Review: Upper Deck Golf Experience

[Dan1247]

9 hole golf in a baseball stadium? Interesting concept. Let me walk you through my experience at the event in Cleveland and my review of it.

Ordering tickets:

 I did not order the tickets, as they were a gift from my wife. What I do know is you have to order an even number of tickets and they give you options of "tee time". The cost of the tickets depends on what time you select. My wife originally selected 7:30am, but they came back a few weeks later saying that time was not available and offered either a refund or free upgrade to VIP at a different time. I opted for the VIP package, because that was a no brainer. The VIP package includes a free meal, drink, entry to the challenges, and 4 mulligans.

Rules:

 They give you 2 balls/hole (18 for normal, 22 with mulligans) in a draw string bag to carry around the course with you. They set up 9 different tee boxes around the stadium, so be prepared for a bit of walking if you go. There are 4 possible scores on each hole: hole in one, birdie, par, and bogie. A birdie is if your ball stops inside a white ring around the flag, par if you stop on the "green" (marked by white flags and a black line), and bogie if you land anywhere else. You take the best score of your 2 hits. You can bring your own clubs (8-LW only), but they had clubs at each hole to use. The clubs were a mix of Cleveland Zipcore XLs irons and RTX 6 wedges.

Before the round:

 I met my brother in law outside the stadium and entered in the Club area entrance. We signed a waiver and then checked in to receive our tickets. They recommend getting there 30 minutes before your time and since our tee time was early we didn't have any wait. The club area was offering breakfast and the bar was open. Prices for everything were pretty well displayed. The club section is located on the first base line, so we need to walk over to the outfield to find the "starter" and challenges. We decided to wait on the challenges, so went to the starter to get our bag of balls and have them explain the rules. All of the balls were Srixon Soft Feels, but varying colors. After that it was off to Hole 1.

The round:

 A volunteer at each hole would direct us which of the 5 hitting bays to use, which flag to aim for, and what the elevation adjusted yardage was. At each hitting station there was a bag of at least 3 clubs provided by Cleveland Golf. Each hole also had 1 extra bag for women's clubs and an extra bag for lefty clubs. The distances were between 75-123 yards. On the 2 longest holes they did give you an option to aim for a shorter hole with that flag and distance also specified on the board. At hole 9 they would check for any balls you have left and tell you to either hit them all or give them back. You could also drop off the bag if you didn't want to keep it. There was some walking between holes, but 2 bars along the way as well. We never really had to wait at a hole, but I've heard the lines can get long during the busier times.

For those keeping score my brother in law beat me by 1 stroke. I blame it on him having more time to golf since he doesn't have kids 

After the round:

We made a full circuit of the stadium, so ended back at the start with the challenges
Closest to the Pin: 107 yard downslope par 3 on a simulator. 2 shots using provided wedges (or your own). Both of my shots I'd be happy with in a normal round, but I wasn't close to winning.
Putting: There were 2 PUTTR Smart putting greens and either an HB Soft 2 - Model 1 (blade) or HB Soft 2 - Model 11 (mallet) to use. Each contestant gets 1 putt from from 6 ft, 1 from 7ft, and so on to 11 ft. It would also tell you to place the ball in the left, right, or middle. Scoring is each foot of the putt is 1 point with a maximum of 51 if you sink them all. 
Driving: Pretty straight forward. Hit 2 balls as far as you can using a Launcher XL 2 set to 10.5 deg loft. The had various shafts to pick from, but no regular stiff. The longest drive on the board was 335, but no one else was above 270. 

We went and had lunch to use the last of our tickets, talked a bit, and then left as there didn't seem to be much else to do other than watch others compete in the challenges.

Review Section

Pros:

• It is a unique event
• Relaxed atmosphere meant most people were just having a good time
• We were always around the same people which led to some light hearted banter between groups
• Some cool tee placements. Behind home plate, from the bleachers, behind the bullpen
• I liked trying out the Cleveland wedges and irons.

Cons:

• Never found the festival atmosphere they hype up. Maybe its because we were there early in the day and college football games hadn't started by the time we left.
• Holes 7-8 were right next to each other, so you could tell they had run out of ideas on where to place them.
• No one is checking tee times, so I could see it getting backed up pretty bad during busier times.
• It's mentioned all over their website and stadium that they are partnered with Stand Up To Cancer (good), but I couldn't find any information on the internet about how much they donate (bad, imo)
• On the longer holes it could be difficult to tell where the ball stopped if you were close to the boundary, especially the green area.

My final verdict is I'm glad I did it. It was a unique and fun experience. I told my wife that it was a great gift because it's something that I think is cool, but probably wouldn't have bought tickets for myself. If it's coming to your area and you can afford it my recommendation is to do it, even if you're a super serious golfer.

[Rob Person]

This sounds like a very cool and unique "experience " to have.  Super cool that the lady boss did this for you too!

Not sure I would go more than once for something like thus.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Were the food and refreshments at "stadium pricing "?

[Dan1247]

30 minutes ago, Rob Person said:

This sounds like a very cool and unique "experience " to have.  Super cool that the lady boss did this for you too!

Not sure I would go more than once for something like thus.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Were the food and refreshments at "stadium pricing "?

Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily go again if it's held at Progressive. I might if it was at an iconic stadium and part of other travel plans. 

Food and refreshments were definitely "stadium pricing"

 

[cksurfdude]

Does look like fun - but I agree for one time. Maybe they're at the mercy of the ground crew but in the pics it looks like the "holes" are kinda close and could've been spread out further from each other, possibly towards the right and left corners too. 

But at any rate a nice golfing gift!

[funkyjudge]

I would definitely do this one time, especially if it were done at Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia) or even if it were at Comerica Park (Detroit) or Camden Yards (Baltimore).

[Dan1247]

12 minutes ago, funkyjudge said:

I would definitely do this one time, especially if it were done at Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia) or even if it were at Comerica Park (Detroit) or Camden Yards (Baltimore).

They're going to be at Citizens in November. Camden and Comerica are listed as coming soon. They just went to Fenway, which would've been pretty cool to do. Especially if they had you hit off the green monster.

[TJ Hall]

Looks like a fun experience…thanks for sharing!