Grow the sport you say?

[ray1970]

Experienced my first real look at the growth of the sport over the weekend.

We started early like we usually do and moved right along. Around hole 13 you could look back behind us and it looked like ants crawling everywhere. A group finishing up on hole 14 approached us staring at their phones and looking confused. Asked them what they were looking for and they said hole 13's tee pad. I guess they played 14's basket from the 12 pad? When we got to 17 before we could tee off two guys approached the amateur pad (which nobody uses) and teed off so we had to wait for them to finish out before we teed off. The group that was looking for 13's pad earlier teed off from the amateur pad as well behind us. Also saw a couple of guys standing on one of the pads for a very long time trying to see where the basket was. It is a blind shot so you can't see it from the pad but they stood there looking so long that my group played two full holes before those guys ever threw.
A guy teeing off on an adjacent hole sent a 150' forehand with a Colosus out along the right side of his fairway nearly hitting my buddy on our tee pad. Nobody shouted fore or heads up or anything and it was pretty close. Played through a group of eight people but at least they seemed to realize they were taking forever and offered for us to play through.

 

[ChrisWoj]

Sounds like you experienced your first real look at new players trying to deal with a course with ****ty signage.

 

[VictorB]

We won't know if this is the new normal or not until next year, I'd wager.

If it is the new normal, cities that don't charge to play are going to see how much extra money cities that do are getting with passes/green fees. More courses will be pay to play in the next couple years if this growth is actually permanent. But, if it is, and more courses charge a daily fee, we should also see more courses pop up due to that.

 

[Jay Dub]

I am spending about 10% of my time on the course directing new players. I have talked with younger new players that had all the equipment, threw well yet didn't know we had so many courses and organizations in this area. They have no idea about Mcbeth, Paige or Climo.

They are literally coming out of every where.

 

[Um...]

Experienced a similar scene this weekend. Since the weather was nice out, the course was an absolute circus. People wandering around everywhere, huge groups of newbies, and abnormal backups. Two groups of people especially stood out...

The first was an older couple that you could tell were old school players. The gentleman had a well worn Revo bag and was wearing a tournament sweatshirt from 2011. His partner was similarly decked out in vintage gear... neither looked like they'd be lost and wandering around, but that's just what they were doing. At one point they were loitering around behind me and my buddy, so we asked if they needed help navigating. The woman responds, "No. This is our home course and we've played here for years. We're just trying to find a place to sneak in between all these crowds of people." Uh, what?? The place was CLEARLY packed and yet they're still self entitled enough to believe they could just "sneak in"?? Lame.

The second was a group of three late HS/early college guys who magically appeared behind us around hole 13. At this point my buddy and I were more than well aware of the groups ahead and behind us and the pace of play, which was obviously painfully slow. We throw our drives, and as we're walking off one of the guys snidely says, "Hey, you know you could let us play through." I turned back and asked if the group behind us (which was a family playing for the first time ever) let them play through. Another guy in the group says, "No. We got tired of waiting on 7 so we just came over here. We throw fast so we'll be past you quick." :| At that point I patiently tried to explain flow of play, being backed up, not cutting through when the course is packed... you know, basic etiquette, and was (no joke) immediately met with the obligatorily idiotic default "Ok, boomer", to which I promptly turned my back on and went on about the round. Next hole and now we're backed up by the two large groups we knew were ahead of us, and here comes the idiot squad. At this point, they're obviously not comfortable with waiting at all so they go up to the group that's waiting to tee off and ask if they can play through... inevitable commentary sparks and the next thing these dudes are walking off the course yelling at 3 groups of people that they're "not cool for not letting us play through."

I've always been a proponent of pay to play and high difficulty courses because it mostly weeds these types out, but based on this weekend's experience, there are definitely challenges ahead with the growth of the game on the more accessible courses.

 

[autocrosscrx]

It obviously becomes chaos in that scenario, but as a solo player, I don't really get the strong objection to trying to find a spot.

A while back, there were 12 people with bags at the first tee. I walked around and saw that 2, 3, 4 were empty and a group was putting out on 5. I skipped to 2, caught the group at hole 7 or so, played through, and nobody caught up to me until 16, which was really backed up, and I ended up just bailing on my round at that point.

I play another 9 hole course where you can see all 9 holes. Again, there was a group on 1, so I skipped over to 3. Never had issues.

I skip around all the time and it sometimes bothers some people even though I never make them wait. I don't get it.

 

[ru4por]

It obviously becomes chaos in that scenario, but as a solo player, I don't really get the strong objection to trying to find a spot.

