Golf at a baseball stadium? Fans get to experience Marlins Park in a unique way this weekend

Walk into Marlins Park the next few days and you might feel as though you are in a surrealistic sports dream.

The announcer might be saying it’s “going, going, gone.” Then you realize it’s a golf ball going over the outfield wall rather than a baseball.

What’s going on here?

Simply, the only thing being clouted/whacked/smacked in Marlins Park this weekend will be white, dimpled golf balls.

Look from the stands and stare down on the field and you will see a nine-hole golf course where the infield and outfield used to be. The public can watch the strange scenario for $10 while people who want to play the nine holes will be paying $84 and upwards.

Feel free to wear knickers. Heck, wear a baseball uniform if you really want to combine the best of two sports worlds.

Golf in a baseball stadium might seem strange, but it apparently works.

A company called Stadiumlinks has turned that baseball-golf scenario into a business, and the Marlins event will be the 15th Stadiumlinks golf unveiling in various stadiums throughout the country.

Kevin Corrigan of Stadiumlinks oversees the operation, including him and his crew spending two full days growing and cutting grass and creating the golf holes.

Corrigan aptly qualifies for the job, playing baseball growing up and “being a bad golfer” now.

“I’m just having fun,” he added.

Not so much fun is your average Joe Bogey trying to master stadium golf.

Aiming for the holes is not that easy. All of the nine tee boxes are in the stadium seating area. That means you start at a height some 15 to 80 feet above the hole. Now, that’s what you call an elevated tee.

The holes are the same size as on a regular golf course, and there are large circles around them. Your score is determined by making a hole-in-one, hitting within the circle surrounding the hole, hitting onto the green (that’s par), missing the green, and — poor you — missing the entire playing field.

A golf course taking over a stadium isn’t the oddest thing that has ever happened at Marlins Park.

Two years ago, they held an auto race inside the ballpark, pitting world-class Formula 1 drivers and world-class NASCAR drivers on a mini-track.

Other stadium oddities include Monster Trucks, hosting the baseball All-Star Game, soccer matches, concerts, football (the now-gone Miami Beach Bowl), bar mitzvahs, weddings and birthdays.

Biggest birthday, without a doubt, was for Asahd, the 2-year-old son of DJ Khaleb. Asahd even had a ferris wheel erected on the field.

As Jon Erik Alvarez, the Marlins communication manager, understated, “We like keeping the stadium in use during the offseason.”

This story was originally published January 18, 2019 at 12:07 PM.