After First Time Wow, Blue Wahoos Bring Back Target Golf Experience For Weekend Showcase

One of the final players in the first target golf experience six weeks ago at Blue Wahoos Stadium provided the ultimate endorsement.

“I just played Topgolf in Atlanta. This is better,” he told Kyle Williamson, the Blue Wahoos ticket operations manager, during that Sunday afternoon as the four-day event wrapped up.

Such positive feedback has led to a quick return.

With later hours and Saturday night now an option, the Blue Wahoos in partnership with First Tee Gulf Coast, are re-hosting their “Eagles in the Outfield,” four-day, golf experience beginning Thursday at the same ballpark location.

Framed with Pensacola Bay as the backdrop, participants can reserve one-hour, time slots, to hit range golf balls from behind the center field and right field concourse toward various targets placed in the infield areas.

“I had been asked so many times that weekend about when are we doing it again,” Williamson said. “They would say, ‘Is this the only time you’re having this? Can we do it again?’ So that helped make it possible to bring it back a second time.

“The first time I didn’t really no want to expect and it definitely exceeded what I hoped for.”

Interest help drive the decision. More than 500 people from 85-plus reservations took aim with short golf shots at the first Eagles in the Outfield event. Targets are placed between 50 yards and 100 yards away.

First Tee Gulf Coast, which rebranded itself from First Tee of Northwest Florida, will again be donating golf clubs for use and receiving a portion of proceeds to put back into its organization. First Tee Gulf Coast is a thriving chapter in the First Tee national organization.

This time, due to public request, the hours for Eagles in the Outfield will be later in the evening to ensure cooler temperatures. Thursday’s first reservations are from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and will conclude with a 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. availability.

Reservations can be made on the Blue Wahoos website (www.bluewahoos.com).

On Friday and Saturday, the event will be 4 to 11 p.m., then 2:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday. When the first event was held in late July, it did not include Saturday night. The Blue Wahoos hosted a movie and fireworks show that night.

“Having Saturday night available is huge because I know we would have sold it out then,” Williamson said. “What was great the first time was people liked it so much they booked another hour right away. Even with it being 90 degrees or so in the afternoon, people had such a good time they wanted to do it for another hour.”

The golf balls for use are being donated from Pensacola Golf Center, the practice facility on Spanish Trail Road owned by PGA Tour star Bubba Watson. These are Titleist golf balls with his logo on the side. Titleist provided 3,000 golf balls.

“We’re very thankful for Bubba and what he’s done,” Williamson said. “People loved the golf balls. I got a lot of comments about Bubba’s logo.”

The Blue Wahoos patterned their own version of target golf around the trademark brand Topgolf experience, which includes music, food and beverages, and has locations in bigger cities across the nation.

The Blue Wahoos will have soft drinks and alcoholic beverages available at the Winn Dixie party deck area in right field.

“We had a little bit of everything the first time in terms of skill levels and ages of players,” Williamson said. “We had little kids or adults who were just hitting a golf ball for the first time and people who were advanced golfers. Probably about half the people brought their own clubs.”

The Blue Wahoos received a major boost from Camp Creek Golf Club, located near Panama City, which is again lending its range ball picker machine for the Blue Wahoos to use. The course is undergoing renovations and that has enabled the Blue Wahoos to use the machine.

It can pickup hundreds of golf balls within minutes.

“Moving forward, next year, that will be something we would need to figure out,” Williamson said. “It would take too long to pick up those golf balls by hand, so really need one of those range pickers to make it work for the quick turnarounds.”

But the event’s popularity makes in likely the Blue Wahoos will try and find a way to continue the target golf experience in future years.

This event is part of how the team has pivoted to various other ways of bringing fun, family events to Blue Wahoos Stadium this summer without a baseball season.

“Everybody has seemed to enjoy it,” Williamson said.

WANT TO GO?

WHAT: Eagles In The Outfield

WHEN: Thursday through Sunday (Sept. 10-13).

TEE TIMES: Thursday 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday from 2:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

WHERE: Blue Wahoos Stadium

COST: Reservations for groups of six are $120, groups of four are $80 and a limited number of single player reservations are available.

INFO: www.bluewahoos.com.

NOTE: Only short distance clubs (9-iron, pitching wedge, sand wedge) are needed. Longest target is 100 yards.