Disc Golf, Foot Golf, *stick* golf - How Much Would You Pay?

[davetherocketguy]

I'll gladly play $20 for DG but boy it better be an awesome DG experience especially with the plethora of free courses out there. IMHO the course needs to be at least 4.0 rated, pro shop, CLEAN bathrooms (porta jons don't count), and all the other amenities like benches, concrete pads, mowed fairways, thin shule, good baskets, multiple pins and/or multiple pads, a beer cart would be a plus and so would golf carts.

Then again...I think the price point is going to depend on what region you are in. If you are in an area - let's say Ludington, MI for example - where there are some (almost) free and awesome courses in the vicinity one would be hard pressed to come up with a course that is good enough to draw people for $20. It would have to be something special. Now, if you are right in Chicago and can somehow magically conjure up enough land for a 2.5 rated 18 hole course $20 all of the sudden seems reasonable in an area that is peppered with crappy 9 hole courses. Heck, $40 for something like that in that area and some folks around there aren't even going to bat an eye.

 

[lavon_andy]

I'd pay up to $40 for a round, including the cart cost.

up to $20 without a cart

Course must be well manicured, offer lots of shade, access to restrooms every 9 holes and be alcohol friendly.

I'd probably pay for a round maybe once a week or once every two weeks. The rest of my time would be spent at free parks.

 

[Doofenshmirtz]

. . . there is no way in hell I'm going to pay $20 for a round of disc golf on a golf course!!!

This is, ultimately, the problem with trying to grow disc golf. If you are not willing to pay for nice things, you won't get them. $10 is perfectly reasonable for a round of disc golf at any good course. $20 is more than reasonable for a round at a great course.

Building a top level disc golf course on prime land close to populated areas is probably just too expensive to justify for a $5 per day fee unless you already own the land and just don't care how much you could get for it or unless it is a secondary use (like ski slope courses). It also isn't going to help if there are a lot of mediocre courses nearby that charge nothing.

So if you don't want to pay enough to make a private course feasible, be satisfied with mediocre courses that charge nothing.

 

[jrawk]

nevermind.... i better not share this stuff yet.

 

[jrawk]

^to explain, today i received an email from our Parks department informing me of a public request asking for Footgolf be integrated into our disc golf course. If anybody wants to see my response, if it helps you, PM me and i'll forward you the email chain.

 

[Dan Ensor]

I've payed quite a bit for golf. I'd easily pay $20 for disc golf. I wouldn't play foot golf.

Say it's the best DG course ever, and maintained like it's the best:
I'd pay $50 or more (extra for a caddy), and cart fees.

 

[lavon_andy]

I look at it from a business stand point.

At $20 a round, it will not be a "go play dg every day all day at this course" type of course. It will likely be a course that gets played once a week by most people. There is no way a private course could afford to offer ANY amenities and only charge $5 without having multiple revenue streams.

Selah you end up paying about $40 to play (10-20 for a day of golf, 20 per cart). Over a weekend it cost me and my wife close to $200 to camp two nights and play DG two days with carts. Totally worth it, would it happen every day? Hell no.

 

[ejvogie]

...public request asking for Footgolf be integrated into our disc golf course.

I could see this working on an open course, but even slightly wooded seems like it would pose problems.

 

[Dan Ensor]

I look at it from a business stand point.

At $20 a round, it will not be a "go play dg every day all day at this course" type of course. It will likely be a course that gets played once a week by most people. There is no way a private course could afford to offer ANY amenities and only charge $5 without having multiple revenue streams.

Selah you end up paying about $40 to play (10-20 for a day of golf, 20 per cart). Over a weekend it cost me and my wife close to $200 to camp two nights and play DG two days with carts. Totally worth it, would it happen every day? Hell no.

What about a $1000 or so yearly membership? Especially with a nice club house, etc. Driving range with range discs. the works

 

[zgmc]

We need to take down footgolf before its to late. I'm sorry, but footgolf is just dumb.

 

[fritothedog]

My question is this: is it fair for people to use a stick golf course and not pay what a stick golfer would pay? I would say it isn't because you are using the same facilities. I suppose a disc isn't going to leave a divot like a club can. Still, I would say same facilities should mean same price. How much is stick golf at that course, OP?

 

[Doofenshmirtz]

That's where you lost me. It's called Golf. It existed before disc golf and foot golf.

Can we please end this annoying trend of trying to qualify golf with an additional adjective?

It won't end, no matter how stupid it is, because of the insecurities of the people who are afraid that the use of the unqualified "golf" for its actual meaning somehow makes "disc golf" sound inferior.

That, or its like the people who continually refer to Mexico as "Old Mexico" without realizing how silly it makes them sound.

