FanPost

Review: Stadium Links - Busch Stadium

Slightly off topic, but thought some folks on here might find this interesting.

StadiumLinks at Busch

StadiumLinks at Busch

Thousands of Cardinals fans ponied up for the StadiumLinks experience at Busch III this past Friday through Sunday. For roughly $85-90 per person at a minimum, entrants were given a bag of golf balls to hit at various targets on the field from nine different locations throughout the stadium. Allegedly, the tee times sold out in less than 20 minutes after they went on sale to the general public, though they were definitely on sale to "Cardinals insiders" (whatever that means - I think it's simply anyone who bought tickets in the past) for a few days before that. For most tee times, the weather was quite nice albeit a bit chilly in shady spots, and the experience was certainly a unique one, but not without its quirks.

PROS: It's a hell of a photo opportunity. It certainly isn't every day you get to hit a golf ball against a backdrop like this one, and social media is full of photos of people doing so. The tee locations were mostly well-chosen for the backdrop - only two of the nine were on the lower concourse, and most were really high in the upper deck. Only two of them were in the outfield area - one in the bleachers, and one in Big Mac ("Ac"?) Land. For the narcissists out there, the third tee position had cameras that showed you on the Jumbotron scoreboard and televisions throughout the stadium. The nine flags on the field were all different colors so it was pretty clear how the "course" was defined, and yardages listed were mostly pretty accurate, especially with the necessary slope adjustments. On top of that, there was a scoring system based on how closely you hit the ball to the required targets - one which I didn't really pay attention to as I was there with only my wife and didn't feel particularly competitive - but others were clearly using it and wagering on it. In that vein, it's similar to Topgolf in terms of the experience. The customer service folks were pretty friendly, and it was relatively well organized when it came to the logistics on the day of the event and the planned route through the stadium concourses. They had people on the field in Cardinals batting helmets and flak jackets cleaning up the balls by hand - hopefully getting hazard pay!

MEH: Everything had sort of a bland corporate feel to it, from the "VIP" areas for extra cash to the add-ons to the merch table. The crowd was pretty bro-tastic and many were awfully boozed up for 11 a.m., especially the large groups that clogged up the final three tees. There were tons of signs navigating you between the tee positions, but once you got there it was a bit of a free-for-all in terms of queueing. The scoring system was all manual and not like, say, Topgolf's, which could lead to some disagreements for those who choose to compete over it; picking out one's ball on a field full of balls is pretty tough despite the best efforts of the cleanup crew.

CONS: It felt like the organizers and staff running the event didn't know much about golf. I'm a pretty serious player, so maybe I'm not their target market, but the lack of attention to detail there ruined the experience a little bit. The golf balls were cheap trash that was probably found in someone's yard or the bottom of a pond. A few I saw were really beat up, and many didn't have brand labels on them at all. They did not let anyone bring in golf bags (more on that later), and limited each player to hand-carry only four (!) clubs despite the shots set up varying from 60-150 yards. We were told no woods, but on top of that they did not let my wife bring in her hybrid, leaving her unable to reach about half of the targets with the remaining clubs she brought in.

OVERALL TAKE: I am glad we did it, and thankful we got good weather for some neat pictures. It truly was a unique experience. That said, all I felt like I got out of it was an expensive photo op, so I definitely wouldn't do it again, especially at Busch. I was very annoyed at the limited club selection and golf bag prohibition as that was not well communicated (supposedly the Cardinals website had that information on it, but I bought the tickets directly through StadiumLinks after seeing an email from the Cardinals and they didn't say anything about those limits in their email or when I bought tickets), leading to an unhappy surprise the day of the event. Supposedly those decisions are made by the venue and not StadiumLinks, as their promo materials show people carrying bags full of clubs, so the Cardinals evidently are at fault there, but even Topgolf doesn't have such restrictions. If it's advertised as "golf", then let people bring in the clubs we need to hit for the shots that you've set up; otherwise, it's nothing but an expensive arcade game.

3½ stars out of 5