April 6, 2003, Sunday

Follow The Blinking Golf Ball

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON (NYT) 457 words

MAKING a golf ball that lights up in the dark does not seem too difficult. But making one that also feels and plays like a professional golf ball is a different story. John Gill, the inventor of the Twilight Tracer golf ball, explained it this way:

''Tiger Woods comes down at the ball at anywhere between 100 and 120 miles per hour. To have electronics that can take that type of force and keep on ticking over and over again, well, that's hard to do.''

Mr. Gill has experience in making products that can take a beating. In 1989 he quit his job in real estate and started Sun Hockey, a company that specialized in roller pucks, balls and other equipment for street hockey. One of his products was the Fire Ball, a ball that flashed when it was hit. Fire Balls garnered an unexpected following: dogs seemed to love them.

So, in 1996, Mr. Gill started another company, Sun Pet Toys, which made products that were sold at Wal-Mart, Walgreens and pet stores. But he already had his sights on a different market.

''Ever since I came out with the Fire Ball,'' he said, ''friends would say, 'Gill, if you could ever put that into a golf ball, think of the gazillions of dollars you would make.' ''

As he explored new ventures, he created an overall company called Sun Products.

Working with a laboratory in Taiwan, he developed a golf ball that lights up but also conforms to all the standards of the United States Golf Association, including weight, size and symmetry.

The Twilight Tracer was introduced at a golf trade show last August and hit the market in November. Since then, Mr. Gill said, 250,000 have been sold. The balls are carried by chains like Brookstone and Marshall Field's, in addition to golf shops. They sell for $10 to $14.

When the Twilight Tracer is hit, it flashes for five minutes to allow a golfer to follow the shot and track where it lands. Although the ball's construction conforms to golf association specifications, it has not been authorized for use in professional play, a spokeswoman for the group said.

Mr. Gill, 55, said the idea for the Twilight Tracer came partly from living in Minnesota, where night falls early in colder months. ''Every guy that's ever played golf has always been cheated out of finishing the 17th or 18th hole because of dusk,'' he said. ''The whole idea of this was to allow somebody to finish the game.''

CAMPBELL ROBERTSON