Courses Per Capita

[optidiscic]

All meaningless although interesting data

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Highbridge has more than 2 baskets per person in their population.

*starts looking for jobs in the area*

 

[mashnut]

^finds nothing

 

[Steve West]

All meaningless although interesting data

Unless it shames CA into installing another 3,000 or so courses.

 

[trashmonster1985]

Interesting to see how it works out by some cities; Example Nacogdoches, TX @ 29,500 pop. and 63 baskets= >500 people per basket. how does your city compare?

Humboldt County has a 1000 people per basket. 2012 population: 135,000. 135 baskets listed on DGCR. But that's only what is listed on this site. that number drops if you included the other private courses.

I think that's pretty solid for a county...

 

[grodney]

One thought that hasn't been addressed yet is that there aren't (unless y'all know something I don't) any courses on Federally-owned land

I imagine there are lots of courses on Federal land.

Walnut Ridge near Des Moines is one of them: http://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=64

http://www.recreation.gov/camping/W...oundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=97071

Maintained by the US Army Corps of Engineers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Army_Corps_of_Engineers

 

[Cgkdisc]

I believer the land usage for the IDGC property (PDGA HQ) is overseen by the Army Corps although the land is maintained by Columbia County.

 

[IHearChains]

Somebody upthread said Iowa has more land available for disc golf than California. No way. CA has gigantic swaths of undeveloped public property. Iowa has very little. Almost all of it is privately owned and "developed" for agricultural production.

Iowans who like to get outdoors and hike in the woods just don't have as many options as most other states, and I think that may have something to do with the high number of disc golf courses per capita. Hiking in a small patch of woods on the same 1-mile trail, over and over...it's a lot more fun when you're throwing plastic.

 

[IHearChains]

Imagine building a course at Summerland in Mt. Rainier National Park...

I forget all about disc golf when I'm in a place like that. Wow. The Cascades are awesome. :thmbup:

 

[grodney]

I would say Iowa's lead in Per Capita (which it has had for at least 20 years) is much more a product of the early pioneers and their penetration into local parks and recs. I would say it has much less to do with what type of land is available and how much is available and what people like to do.

I think the stories (history) for Minnesota and Michigan (and probably Texas and Cali and others) are probably similar, though their "per capita" doesn't match up due to their higher populations.

 

[mashnut]

Somebody upthread said Iowa has more land available for disc golf than California. No way. CA has gigantic swaths of undeveloped public property. Iowa has very little. Almost all of it is privately owned and "developed" for agricultural production.

Iowans who like to get outdoors and hike in the woods just don't have as many options as most other states, and I think that may have something to do with the high number of disc golf courses per capita. Hiking in a small patch of woods on the same 1-mile trail, over and over...it's a lot more fun when you're throwing plastic.

I said in the populated areas. When I've driven through cities in Iowa, there's a lot more open space than there is in the heart of LA, San Fransisco or San Diego. Sure there's lots of undeveloped land in CA, but little of it is where you'd get much disc golf traffic and most of it is set aside to stay undeveloped so they wouldn't let you build a course anyway.

 

[nate22]

New South Wales - 1 course per 3.2 million people
Queensland (my state) - 1 course per 960,000

:-D

Choice!

 

[IHearChains]

I said in the populated areas. When I've driven through cities in Iowa, there's a lot more open space than there is in the heart of LA, San Fransisco or San Diego. Sure there's lots of undeveloped land in CA, but little of it is where you'd get much disc golf traffic and most of it is set aside to stay undeveloped so they wouldn't let you build a course anyway.

oh I see...
excuses excuses. :|
jk

 

[pauldst]

One thought that hasn't been addressed yet is that there aren't (unless y'all know something I don't) any courses on Federally-owned land, like National Forests, Parks, Historic Sites, etc... Military bases are a little anomalous in that regard. But over 55% of Oregon and over 40% of Washington are Federally-owned (and some other parts would be inoperable as DGCs).

My home course in Iowa, as well as the third closest 18 hole course, are both on Federal land:
http://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/Missions/Recreation/CoralvilleLake/Recreation/Discgolf.aspx

 

[DagG]

Steve, those are interesting numbers, but probably not realistic relative to actual land available. Iowa has a lot of cheap land and a lot of parks, the densely populated areas of states like NY, CA and IL already have most of the land developed and the rest is prohibitively expensive.

Not entirely, more a difference of focus. Forest Preserve District of Cook County (IL, essentially Chicago and environs) holds more than 68,000 acres of land, over 100 sq. miles, with not a basket to be seen. The vast bureaucracy of professionals that run Cook County Forest Preserves will be much more difficult to convince to try a minority recreational option like disc golf than the more community oriented operations one may find in rural areas.

 

[Steve West]

Lack of land is hardly ever the limiting factor. If a disc golf course can go on any land that is not covered by water, buildings, or crops, then there is plenty of land available in almost every state. I added up the acres of land that are not cropland or urban in each state, and divided by the number of courses each state needs to get up to Iowa's per capita standard.

DC has none (and I missed RI for some reason), but here is how many acres are available per future disc golf course:

State	Courses Needed	Acres Available per Course
New Jersey	520	4,715
Massachusetts	373	8,072
Connecticut	203	8,922
Maryland	333	11,373
Delaware	44	14,274
Illinois	599	15,319
New York	1127	20,857
Ohio      	546	23,223
Florida  	1085	25,532
Indiana  	297	29,489
Pennsylvania	661	31,194
California	2085	40,814
Hawaii     	77	48,559
Virginia	419	49,008
North Carolina	432	55,498
Georgia   	529	56,666
Tennessee	312	60,146
Michigan	402	65,053
South Carolina	203	79,013
New Hampshire	64	82,462
Louisiana	250	89,427
Kentucky	188	90,461
Texas       	1307	98,538
Washington	336	99,895
Missouri	261	100,918
Alabama     	245	115,235
Wisconsin	137	171,477
West Virginia	80	176,459
Arkansas	131	186,987
Arizona     	349	202,618
Oklahoma	145	209,451
Mississippi	111	214,932
Minnesota	116	238,297
Colorado	189	286,351
Utah      	145	347,475
Oregon     	147	379,792
Kansas     	55	422,765
Vermont     	12	444,725
Nevada    	151	458,289
Maine      	35	544,756
Nebraska	49	556,904
New Mexico	90	831,202
Idaho      	39	1,197,665
South Dakota	8	3,575,604
Montana    	20	3,755,738
North Dakota  	4	4,093,624
Wyoming    	4	14,953,783
Alaska     	17	21,517,366
Iowa      	0	#DIV/0!