Musco Lighting - Battle at Bighorn 2001

Musco and ABC Sports
bring golf to prime time

The night sky provided the perfect backdrop for cameramen to train their lenses on the flight of the ball.

This was the first of ABC Sports’ night golf events to feature leading players from the LPGA.

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Project Facts

Lighting Services
•	Play at holes 15, 16, 17, 18 and illumination of the #14 green
•	Illumination of waterfall on hole #5 and ABC’s production compound
Lighting Systems:
•	609,000 total watts of power
•	4 Musco Lights™; 2 Mini Muscos™; 19 portable units; and 1 Light-Bar™ for 190 total fixtures
Results:
•	The Monday night broadcast drew a national rating of 6.1 (6.2 million viewers)
•	Cameramen say, with proper lighting, it’s easier to follow the flight of the ball against the dark sky than it is in daylight

For the third consecutive year, Tiger Woods and prime time television proved a winning ticket. Over six million viewers watched Battle at Bighorn, a match play golf event televised on ABC in traditional Monday night sports style. This year featured the most unique format to date with the number one male and female golfers, Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam, staging a last minute comeback against highly ranked David Duval and Karrie Webb.

Fans got to see four of the best athletes in the world playing a format regularly seen at golf courses across the country. The “Hey, let’s go play a round of golf,” attitude of the players, combined with a beautiful setting and prime time coverage have garnered new fans and new ideas for the game of golf. This additional exposure appears to be at least one ingredient in increasing golf viewership. The real winner for this year’s telecast was probably the LPGA Tour, which rarely gets a rating share over 2 in any of its tournaments, according to pga.com

“Everyone enjoys this,” said Curtis Strange, ABC golf analyst. “It’s a neat, cool thing for us to do, something special . . . different, and the lights made it that way.”

Musco and ABC Sports have collaborated each year for this event. For 1999’s Showdown at Sherwood, producers added lighting for the last two holes merely as a precaution in case play continued after sunset, which it did.

When the event traveled 100 miles east to Bighorn Golf Club last year, they extended lighting to four holes. Producers decided to light the same four holes again this year. As an added precaution, Musco technicians added lighting to the 14th green as well, a move that proved fortuitous since the pace was much slower than anticipated and play was continuing in near darkness.

“These guys know what they’re doing,” commented ABC cameraman Don Langford who has worked Musco-lighted events since the historic first televised night college football game at Notre Dame in 1982.

Musco and ABC’s longstanding relationship has continued with hundreds of college football games and the first Super Bowl at Stanford University. 2001 will mark the first year ABC will telecast the Little League World Series championship game in prime time from Musco lighted Lamade Stadium in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. ABC will also broadcast the kickoff game for the 2001 NFL Monday night football season at Fawcett Stadium in Canton, Ohio under permanent Musco lighting on August 6. •

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Other links:

Musco lights the 2000 Battle at Bighorn
Musco lights the 1999 Showdown at Sherwood