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Kathy Sokol laughs and says, 'He hates it. He really does.'
Well, maybe DeRienzo does dislike 'Glo-Ball,' the night time version of golf, but you can't blame him if he comes back and plays in the next event held at darkness at Willowbrook Golf Course.
That's because during the last 9-hole 'Glo-Ball' tournament hosted by the golf course, DeRienzo scored a hole-in-one when he aced the 188-yard No. 5 hole.
'Glo-Ball' is golf played under the veil of darkness. The players use a special hard plastic golf ball with a glow stick inserted through the middle of it. The ball glows brilliantly and can be seen for long distances.
Meanwhile, the tee areas and greens are outlined with glow sticks so players know where to start the hole and where they are going in the night. On the green, there is a glow stick on the flag and a glowing disk in the hole so players know where to aim their chips and putts.
'We got something in the mail once time and (course owner) Ted (Stawovy) said he wanted to try it out,' said Sokol, and employee of Willowbrook. 'We held two tournaments last year and this was our third. We had 16 foursomes.'
The four-man scramble event starts at darkness Ð which was approximately 9:10 p.m. Players began with a shotgun start.
Because the ball is made of a different material than the normal golf ball, players use 'at least two more clubs' to judge their shots.
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'To give you an example, we were playing from the red (women's) tees and nobody hit the ball over the creek on the first hole,' he smiled. 'I don't care how hard you hit it. The ball just doesn't carry as far.'
DeRienzo, talking about his hole-in-one, says he normally would use a 5-iron off the No. 5 tee during regular golf.
DeRienzo's group, which included Bob Bergamasco, Scott Sokol and George Monios, was the last to play the downhill par 3 hole.
'We had people near the green on the par 3's watching in case somebody got a hole-in-one,' said Kathy Sokol. 'My sister, Bernadette, was there and she just started screaming Ôhole-in-one, hole-in-one' when it went in.'
'I never imagined my first hole-in-one coming that way,' smiled DeRienzo, who is an employee at Cedarbrook Golf Course. 'I wasn't sure at first, but then everybody started screaming. I think I was more in awe than anything else.
'They were playing closest to the pin on the hole and only two people had even hit the green,' he added. 'For me to get a hole-in-one there is just really lucky.'
He then laughed and said, 'That's the only shot I hit all night. I just couldn't hit that ball.'
DeRienzo described the next few moments as 'eerie.'
'It was pitch black and when people started screaming you could just hear it echo throughout the golf course in the night air,' he said. 'It certainly was different.'
DeRienzo says that there is more to 'Glo-Ball' than just clubbing up when you hit the ball.
'It's tough to make good contact,' he said. 'The depth perception seems to be different on every shot. It's not that easy.'
Still, you can bet he will play the game again.
Sokol said that Willowbrook's next 'Glo-Ball' Tournament would be held Aug. 4. To sign up, people can call the golf course at 872-7272.
