I was out of town going to play disc golf in New Jersey! I got to the course and played through hole 6 at Field of Dreams disc golf course before being pulled aside telling me I can't play due to a tournament. Well of course had I known an active tournament was going on I would have avoided the course altogether but there was no signage. The director said he ran out of ink. Oh well..I mentioned DGR and he looked at me with a blank stare like he never heard of it. He only knew of Udisc which I'm not really a fan of but if that's the new way to go then I will adjust. I was baffled by his response of never hearing about DGR. Is Udisc the best thing now to use or document courses? Just looking for opinions or thoughts while providing a background to my situation I was faced with yesterday.
Welcome! Being that this is DGCR, you will undoubtedly get biased responses.
In general, I second what ru4por said. I use DGCR the most, but UDisc and DGScene are both also useful resources.
UDisc = best for:
- Seeing what courses exist (it has the largest user base by far plus no real standards or quality control, so the result is the largest directory of disc golf places).
- Knowing what the course conditions are likely to be before visiting a course (again, due to it having the largest user base).
- Getting a map of the course via the layout section. Many new courses do not have maps or navigational signage available on site, because they assume that people will be using UDisc. I think it's common to encounter newer/local players or course staff who only know of UDisc, as you did.
DGCR = best for:
- Getting quality information about courses. On UDisc, you'll rarely find a course rated below about 3.5 out of 5, and rarely find a review that is more than a couple of sentences long. Here, you can expect ratings that use the entire 0-5 scale plus lengthy, in-depth reviews backing those ratings up that often go into detail about the hole design, course infrastructure, etc.
- Planning a trip. Because the reviews and ratings are higher quality, the result is that it is a lot easier to determine which courses are the best in the area. You can also read a few reviews here and actually know what to expect from an area's courses ahead of time. Is the course a hilly workout, or an easy walk in the park that you could bring a non-DGer to? Is the cell service spotty? Good DGCR reviews often cover that sort of detailed information.
DGScene = best for:
- Getting tournament and league schedules. I now check UDisc for this as well, but like ru4por said at least around here in Michigan DGScene is still the most reliable place to see if there is going to be a league or tournament conflicting with the day/time that I want to visit a course.
Hope that helps!
