dozen greens between the 1st and 18th holes where players can carry a drink and knock around a few short holes. The Watershed Tavern and the Grill handle dinner.

The entire facility is usually closed in January and February. However, Reddick says that can depend on the weather; last year he kept things open into early January. Call ahead to confirm the course is open when you book your stay.

Up on the Highlands Plateau, The Saddle at GlenCove offers something different: A short course you can walk into the evening. Designed by architect Beau Welling, the walking-only course is lit for play after dark, a feature Golf Course Industry magazine highlighted in a 2021 profile. It opened in late 2019 below Shortoff Mountain and Cowee Ridge as a 12-hole, par-3 course.

The course takes its name from the low saddle between those two ridges, which comes into view from the 12th tee. Welling, who has worked on par-3 courses with Tiger Woods at Bluejack National and Gil Hanse at PGA Frisco, lined the greens with bentgrass so players can bump the ball along the ground, and he borrowed classic Redan and Biarritz features. Loops of three, four, and five holes fit inside the layout, and groups aren’t held to the usual foursome.

Rounds start and finish at a barn that serves as the course’s gathering spot, with a restaurant and bar on site and a nine-hole putting course and short-game area nearby. The course draws players of every age, from grandparents bringing their grandkids to groups of teenagers coming out at night.

The Saddle serves the private GlenCove community, but guests of Old Edwards Inn in Highlands can book tee times there as well as on the championship course at Old Edwards Club. The Saddle has closed for the winter in past seasons, so confirm late-season hours before planning an evening there.

Special thanks to Byron McCall from Broadmoor Golf Links, David Melton from ForeU Golf, and Conor Reddick from Waynesville Inn & Golf Club for agreeing to be interviewed for this article.