A Queensland club is engaging with its community better than ever and enticing new people to its facility using night golf as the lure.

Tin Can Bay Country Club, north of Noosa on the Sunshine Coast, started their regular Glow Golf competitions looking to bring new golfers to a facility that includes a golf course and two bowling greens.

In the past fortnight alone, the club signed up 18 new members.

“The golf club is doing fantastically,” said Greg Hoppe, Tin Can Bay’s Operations Manager.

The notion that “all golf is golf” as outlined in the Australian Golf Strategy, applies to Tin Can Bay.

Hoppe started Glow Golf, using clear balls with a glow stick inside, and LED lights to mark out the six-hole course. Players use irons only and compete in an Ambrose format. It has been a big winner.

“The way we’ve approached it is, we’re pretty much a tourist town, the people who come to the caravan parks with their families, this is a way for them to get some entertainment at night,” Hoppe said. “It’s not structured as a serious golf competition, it’s structured for people to have fun.

“I spoke to a guy. He’s been trying to get his kids into golf, and he said it was the perfect platform. It’s a way for families to have fun together and it promotes the club. The people we get in are people who would be more inclined to play putt-putt or on a simulator. It’s about having fun.”

Tin Can Bay is showing that it is prepared to think outside the square in the chase for more golfers. Once a month, it runs barefoot bowls competition on a Saturday, and charity days where competitors play nine holes of golf followed by 10 ends of bowling.

The club has a Chinese restaurant which has proved popular with locals as well. “It’s bums on seats for us, and it works both ways. The restaurant gets people in but the golf and bowls draws them in as well for the restaurant.”

Golf Australia's Clubs and Facilities Manager-North, Andrew Leventis, is highly impressed. “Tin Can Bay is a great example of a club thinking outside the square," said Leventis. "It’s a facility that is engaging with the community on a daily basis and a club that is growing because it has been innovative enough to try new things and draw people in who are not traditional golfers.”

The image of golf clubs with high fences and exclusive feels could not be farther from the truth at this club.

Said Hoppe: “We’re the opposite. We’re here for the community. It’s the whole package here. The only thing we don’t have is accommodation and hopefully that comes one day as well.”

Information about Tin Can Bay