A while back, there were 12 people with bags at the first tee. I walked around and saw that 2, 3, 4 were empty and a group was putting out on 5. I skipped to 2, caught the group at hole 7 or so, played through, and nobody caught up to me until 16, which was really backed up, and I ended up just bailing on my round at that point.

I play another 9 hole course where you can see all 9 holes. Again, there was a group on 1, so I skipped over to 3. Never had issues.

I skip around all the time and it sometimes bothers some people even though I never make them wait. I don't get it.

I don't think you are talking about a full course. The issue comes into play when there are no gaps and player jump onto holes. Jumping onto holes on a full course slows the pace of play on the whole course. Otherwise the wait is contained to the first hole. The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few.....maybe that helps.

Around here, in addition to the explosion of new player (particularly families with small kids), the problem is exacerbated by the start of the tournament season. Now a couple courses in an area are closed and full with a tournament, making the third course a nightmare.

 

[txmxer]

It obviously becomes chaos in that scenario, but as a solo player, I don't really get the strong objection to trying to find a spot.

A while back, there were 12 people with bags at the first tee. I walked around and saw that 2, 3, 4 were empty and a group was putting out on 5. I skipped to 2, caught the group at hole 7 or so, played through, and nobody caught up to me until 16, which was really backed up, and I ended up just bailing on my round at that point.

I play another 9 hole course where you can see all 9 holes. Again, there was a group on 1, so I skipped over to 3. Never had issues.

I skip around all the time and it sometimes bothers some people even though I never make them wait. I don't get it.

We start early on Saturday (6:30). Our first 3-4 holes we play with glow tape or glow discs. On a few rare occasions, we've had people jump in and start on 10 as we are playing 9. We aren't setting any land speed records, but we generally play pretty quick. I don't care if folks jump ahead, but when they start throwing 2-3 discs off the tee pad we end up waiting on them and that's annoying.

Basically, if it is busy on the course, people shouldn't throw a bunch of mulligans.

 

[Um...]

Skipping around when there's room enough to skip around is one thing, especially if you're playing solo. At a course where you're going to inevitably interrupt groups that have been waiting and have settled into their place in the line of play, it's a dick move.

Of course YMMV based on demographics. I happened to have grown up in and now live in two very disc golf heavy scenes where when it's noticeably crowded, it's NOTICEABLY crowded. If you're able to navigate when it's nominally crowded, cool.. it's just not always an option where I'm at.

 

[autocrosscrx]

I don't think you are talking about a full course. The issue comes into play when there are no gaps and player jump onto holes. Jumping onto holes on a full course slows the pace of play on the whole course. Otherwise the wait is contained to the first hole. The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few.....maybe that helps.

Around here, in addition to the explosion of new player (particularly families with small kids), the problem is exacerbated by the start of the tournament season. Now a couple courses in an area are closed and full with a tournament, making the third course a nightmare.

I've never really seen a totally full course. There are usually 2 or 3 massive backups and a few multiple hole gaps. I also don't bother to play popular courses during peak times.

There always seems to be a big backup at 16 at one course I play. Holes 16-18 go back and forth. If I get to 16 and I see 12 people waiting and no one is on the fairway or at the basket on 17, then I walk over to 18, play that one real quick, then call it a day. Some people don't like that, which I don't get. It doesn't slow anyone down in any way.

 

[Moose33]

At Oregon Park league in 2014/5 used to have maybe 30/40 people any given night and on the few occasions I played glow more like 15/20. One time I played and there were 7 of us.

All this winter glow league was at least 46 players and the highest was over 80. And that was for glow dubs on a weeknight.

Most tournaments around here are selling out in less than 48 hours and recently it's been more like 2-3 minutes. One at little mulberry sold out in something like 90 seconds for 50ish spots.

We've been out there playing for years and the sport has grown like crazy around us...

 

[oldmandiscer]

I was playing in a little tournament last year and ran into a bizarre newbie scenario. The course wasn't closed because the event only took up not even half the course, probably 6 holes. Shotgun morning round start on the weekend. When we got to hole 6 this lady comes strolling down with three kids about 10-12 y/o, each had one disc and she didn't have any. She asked where hole 7 was.

I'm just thinking what the heck he she doing out here? She goes to the tee in front of us and starts playing because the tourney group in front of us let them in. Maybe they felt sorry for her that she had no clue to start on hole 1? It was a slow round.

Take the kids to a park lady, not the toughest course in the state on a weekend and start on hole 7.

