Whether you're building and maintaining disc golf courses, running events, operating a shop that serves as your community's disc golf hub, or spreading the joy of disc golf in any other way, your dedication is paying off. People around the world are playing more of this accessible and healthy game and have a wider choice of courses to play it on than ever before.
Learn how strategically sharing the success of local disc golf through trustworthy statistics powered by UDisc can lead to a better future for the game you love.
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- Who should I share disc golf stats with?
- How do I make the case for building a new disc golf course (or expanding an existing one)?
- How can I get funding and support for disc golf course upgrades?
- How do I keep community partners invested in disc golf's success?
- How do I get my course's UDisc stats?
Who Should I Share Disc Golf Stats With?
Decision-makers outside disc golf
You may be big into disc golf, but that doesn't mean everyone else is. That's a big reason UDisc makes its stats readily available to those doing the hard work of growing disc golf: Sharing more about disc golf's positive impact on the community is a great way to raise awareness and garner support.
So if you're seeing stats that make your eyes pop, share them with people whose opinions and attention can shape the game's future in your area. Here are a few suggestions:
- Parks & Rec director
- Town/city council members
- Town/city/region tourism authority
- Mayor (especially in smaller towns)
- News organizations
Email addresses for these people and organizations are usually easy to find with a quick search engine query or through local government sites. The content of your email will vary depending on your goal, but in general it's a good idea to:
- Keep your tone friendly
- Avoid being too lengthy
- Remember that the people you are writing to might not have any idea what disc golf is
Community members inside disc golf
These numbers can help encourage people who already play, too. Members of area disc golf groups love seeing their local insights, and they generate good vibes and remind disc golfers that recording their rounds on UDisc impacts more than just their personal stats.
In Georgia's Henry County Disc Golf Club (HCDGC), sharing play counts creates some good-natured competition that drives people to get in more rounds. Local Course Ambassadors share stats with administrators for Facebook pages representing the club and area courses Tracks at McDonough, J.P. Moseley, and Bud Kelley, and those reports are then shared publicly.
"The statistic that is regularly called out is the player with the most rounds on each course each month," Mark Goffi, an administrator for HCDGC's Facebook page, told us. "It gets competitive in a friendly way among some of the guys concerning being on top of that list. The chatter also carries over to the course when people see each other. For example, I was called out by one of the guys this week for having the most rounds on one course in December and the second most on another. All in good fun. It just becomes another way to build community."
Whether you share on Facebook or Instagram, or in a more controlled environment like a Discord server or WhatsApp group, seeing disc golf stats will contribute to a sense of pride and motivation to keep the numbers trending upward.
How Do I Make the Case for Building a New Disc Golf Course (or Expanding an Existing One)?
In communities where disc golf has found a strong foothold, courses that are too busy might be a concern. In other areas, just getting that first course is the big hurdle to clear.
Building a new course, or adding to the hole count at an existing one, can help serve eager players and make it easier for new players to discover the game. Reliable stats showing disc golf's local popularity can help you lobby for continued investment and effectively communicate just how busy a course can get.
The Upper Peninsula Disc Golf Association (UPDGA) saw how true that was in November 2022. They approached town decision-makers with UDisc stats showing that their most popular course was seeing high traffic levels, largely concentrated in the spring through late summer months when playing was most pleasant. Their proposed solution? Build a new course that would help ease the burden on the existing one.
Thanks both to the strong relationship the UPDGA had cultivated with local government over the years and the trustworthy numbers they had backing up their points, the club's solution was approved.
Importantly, the UPDGA didn't just go into the meeting with play counts alone. They presented a variety of the stats UDisc makes available, and casting that wide net paid dividends.
"Township boards and city boards are comprised of a lot of different people with a lot of different backgrounds," UPDGA President Tim Kopacz told us. "There are some that are really active, and they'd key in on the steps taken. Others cared about the tourism aspect of trying to develop a disc golf destination in the county, and they were interested in seeing how many states and countries people have traveled from to come play."
Get the whole UPDGA success story in "Building Up Disc Golf in Michigan's U.P."
Even in places with no local course, stats from elsewhere can still help you on the way to getting that first one in the ground. An editor and contributor for this blog, Alex Williamson, used UDisc tallies from neighboring areas to demonstrate the game's potential when he first met with local decision-makers about introducing disc golf to a town he'd recently moved to.
