HE PEGS THE BALL IN DARKNESS. ABSENT people and even cars on the surrounding road, Nolan Krentz likes the feeling of being alone, as if the entire nine-hole course is his while the world sleeps. It will be at least an hour before he sees anyone except for the superintendent, who likewise knows the only other shadowy figure must be Krentz.
No practice swing, no waggle, no waste. Krentz, 32, walks fast in the dark over ground he has known since childhood, where last year he clocked the majority of his 18,018 holes.
He takes only 45 minutes to play nine, and when he finishes that loop, Mike Woodward, Norsk Golf Club’s general manager, is just pulling in. “He is usually here before I arrive, and I get here at…