 

[Tinkles]

At Oregon Park league in 2014/5 used to have maybe 30/40 people any given night and on the few occasions I played glow more like 15/20. One time I played and there were 7 of us.

All this winter glow league was at least 46 players and the highest was over 80. And that was for glow dubs on a weeknight.

Most tournaments around here are selling out in less than 48 hours and recently it's been more like 2-3 minutes. One at little mulberry sold out in something like 90 seconds for 50ish spots.

We've been out there playing for years and the sport has grown like crazy around us...

2 years ago at ERP Monday night league 20 was a big night, last year 30 was big, this year we opened with 44, then 52, then 61. I won't even consider Oregon unless it's an 8am round or middle of the day on a weekday. It's full of 10somes on weekends now.

We're at this point of growth where the infrastructure is probably going to lag for a few years. Hopefully more courses pop up to meet demand.

 

[Moose33]

2 years ago at ERP Monday night league 20 was a big night, last year 30 was big, this year we opened with 44, then 52, then 61. I won't even consider Oregon unless it's an 8am round or middle of the day on a weekday. It's full of 10somes on weekends now.

We're at this point of growth where the infrastructure is probably going to lag for a few years. Hopefully more courses pop up to meet demand.

Yes, I hope that is the case Oregon is getting overrun and erosion was already becoming a big issue there.

The new course in Cartersville at Deerfield will take a tiny amount of pressure off, but we need another legit 18 holes in Cobb County. Frog Rock is the only other public 18 and they are far enough apart that it doesn't take much pressure off.

I think the area in between the Pinter Rd dog park and RC plane runway would be a good spot if it could be cleared with the county.

 

[Innova63]

Whenever I go to play for the last several years it has always been early mornings unless the course is remote (Highbridge). Played last weekend at 8am, there were maybe 4 cars in the lot. After 18 holes, maybe an hour and a half later easily over 25 cars that were in the DG lot and a bunch more in a location that is easily accessed by the people jumping in mid course.

Grow the sport is happening...

I would prefer it to be grow the courses...

 

[Three Putt]

I sometimes go to this little park with a niner in the St.Louis 'burbs; it's been there for 25 years and never, ever is busy. There is this little ace run shot that I came up 30' short on and it ticked me off, so I decided I was going to rage-unload my bag at it. After a handful of also short drives I saw a group walking down so I picked up my discs and went to chill by the pond with the ducks and let them play through.

I was chillin' with the ducks for 25 minutes. There was just waves of groups behind them, mostly families from the looks of it. Lots of women, lots of kids. Other than back in the day when we used to play tournaments out there I've never seen that many disc golfers on that course. I had to give up on throwing the bag and just duck back in and finish my round.

It was the first really nice weather weekend day and it's just anecdotal, but at some point I texted my wife that I miss my old weirdo niche sport. :|

 

[Improbably]

No one showed up to help with coursework yesterday. Definitely not growing what needs to be grown...

 

[DavidSauls]

That's one way to thin out the crowds. Post signs, announcing a workday.

 

[DavidSauls]

This is a familiar lament. I'm sure you can find similar threads almost every year, going back to the start of this site; and I heard cries that the courses are more crowded than ever, for a decade or more before this site began.

And, of course, it's always been true, back to when we were used to having a course to ourselves, and would sometimes find 2 or 3 other groups on it at the same time. Player growth has always exceeded course growth.

But at least the nuisance of crowded courses has bought us a much bigger selection of courses to play. I doubt we'd have seen the boom in public and private courses, without the players.

I inevitably wonder: at what point in the past, do we wish the gates had closed? If the guys complaining about growth in 2003 had had their way and halted it, would we be happier with the disc golf landscape, today?

 

[autocrosscrx]

This is a familiar lament. I'm sure you can find similar threads almost every year, going back to the start of this site; and I heard cries that the courses are more crowded than ever, for a decade or more before this site began.

And, of course, it's always been true, back to when we were used to having a course to ourselves, and would sometimes find 2 or 3 other groups on it at the same time. Player growth has always exceeded course growth.

But at least the nuisance of crowded courses has bought us a much bigger selection of courses to play. I doubt we'd have seen the boom in public and private courses, without the players.

I inevitably wonder: at what point in the past, do we wish the gates had closed? If the guys complaining about growth in 2003 had had their way and halted it, would we be happier with the disc golf landscape, today?

It is annoying from a "I can't empty my bag every hole" and I can't crank out a round on a tournament quality course in an hour and fifteen minutes any more" perspective.

….but it is also worrisome from a safety perspective of people getting hit by discs and from a vandalism/littering/theft perspective.