2012 Best Places List

[Steve West]

I've updated my computations of disc golf service levels with data as of 1/12/2012 from here.

Here are the top 58 "mountain-tops". These are places where the service level comes to a local maximum.

The service level can be thought of as how many 18-hole courses (or the equivalent) a person living there has available to play nearby.

Favorite Nearby Course would be the course that a person living there would play most frequently, either because it is big and close or just very close.

Rank. City, State Zip (Favorite Nearby Course) = Service Level

1. Bartlett, IL 60103 (Sunrise Park) = 5.34
2. St Paul, MN 55116 (Kaposia Park) = 5.24
3. Charlotte, NC 28210 (Elon Park) = 5.09
4. Homer Glen, IL 60491 (The Oaks) = 4.96
5. Dexter, MI 48130 (Hudson Mills Metropark) = 5.08
6. Grayslake, IL 60030 (Fairfield Park) = 4.90
7. Germantown, OH 45327 (Twin Creek) = 4.96
8. Grand Rapids Charter Township, MI 49508 (Earl W. Brewer Park) = 4.99
9. Milwaukee, WI 53224 (Dretzka Park) = 4.89
10. Coplay, PA 18037 (Blue Mountain) = 4.71
11. Augusta, MI 49012 (Fort Custer Rec. Area DGC) = 4.63
12. Gardiner, ME 04345 (LaVallee Links Disc Golf) = 4.53
13. Kansas City, MO 64111 (Rosedale Park) = 4.53
14. Round Rock, TX 78681 (Brushy Creek MUD DGC) = 4.52
15. Appleton, WI 54911 (Plamann Apple Creek 18) = 4.58
16. Rock Island, IL 61201 (Camden Park) = 4.52
17. Coppell, TX 75019 (Andrew Brown Park) = 4.46
18. Lancaster, PA 17602 (Beaver Creek Mini DGC) = 4.42
19. Tulsa, OK 74107 (Chandler Park) = 4.34
20. Arvada, CO 80005 (Bird's Nest Disc Park) = 4.36
21. Westerville, OH 43081 (Brent Hambrick Memorial DGC) = 4.31
22. Houston, TX 77045 (Tom Bass Regional Park) = 4.28
23. Cary, NC 27511 (Avalon Peaks) = 4.09
24. Spring, TX 77389 (Spring Valley DGC) = 4.10
25. Indianapolis, IN 46280 (Sahm Park) = 4.03
26. Cedar Rapids, IA 52401 (Shaver Park) = 4.05
27. Cleveland, WI 53015 (LTC Cleveland) = 4.00
28. Ludington, MI 49431 (Mason County Park) = 4.10
29. Machesney Park, IL 61115 (Anna Page Park) = 3.94
30. Bowling Green, KY 42103 (Kereiakes Park) = 4.06
31. Peru, IN 46970 (Pieradise DGC) = 3.97
32. Charlotte, MI 48813 (Lincoln Park) = 3.91
33. Washington, IL 61571 (Illinois Central College DGC) = 3.91
34. Hockessin, DE 19707 (Anson Nixon Park) = 3.87
35. Wellsville, PA 17365 (Pinchot State Park) = 3.95
36. Spring Grove, PA 17362 (Codorus State Park) = 3.92
37. Asheville, NC 28806 (Enka High School DGC) = 3.84
38. Tupelo, MS 38804 (Tombigbee State Park) = 3.81
39. Eau Claire, WI 54703 (Tower Ridge Park) = 3.78
40. Baltimore, MD 21211 (Druid Hill Park) = 3.87
41. Oxford, MA 01537 (Buffumville Lake) = 3.83
42. North Plains, OR 97133 (Horning's Hideout) = 3.84
43. North Canton, OH 44720 (Arboretum) = 3.84
44. Des Moines, IA 50317 (Grandview Park) = 3.77
45. Clearwater, MN 55320 (Sportsmans Hill) = 3.72
46. San Antonio, TX 78233 (Live Oak City Park) = 3.68
47. Sand City, CA 93955 (CSUMB) = 3.74
48. Seneca, SC 29678 (University Beach DGC) = 3.68
49. Seattle, WA 98146 (Lakewood King County Park) = 3.71
50. High Bridge, WI 54846 (Highbridge Hills) = 3.77
51. La Mirada, CA 90638 (La Mirada Regional Park) = 3.60
52. Nicholasville, KY 40356 (Riney B DGC) = 3.71
53. Mobile, AL 36618 (Chickasabouge County Park) = 3.56
54. Orchard Park, NY 14127 (Chestnut Ridge) = 3.54
55. North Potomac, MD 20878 (Seneca Creek State Park) = 3.57
56. Spotsylvania, VA 22551 (The Blockhouse) = 3.58
57. Greenville, SC 29614 (Timmons Park) = 3.58
58. Huntsville, AL 35806 (Redstone Arsenal) = 3.51

 

[holotone]

Excellent info - Thanks for crunching the numbers! I'd really like to see something like this that accounted for each course's rating as well.

 

[sloppydisc]

Thanks for the work, but Avalon Peaks in Cary, NC is a joke. Nobody locally plays there. Strange. And Elon in Charlotte?? That seems odd. Enka in Asheville and Druid in Baltimore wouldn't be places people would prefer. Statistics are tricky I guess.

