Shary Golf Course Might See $2M Light Project for Night Play

Shary Municipal Golf Course director Michael Fernuik hopes the city-owned course can benefit from an improvement project that would include the installation of lighting on nine holes for night play and the repair greens and fairways.

 

 

“There would be nothing else down here like it,” Fernuik said. “You can go to places like Top Golf to hit balls, but in order to play the game at night on a short course, we’ll need lights.

 

“We want to make Shary Golf Course more viable to city residents as well as tourists,” Fernuik said.

 

The proposed lighting project would cover holes 19 through 27, located at the rear of the course and adjacent to a large residential area.

 

Fernuik said the project is in preliminary stages and the Shary Golf Course Advisory Board will hold a special meeting in the next month that will offer a public hearing, so property owners can learn more about the project, ask questions and voice concerns.

 

“The public hearing will include the representative from a lighting company to help answer questions,” Fernuik said. “We’re just sorting out some scheduling and then we’ll post the meeting notice with city hall.”

 

Currently the city’s golf corridors offer a 27-hole course during the day and a driving range that is lit up until 9 pm. The proposed course lighting would be different.

 

“Obviously the course lighting would be LED lights, not big floodlights like on the range,” Fernuik said. “The lighting is very directed.”

 

City manager Mike Perez said while much exploration into the potential game plan is underway, the city has not gotten into the details yet.

 

“There’s a lot of discussion and no real action yet,” Perez said. “There are ways to direct light to push it where you want to go, using covers and other designs. We will continue to study it.”

 

Perez said an estimated $1.8 to $2 million in EDC funds is earmarked for the public golf course improvements.

 

Fernuik said the project is bigger than night golf.

 

 

“Hopefully we’ll start renovation of holes in June,” Fernuik said. “We’ll be redoing green complexes and building two new holes, that’s 25 and 26, that got gobbled up by the Lion’s Park expansion.

 

“Some smaller projects are for holes 1 through 18, having to do with sodding in some areas of the greens and fairways that have been beaten up over time” Fernuik said.

 

The course will have to close down nine holes at a time to get these facelifts done.

 

“Sodding will start in June with the hopes of having everything done by fall, by October or November, at latest,” Fernuik said. “This way, we’re ready for the cooler weather and the Winter Texans.”

 

Fernuik pointed to The Firefly, an illuminated nine-hole course owned by the city of Corpus Christi, which opened in June of 2024. Online photos of that golf facility show light directly over the fairways and greens, with darkened areas at the fairway’s edge.

 

“We just want to offer every opportunity for everyone to come out to play,” Fernuik said.

 

The Shary Municipal Golf Course opened in 1929 and is owned and operated by the city of Mission. Holes 19 to 27, which might see night play, are the nearly century-old original corridor, also known locally as the “way back nine.” Holes 1 to 9 are the front nine and holes 10 to 18 make up the back nine. Both Mission and the city of Harlingen have bragging rights to some of the oldest golf courses in the Rio Grande Valley, as the Tony Butler Golf Course also opened in 1929.