Disc Golf driving range

[SonicGuy]

Would you pay to use a disc golf driving range?

Imagine a plot of land identical to a traditional driving range, about 200' wide and 600' long, with teepads every 20'. You pay $X at the pro shop for a stack of discs. The range is covered by a retractable net that will collect the discs at the end of the day, so no retrieving your own discs.

Benefits: Ranges clearly marked, no retrieving discs, nice teepads for field work.
Problems: Not using own discs, limited mold selection

What do you think? Post your ideas for making it work or reasons this is a terrible idea.

 

[biscoe]

I own a farm so I personally have no need.

I also own a disc golf course on said farm- disc golfers are hard to convince they should pay to play a course- i would imagine they would be even harder to convince to pay to use a driving range. Not using your own discs is probably a deal breaker as well.

 

[Mike C]

No. I have a 500' wide x 575' long field really close to my house, and three backpacks full of drivers.

I'd pay if I didn't live near a suitable field, as long as the rates were reasonable and it wasn't so crowded I'd hear "FORE" while collecting my discs. I can't see a good way getting around the issue of collecting discs when every teepad has a thrower.

Quickest way to get me to pay for such a thing would be collecting the thrown discs for me

 

[SonicGuy]

I own a farm so I personally have no need.

I also own a disc golf course on said farm- disc golfers are hard to convince they should pay to play a course- i would imagine they would be even harder to convince to pay to use a driving range. Not using your own discs is probably a deal breaker as well.

I would personally enjoy using someone else's discs. I don't have 50 teebirds to throw, and chasing after the 9 I do own gets annoying. Also my birds are in various stages of wear, and I am constantly taking some out of the practice rotation out of fear they will beat out of the sweet spot. It would be hard to accept throwing FD's instead of TeeBirds though...

I hear you on the paid thing. I assume that will be the biggest hurdle.

 

[SonicGuy]

No. I have a 500' wide x 575' long field really close to my house, and three backpacks full of drivers.

I'd pay if I didn't live near a suitable field, as long as the rates were reasonable and it wasn't so crowded I'd hear "FORE" while collecting my discs.

Quickest way to get me to pay for such a thing would be collecting the thrown discs for me

So I am talking about a set disc selection at a clubhouse. You would not throw your own discs. You would not collect any discs. Just purchase and throw.

 

[thrembo]

Disc Golfers are historically cheap. I have giant underutilized soccer fields to practice on. Mt Airy has a nice set up with the net thing to practice throwing drives at. They also have a full service DG store and a free 4 star course on site.

 

[Mike C]

Yeah that'd have appeal for me. The thing I hate about fieldwork is only 1/3 of the time is spent throwing discs, the rest is spent collecting them.

 

[ThunderEagle]

I answered maybe before reading your post, just the poll description. I thought you might have meant an indoor range to practice when the weather was bad.

The problem I see is, too many disc molds out there. Which ones are you going to stock? What plastic? Even premium, they are going to beat in FAST, especially being retrieved by a machine. What is the pricing? Say I pay $10, what size stack of discs do I get? 10? 20? 50? Are they going to be a stack of Grooves?

Yes, I'd rather not have to chase my discs if I'm working on some form issues, or have to pay for a stack of premium plastics of {insert my main driver this week here} discs. However, there are a ton of baseball and soccer fields that I can use for free, and use the discs I'll actually be using on the course.

I just can't fathom how a disc golf range can make any money, especially if they are providing the discs.

 

[VictorB]

So I am talking about a set disc selection at a clubhouse. You would not throw your own discs. You would not collect any discs. Just purchase and throw.

They'd have to keep a significant number of a ton of discs...for example if I wasn't throwing my own discs, I'd want 50 TP giants between 167-171g. The specificity would probably price this out of my range. Shagging my own discs on a free field is ok because I get to learn and use my own discs that I will be carrying any given round.

 

[bradharris]

Field work for me is not just about locking in muscle memory. I also like being able to see my discs fly in the open to continue to build familiarity with them. Practicing with someone else's beat up loaners doesn't give me any of that benefit.

 

[SonicGuy]

Field work for me is not just about locking in muscle memory. I also like being able to see my discs fly in the open to continue to build familiarity with them. Practicing with someone else's beat up loaners doesn't give me any of that benefit.

True. The same applies ball golf. No real ball golfer can say that the range balls fly anywhere near to their game balls trajectory. The range is purely to work out high level form issues and build muscle memory.

To me there is a benefit to throwing 100 discs in a row as opposed to throwing 20 and taking the next ten minutes collecting them.

I am interested if you practice putt with your non putting putters. I know that I use every putter available to me to build more reps. If you do use putters not currently in your bag, how do you justify it for putting practice but not driving?

 

[RFrance]

I spend a lot of time (everyday) out on the field throwing discs. While much of that is working on form, I'm also learning better how the discs I bag fly. I'm also trying out other molds, both new and old, to see if they are going to find a spot in the bag. Using "range discs" just wouldn't be the same.

 

[Vonbeezy1]

Nope never ever ever

 

[Somebody Else]

 

[Broken Shoulder]

I want a disc golf simulator like they have for golf. I'd do that in the winter.

 

[roggenb3]

I would pay for this, but not a lot. $5 for 100 discs sounds reasonable. That's more throws than I get for $5 at a pay to play course.

The whole "not using my discs" thing is a non issue for me. When I do field work, 75% of the discs I bring are ones that typically just sit on my shelf or in a bag I am not using. Using unfamiliar discs doesn't negate the value of fieldwork - I can tell if my form was good or bad regardless of the disc. A lot of times I don't even watch the full flights during fieldwork, once it's released I know what I need to know from that throw.

Having 25/50/100 of the same mold would be awesome for fieldwork, as would not needing to spend 50% of my time picking up discs.

 

[SonicGuy]

I would pay for this, but not a lot. $5 for 100 discs sounds reasonable. That's more throws than I get for $5 at a pay to play course.
.

That is within the range of what I was thinking. I would personally be willing to pay $5 for 50.

What kind of disc variety would you need to have available?

 

[Vonbeezy1]

That is within the range of what I was thinking. I would personally be willing to pay $5 for 50.

What kind of disc variety would you need to have available?

I personally would need to have what I throw. Doesn't discnation have a driving range that you can test out discs on?

 

[bnbanbury]

I wouldn't care to use something like this. When I do field work I go to a field near the house that I have taken the time to stake out distances on and even when I have 50 discs on me they are all either from my bag or are backups that cycle into my bag.

 

[dbaledge]

The market isn't big enough, the community as a whole is cheap, and the overhead will be to great. 10 tee pads at say $10 a piece is obviously $100 however say you give each person 50 discs for $10 and you buy each disc for $15, you're spending $740 a person in discs. Times 10 people that's $7400 in discs being thrown at a time, you would have to see 740 customers before you break even, and the disc will need to be replaced before you see 740 people. All of this is at hypothetical numbers, however people will want bang for their buck, my professional business opinion is that it isn't sustainable.