Disc Golf in Finland

[Steve West]

...there will be 1,000 new DG courses until the end of 2019.

I just had a vision of you herding designers around the country like they were reindeer, leaving the earth covered with disc golf courses behind them.


Uh, do you need another reindeer?

 

[Discette]

From what I understand, Seppo Niemenen should get a lot of credit for laying down the foundation for growth in Finland over the past 35 years.

Sorry Chuck. While Seppo may have laid the foundation, the boost in disc golf in Finland is due to the efforts of Jussi and Discgolfpark.

According to the DGCR database there were only 31 courses (of 275 listed) installed in Finland from 1975 to 2006. According to Jussi, there are now 428 courses in Finland.

Seppo 31 new courses in 31 years
Jussi 397 new courses in 8 years

 

[Cgkdisc]

I simply said Seppo established the foundation, not the recent growth. Without Seppo and his connection with Steady Ed giving his blessing on duplicating the pole hole design for use in Finland, Jussi may not have been inspired to take it to another level.

 

[ru4por]

Sorry Chuck. While Seppo may have laid the foundation, the boost in disc golf in Finland is due to the efforts of Jussi and Discgolfpark.

According to the DGCR database there were only 31 courses (of 275 listed) installed in Finland from 1975 to 2006. According to Jussi, there are now 428 courses in Finland.

Seppo 31 new courses in 31 years
Jussi 397 new courses in 8 years

There are currently only 274 courses listed here. Why don't we get Jussi to provide some info, so golfers can play any of the courses he has help get in the ground?

 

[Aim For The Chains]

the single biggest reason is that Finland is a relatively sparsely populated country with plenty of public land that isn't spoken for by any particular interest group. This means that it is relatively easy to convince the municipalities/local councils to put courses in the ground. Especially given how cheap it is.

that's how I saw it just looking at the numbers. If no one lived in Califronia im sure there would be many more DG courses there. Most major cities are dry of DG compared to a place like the Twin Cities and few others.

 

[timg]

There are currently only 274 courses listed here. Why don't we get Jussi to provide some info, so golfers can play any of the courses he has help get in the ground?

That would be great. A friend and I are looking into a possible disc golf trip to Finland next year. Having all the courses listed and current would definitely help.

 

[Jouni]

Most of the Finnish courses are listed at PDGA.com, someone updated all the courses there last summer. There is also Finnish site with additional details of courses, like maps and hole descriptions, but that is unfortunately not available in english: http://frisbeegolfradat.fi/radat/

 

[RistoS]

How long is the comfortable playing season over there. April through October?

Pretty much, snow is gone from the south usually in mid-April. In November it's not snow that's the problem, but decreasing daylight.

 

[timg]

If anyone is looking for some money on the side to help fill in the missing Finnish and Swedish courses on DGCR please send a PM my way.

 

[justdmg]

Completely random, but there are also some unfilled courses in Iceland.

http://www.folf.is/?page_id=37 has maps for most of the courses. Not sure about directions/geolocation.

[email protected] is the contact email, google translate does a semi-decent job of getting the idea of the site across.

 

[timg]

I added most of the Finnish courses that were missing over the past week or so... that was exciting. These Icelandic courses would be tough... kind of useless without geolocation data though.

 

[Doofenshmirtz]

We try to be a "Germany of Disc Golf"

Wait. What is Germany the "Germany" of?

 

[Cgkdisc]

Perhaps as in Fourth Reich?

 

[Mocheez]

Wait. What is Germany the "Germany" of?

I was thinking the same thing. Was that a WWII reference?

 

[timg]

Well the Icelandic courses are easier to find than I thought... most of these cities are pretty small. Almost done

 

[RistoS]

I was thinking the same thing. Was that a WWII reference?

Germany is currently the biggest financial might in Europe so I guess that's where he took the reference from.

 

[Steve West]

I added most of the Finnish courses that were missing over the past week or so... that was exciting. These Icelandic courses would be tough... kind of useless without geolocation data though.

If the other end of that email address doesn't help, I'll find the lat/lon. Akranes – Garðalundur is 64.322605, -22.033650.

 

[timg]

I got that one Steve. The only one I couldn't get out of that list was Miðhúsaskógur (við Laugarvatn), the rest I've already added and/or updated so Iceland is pretty much complete on the site. I just fudged one on some island that you needed to take a ferry too, I assume you could ask someone or it's right there somewhere (no map on the site).

 

[joecoin]

I don't know, looks kinda crowded:
http://frisbeegolfradat.fi/frisbeegolfradat-kartalla/

 

[jedeye]

Wait. What is Germany the "Germany" of?

Football (soccer), the biggest sport in the world - they just dominated the World Cup (my guess)