ST. LOUIS — The gates of baseball heaven are open, if you're willing to ditch the baseball bat for golf clubs.
For the first time, a company called Stadiumlinks has set up a nine-hole golf course throughout Busch Stadium.
The experience sold out in less than half an hour. More than 5,000 golfers are expected to tee up Friday through Sunday.
"If we're doing our job right, we're matching the experience itself with the epic view and the epic facility. It's a legendary stadium,” Johnathan Stephens said.
He started Stadiumlinks in 2016. He said the company was in talks with the Cardinals for a year to bring it here.
"We have really great fans that are not only tied to the team but also to the ballpark, and so a lot of things that we've done that have been new and different thankfully they've supported,” the Cardinals’ Julia Row said.
Here's how it works: there are nine platforms around the stadium. Each one comes with an assigned green on the field. Each golfer gets to hit two balls per “hole.”
This is how each shot is scored:
Eagle (-2) = Hole-in-one
Birdie (-1) = On or within the painted ring around target flag
Par (E) = On the target green
Bogey (+1) = Outside the target green but on the playing surface
Double Bogey (+2) = Does not make it to the playing surface
The Cardinals had to add tee times to meet the demand, and they hope to bring it back soon.