 

[New013]

Thanks for the work, but Avalon Peaks in Cary, NC is a joke. Nobody locally plays there. Strange.

yea Avalon is baskets randomly dropped in to a field... i'm surprised Cary made the list... how far does your service level reach outside of a zip code?

 

[mashnut]

Three spots in Chicagoland on that list, we make do with quantity over quality!

 

[The Ox]

Crunch those numbers again. Elon, really ? Ever heard of Renny, or Hornets Nest ?

 

[Jukeshoe]

Say what now?

 

[bholy08]

Surprised Mobile is so low...they are pretty dominant when it comes to the numbeer of courses. I couldn't imagine living in one of the areas at the top of the list!

 

[tmahan]

Thanks for the work, but Avalon Peaks in Cary, NC is a joke. Nobody locally plays there. Strange. And Elon in Charlotte?? That seems odd. Enka in Asheville and Druid in Baltimore wouldn't be places people would prefer. Statistics are tricky I guess.

Druid's a nice course. It's got tough competition with Patapsco and Rockburn nearby but it's definitely worthy. I wonder if the Baltimore score included these along with Lake Montebello (new). And if you're including mini 18 hole courses in the count then Blockhouse has 4 by itself, with two more in the same zip code (I think).

 

[Cgkdisc]

Kind of surprised there's not a location near Augusta, GA at least somewhere in the top 58.

 

[New013]

Seems like Rock Hill would be on here.

 

[GLong]

...and Druid in Baltimore wouldn't be places people would prefer. Statistics are tricky I guess.

WTF are you talking about? have you played druid? it's the most popular course in the state as far as traffic goes. the weekly event has more annual attendance than all the other weeklies in the state combined!

 

[1978]

Thanks for the work, but Avalon Peaks in Cary, NC is a joke. Nobody locally plays there. Strange. And Elon in Charlotte?? That seems odd. Enka in Asheville and Druid in Baltimore wouldn't be places people would prefer. Statistics are tricky I guess.

Elon probably gets the most play, by numbers. Reedy next, Bailey and Bradford get more play than people realize. kilborne, Sugaw right behind them.

 

[1978]

Crunch those numbers again. Elon, really ? Ever heard of Renny, or Hornets Nest ?

Those courses are Charlotte's best, but not actually the most played. With elon's 2 courses and 3 layouts... It is one of the most chosen..Reedy Creek right behind it. I am unsure what the OP's criteria was.

 

[NDABRUSH]

I am a little slow. This service rating is based on the number of surrounding courses, not quality... right? Just figured this because Tom Bass in Houston is not highly rated and length is all they(2 courses on site) have going for them. Thanks for the number crunching though.

 

[aPfaff]

Sweet I see Spotsy Made the list.

 

[Steve West]

Excellent info - Thanks for crunching the numbers! I'd really like to see something like this that accounted for each course's rating as well.

Including Ratings wouldn't change things much. A course's rating may impact how often a particular course is played, but it won't have much impact on how often a particular disc golfer living in a certain location goes out and plays, which is what I'm after.

Anyway, in previous work, I could not find a correlation between Rating and activity that was independent of course features. I could use rating instead of number of holes, but using both would be redundant.

Thanks for the work, but Avalon Peaks in Cary, NC is a joke. Nobody locally plays there. Strange. And Elon in Charlotte?? That seems odd. Enka in Asheville and Druid in Baltimore wouldn't be places people would prefer. Statistics are tricky I guess.

yea Avalon is baskets randomly dropped in to a field... i'm surprised Cary made the list... how far does your service level reach outside of a zip code?

Crunch those numbers again. Elon, really ? Ever heard of Renny, or Hornets Nest ?

Remember this is a list of best places to live, not busiest courses.

The favorite courses are only "favorite" for players living in that one particular spot. That spot just happens to be really close to these particular courses.

I only included the course names as another indicator of where the spot is.

yea Avalon is baskets randomly dropped in to a field... i'm surprised Cary made the list... how far does your service level reach outside of a zip code?

The measure of Service Level includes all courses in North America. The closer and bigger a course is, the more it is expected to be played.

Kind of surprised there's not a location near Augusta, GA at least somewhere in the top 58.

Close. If I hadn't gotten bored, it might have made the list.

??. North Augusta, SC 29841 (Riverview Park) = 3.42

Seems like Rock Hill would be on here.

It's on the flanks of the Charlotte "peak".

I am a little slow. This service rating is based on the number of surrounding courses, not quality... right? Just figured this because Tom Bass in Houston is not highly rated and length is all they(2 courses on site) have going for them. Thanks for the number crunching though.

Number, size, and distance. The Houston peak is within 5 miles of the 36 holes at Tom Bass, so that would get people there out to play a lot. The dozens of other courses around there will, too.

 

[DGRZ001]

The only one to come up in DFW, Andrew Brown Park in Coppell, is one of the worst courses in the whole area!

 

[412Disc]

thanks

 

[scarpfish]

Steve, I would assume that if a course has a somewhat centralized location compared to other courses around it, it has a higher probability of ending up as a "favorite nearby course" as opposed to perhaps one that is in actual practice a better quality and busier course that happens to be out on the fringe of one of these hotspots?

I noticed this with respect to some cities on the list that I've played in, namely Kansas City and Des Moines. Chandler Park coming up for Tulsa I'll admit is weird, but perhaps because there are two courses there is weighing things in its favor. Same thing for Rosedale.

This perhaps explains why we're seeing cases where the "favorite nearby course" is a stinker in the minds of people who have played in those cities.