Activity Rounds: A New Way To Play Disc Golf On UDisc

No scores? No problem!

Tell us if any of this sounds familiar:

• You hit first available off the first tee (or the next three), throwing your round off the rails with a quickness.

• You bring someone new to the course who may require a few more strokes than you do to get through the round, and asking "Was that another 7?" ruins the vibe.

• You just want to unwind after a long day without the need to pull out your phone on every hole.

We know that keeping score every round can start to feel a little daunting. And now, there's a way to track your disc golf experience on UDisc without ever worrying about birdies and bogeys.

Activity rounds are a new way to play on UDisc. They count toward all your big historical totals – lifetime rounds and courses played – and still include all the great stuff you get with a scored round on the app, like course maps and step counts. They’ll even keep your weekly play streak alive!

So what’s the big deal? Well, an activity round lets you do all that without entering a single throw.

1. Start a round, just like always.

2. When you get to the “Customize your round” page, toggle scoring round off.

Put your phone away and just play!

You feel that? That’s relaxation, friend. Enjoy how that disc flies without worrying about if you get a birdie or not.

Here’s what you’ll get when you play an activity round:

• ⏳ Your total time spent playing, just like you’re using a workout app

• 👣 Your step counts and elevation gained (elevation on iOS only)

• 🧭 The same great hole maps and course navigation tools as a scoring round

• ⌚ Front-and-center distance to pin on your smartwatch

• 🚫 No scores!

But wait, there’s more…

• 📖 Activity rounds count toward your overall history on UDisc, which means your personal map of courses played, and total round counts, will always stay up-to-date.

• 🥳 Keep track of the memories you make on the course by personalizing the name of your rounds and sharing them with friends.

• ⚡ Plus, these rounds keep your weekly play streak going!

Activity rounds are now available on version 19 of UDisc. Make sure to update your app to start playing!

Activity rounds help your disc golf community, too.

There’s another bonus that comes from keeping track of your time on the course with an activity round: It counts toward UDisc’s overall play count metrics, which power meaningful insights for your local community.

• UDisc sends 10,000+ emails a month to community organizers, chock full of information on rounds played, tourism, and more.

• These organizers use this information to advocate for course upgrades, more courses, and the like.

When you play an activity round, you’re proving that disc golfers show up. It’s an easy way to make disc golf in your area even better. That means, if you're the type of player who goes to your home course every week but doesn't keep score because you know all the local routes, you now have a way to give more back to the community. Just track an activity round.

So, why did UDisc make activity rounds, anyway?

We know what some readers are probably thinking: "I won't use this. Why didn't UDisc add [insert dream feature here] instead?"

We get it, and we likely want to build that feature, too. But when looking at where our team felt it could make the most impact, we were reminded of one of UDisc's core values: Disc golf is for everyone. And over time, it was becoming more and more clear that limiting the play experience in the app to just scoring made it feel like disc golf was not actually for everyone.

Let's rewind to August 2023, when the UDisc team gathered in Oregon for its annual retreat. With more than 25 people in attendance, the highlight was a sweltering morning round at Milo McIver East . Before the trip, team members answered a survey about their level of competitiveness when they play disc golf. They were then grouped based on how seriously they wanted to take the round at the top-100 course. 

While most people landed somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, there were also extremes. On one end was the group that played by the letter of every rule, with each member intent on winning. On the other, there was the "party card," which was all about running on vibes and just getting out to enjoy a casual round with friends. Score didn't matter to this group at all, but they still had to put them in to make their round count.

Let that sink in for a moment: There are people who work for UDisc who don't always keep score when they play.

Later during the retreat, we did what we do best, which is dig into the data. That excavation revealed a key piece of learning:

• Of the disc golfers in July 2023 who tapped the "Get directions" button on a UDisc course page, 70% did not finish a scoring round the same day.

Sure, some players might have just been planning in advance. But we surmised that the true takeaway was that people are using the app, likely going to the course to play, and not showing any desire to score a round. Maybe they weren't quite "party card" material, but there was a gap for us to try and better hit in our mission to serve all disc golfers. 

This was the beginning of the activity rounds concept, and a small group pitched the rest of the team on how we could pull it off.

From there, we included a question in our 2023 in-app survey in the hopes of learning more about these players who come to UDisc but do not keep score. A common theme? Keeping score adds stress and subtracts fun. But we also knew that these players were still interacting with disc golf and probably wanted a way to track which courses they played, tally how many rounds they played, and maybe even get credit for getting some exercise while they were out. 

Without inputting a score, they were missing out on a key part of the experience, which is the memories that come from adding to your lifetime totals and checking amazing courses off your list.

By the time we got to the deep dive of the 2024 Disc Golf Growth Report, we were able to share one more crucial piece of data:

• 1.4 million players used the UDisc app in 2023, but 44% of them never kept score.

Thankfully, the team had already started working on building activity rounds into the app by then.

Simply put, activity rounds are a way to make the disc golf tent bigger. We care deeply about being able to let everyone get the most out of their disc golf experience, and we're hopeful that this is a way they can begin to do that, all without the stress of keeping score.

One of our team members had a chance to chat about activity rounds on The Upshot recently. Take a peek to learn a little more about the thought process:

Activity rounds are for everyone.

Even as activity rounds were initially meant to help bring new or score-averse players a better experience, we're excited for score-centric disc golfers to have a new way to play, too. After all, we suspect there are plenty of times when you're playing but not keeping score, and then not seeing your career rounds played totals tick up on UDisc. That's no fun – bigger numbers are better, and you were still out there playing! Those year-end UDisc Replay stats are about to be more accurate.

Here are a couple other key ways we can see even the hardest of the hardcore using an activity round:

• To bring a new friend to the course. It gets to be a little demoralizing after asking for big scores, right? Set up your future dubs partner with an activity round and let them focus on getting hooked instead of their score.

• To get credit when you're playing alternate formats. Whether it's as simple as using a couple mulligans here and there or getting into wild games of Disc Dice or Ript Revenge, those are times where you can set up an activity round and still have it count toward your overall totals.

• To practice for a tournament. You're probably throwing multiple shots and either not keeping score or struggling to decide which lie to score from, right? You need that brain space for strategy. Start it as an activity round and you can still show you've put in the work.

• To take a much-needed break. We've all been there. Sometimes, your round goes off the rails in a hurry, and it just sucks the joy out of the game. Instead of steaming over that early quad bogey, take a breath and switch to an activity mode. You'll thank us later.

• To set it and forget it. Are you one of those players who just doesn't want to look at your phone while you play? Been there. Start an activity round, put your phone in your bag, and get on the course. If you really feel frisky, you can switch to scoring at the end of the round and put in all your birdies.

How will you use activity rounds? Share your first activity round with us on social media by tagging @udiscapp so we can help give more disc golfers ideas for how to use them. See you out there!