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Night clubbing under the midnight sun

Broadcast Date: June 22, 1968

Golfers from across the country are competing at the Yellowknife Golf Course in a round-the-clock test of golfing endurance. The course is unlike any other in the country. Players walk a nine-hole course of sand and rock. Hordes of hungry mosquitoes and black flies attack the golfers and a black raven repeatedly swoops down onto the course, stealing balls. It's midnight madness during the summer solstice in the Northwest Territories, as heard in this CBC Radio report.

Night clubbing under the midnight sun

• The Midnight Marathon was created in 1952. During the summer solstice in June, the Northwest Territories enjoys days with as much as 19 hours of daylight.

• Each player who walks the fairways of the Yellowknife golf course carries a six-by-ten inch mat off which to drive the ball.

• The rules on the scorecard are much the same as any other course except for the raven rule which stipulates that if a raven steals a golf ball, it must be replaced exactly where it was snatched.

           • The sands of the Yellowknife course were originally showered with diesel oil to create a smooth playing surface. Nowadays, players stand on artificial turf. The tournament is no longer played as an endurance marathon. Instead, golfers play all night and wrap up their game approximately 6 a.m.

• In June 2004 a Canadian Forces CF-18 jet mistakenly dropped an unarmed missile on the Yellowknife golf course driving range. The course was promptly evacuated.

• The most northerly golf course in North America is located in Holman, N.W.T. Muskox are frequent visitors on the open tundra, nine-hole course.

• In Nunavut, golfers play on a makeshift course in Iqaluit. CBC Reporter Patricia Bell walked the atypical course made of carpet, sand and rock, as heard in this radio report. "We used to say weather permitting but now it doesn't matter what the weather's like," golfer Don Lalont explained to Bell. "We come out in the rain and the snow."

Night clubbing under the midnight sun

Medium: Radio

Program: Sound of Sports

Broadcast Date: June 22, 1968

Host: Bill Connolly
Reporter: Bob Willson

Duration: 2:28

Photo: National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque / Library and Archives Canada / PA-111522

Last updated:
Oct. 27, 2008