"I landed a meeting with the heads of municipal government and municipal tourism, and my presentation included numbers from the three closest courses to us, all about an hour away," Williamson said. "It helped them see that this game they knew almost nothing about was getting played quite a bit not too far away and start thinking, 'If it could be a success there, it could work here, too.'"
For more on that story and building your town or region's first disc golf course, check out "How To Build A Disc Golf Course: First Steps To Make A Disc Golf Desert An Oasis."
How Can I Get Funding & Support for Disc Golf Course Upgrades?
The better a disc golf course is in terms of infrastructure and ease of navigation, the more people play it. And if you're hoping to improve your own course, sharing UDisc stats with decision-makers to demonstrate its current and potential popularity is a great starting point.
After a quick, low-budget install resulted in poor drainage, the boggy conditions at Dieppe Disc Golf Course were bogging down play counts. The local club, Dieppe Disc Golf, made the case that disc golf was an attractive activity for locals and regional tourists – and that improving the course would only make it moreso. Backing up their pitch with UDisc's insights, the club struck a deal with town leaders to match any funds the club raised, doubling the amount they were able to put toward improvements.
"The biggest hurdle was educating decision makers on what disc golf is and how it can benefit the community," said Luc Richard, a leader of Dieppe Disc Golf. "Until they know what it is or personally get involved in the sport, it's hard to convince them of the value. The data we gathered from UDisc helped so much."
In the end, the club raised $5,000 Canadian dollars (around $4,300 USD) that the city matched. The funds turned out to be enough not just to dry out the fairways, but to add new benches, better signage, and upgraded tees.
Those changes happened in 2023. By the end of 2024, the club had not just a better course to show for its efforts, but also a 50% increase in rounds recorded on UDisc year over year.
Read more about Dieppe Disc Golf Course's journey as well as a similar tale from one of the world's most-played courses in "When Disc Golf Courses Get Needed Upgrades, Everyone Benefits."
How Do I Keep Community Partners Invested in Disc Golf's Success?
Some disc golf communities have a non-disc golfing decision-maker or influential group they interact with regularly about the state of disc golf in the area. Keeping them in the loop about particularly eye-catching statistical developments can help them feel more invested in disc golf's growth.
For instance, a disc golf club in Missouri helps maintain a disc golf course on property operated by a local philanthropic organization in exchange for permission to hold leagues and tournaments. The club's president, John Ludwikowski, regularly reports to the partner organization's leadership, and he says they enjoy learning about disc golf's progress.
"They love to see how many players use the course each month," Ludwikowski said. "They look over how many players visited, hours played, and first-time visitors. These stats give justification to keep the course open. The stats and coordination with the disc golf club have helped justify increased funding for necessary improvements and repairs.”
In Ontario, Canada, the disc golf business ChainLink Disc Golf has built a trusting relationship with local conservation authorities. ChainLink has told us previously that representatives at different authorities have friendly rivalries about whose UDisc stats look better.
Though you might not have regularly-scheduled meetings with outside groups, sending them updates a few times a year showing disc golf's positive impact in the community can go a long way toward building positive feelings toward the sport among people whose opinions have clout.
How Do I Get My Course's UDisc Stats?
Course ambassadors, store owners, designers, league and event administrators, and anyone else interested in growing local disc golf have regular access to UDisc impact reporting and insights via:
- Weekly emails
- Monthly emails
- Real-time statistics on UDisc.com dashboards
If you're one of these people and haven't seen an impact report in your inbox, check first to see if they've been filtered into a different folder/tab. If they're still nowhere to be found, reach out to [email protected] for more assistance or to get signed up.
How Can I Present & Share My Area's Disc Golf Growth?
When you share numbers showing increased traffic on a local course, or the high number of people traveling long distances to play in a region you helped turn into a disc golf hotspot, you're not patting yourself on the back (though you should take the time to do that every now and then!). Instead, you're helping show the positive impact disc golf has on people near you.
And when others see those positive impacts, it'll get them asking how they can make them bigger.
You don’t need to be a data expert or a professional advocate to use those numbers, either. Whether you're hoping for support with course upgrades, advocating for a new 18-holer, or simply keeping good momentum going, the clear data and professional visuals you can download to show it off help make a case anyone can present or follow.
If you're already getting the stats but want some ideas for how to effectively present them, check out the post "Free Disc Golf Stats From UDisc For Your Pitch, Proposal, Or Presentation."
Have UDisc stats helped you or your disc golf community reach a goal (e.g., install a new course, secure funding for upgrades, get permission to hold an event)? We'd love to hear it! Reach out to us with the subject "Stat Story" at [email protected].