 

[JC17393]

My question is this: is it fair for people to use a stick golf course and not pay what a stick golfer would pay? I would say it isn't because you are using the same facilities. I suppose a disc isn't going to leave a divot like a club can. Still, I would say same facilities should mean same price. How much is stick golf at that course, OP?

I think it depends. If the disc course is following the same route as the ball course (same tees, basket set up just off the greens), then yeah, same price for either. But I've played disc golf at a ball golf course where the disc course didn't share much space at all with the ball course. Different activity using a different part of the property = different prices.

There's also the speed of play factor. You can put a lot more disc golfers through the course in a given day than ball golfers. In the time it takes a ball foursome to play 18, a disc foursome might get 27 holes or even a full 36. In that sense, disc being half the price of ball is justifiable.

 

[knettles]

I might pay somewhere around $20 for a really nice course... once. But given I don't have a huge salary, I have to watch my expenses and couldn't afford a course like that often. I could do $5 more often, but would still probably stick to the free courses most the time.

As for foot golf goes, I'd like to play it once just to see what it's like. Doubt I would pay to play it more than that tho.

 

[Loomis]

The future of the sport is pay-to-play. Recreational and free disc golf is a great selling point to the game but without a professional side to the sport it's future will be under supported. We will continue to be reliant on others to sustain us. This undermines the sport's image.

If you've ever had to go to a city hall meeting and try to explain to the city officials why they should support putting in a disc golf course in one of their parks, then you know what I'm talking about. Most of the time they look at you like you're insane. You have to bust out a bunch of stats about how many people play the sport, etc. and if you're lucky, you get their support and a course. This sort of begging and pleading makes us dependent on outsiders to keep the sport alive. These municipalities pay for the mowing, tee signs, baskets, pads and other essential components and we use the justification of "well, it's our park too." True. That's true. It is our park and we do deserve some input on what goes into the parks. But the parks are never under our control. They get torn out for water mains. They get removed when someone asks for a running path, a new jungle gym, or when a parent thinks that the disc golf discs are flying to close to their son's soccer game. We have to make peace with other people using the park and this can interrupt tournaments. I believe we saw this year in Texas at the NT.

It's a great feeling to have a municipality on board, but there needs to be some autonomy in our sport. We shouldn't have to rely on outsiders to keep the sport alive. We will have to seek out private land for private courses, which will require private upkeep. This means the sport will need a source of revenue to keep it alive and that means charging players to play.

We have done a great job of avoiding this step in most of disc golf's history. There have been a lot of private courses which have opened around the world with great success and there have been a few which failed. Still, this is the way it will have to be. Private courses, pay to play, and a sense of peace knowing that we do not have to worry about outside influence.

Someday a municipality is going to figure out that they can charge people to play on the courses the same way they charge soccer clubs to use the soccer fields, and then what will we do? I believe Minnesota already charges people to play, and so do a few courses in California.

Pay to play. The long term success of the sport depends on it.

 

[knettles]

I think it depends. If the disc course is following the same route as the ball course (same tees, basket set up just off the greens), then yeah, same price for either. But I've played disc golf at a ball golf course where the disc course didn't share much space at all with the ball course. Different activity using a different part of the property = different prices.

There's also the speed of play factor. You can put a lot more disc golfers through the course in a given day than ball golfers. In the time it takes a ball foursome to play 18, a disc foursome might get 27 holes or even a full 36. In that sense, disc being half the price of ball is justifiable.

Sorry, I just don't agree with that. The two activities are very different even if they do follow the same route. I'd pay more to drive a Ferrari around a racetrack than I would to drive my Mazda around the same track. (I'm not saying golf is better, just making a point.)

 

[Old_Fella]

My question is this: is it fair for people to use a stick golf course and not pay what a stick golfer would pay? I would say it isn't because you are using the same facilities. I suppose a disc isn't going to leave a divot like a club can. Still, I would say same facilities should mean same price. How much is stick golf at that course, OP?

$32 and $47 with cart.

 

[Halcón]

We need to take down footgolf before its to late. I'm sorry, but footgolf is just dumb.

http://www.afgl.us/thesport.html

Because of soccer's worldwide popularity, I could see foot golf becoming huge.

As for the OP's question, I'd pay $20 for a round of DG, on a really nice course, with all the trimmings. But that might only be a couple times a year.

 

[Tfire25]

What about a $1000 or so yearly membership? Especially with a nice club house, etc. Driving range with range discs. the works

I don't think the majority would pay this. I would pay 20$ a day to play somewhere once every 2 weeks or so but it would have to be a really nice course.

 

[zgmc]

http://www.afgl.us/thesport.html

Because of soccer's worldwide popularity, I could see foot golf becoming huge.

I know. It could happen. They will take over our courses. Or, they will pick up a disc and ditch the stupid ball once they realize how awesome disc golf is. Could go either way:\