Disc golf vs. Ultimate in popularity

[JTacoma03]

No offense to red heads. Some of my best friends were born that way, and heck, I even married one.

Well yeah...you gotta lock that down.



Back on topic: Most people just go on their individual perceptions (which are inherently biased and rarely correct). Ultimate is FAR, FAR, FAR more popular than disc golf.

IIRC I read somewhere that it's under consideration for being added to the Olympic Games (which doesn't mean it will get in, but means it meets the criteria of worldwide popularity and participation). Disc Golf is far from that marker.

 

[John Rock]

Definitely see more DG here. Ultimate has been kind of off-and-on over the years with different groups trying to get the game established as main stream, and the smaller Panhandle towns have almost no participation that I'm aware of. DG has been steadily increasing in town and the area for the last 30 years. Several of the smaller towns now have courses, and many players visit other towns to play.


The general population is more familiar with Ultimate than DG based on my interactions when I start talking about golf or Frisbee games.

 

[Peterb]

Disc Golf: "We're Bigger than GUTS"

 

[Toro71]

I sometimes wonder that as disc golfers we have this perception because we generally don't go to venues where ultimate is played (unless of course we do). I do find it befuddling that two disc sports know so little about each other. You'd think that disc golf would be a natural path to follow for ultimate players after they leave college.

This is me all over. I would've said the same thing about Charlotte that somebody said about DFW...I see more cricket games than ultimate games. But, just to be thorough, I googled and turns out there's a Charlotte Ultimate club. Didn't have any info on numbers of members, but seems like there's a scene. The places listed for leagues etc, none of them have DG courses, so I've never seen any Ultimate because I don't go to parks w/out DG. Ever.

 

[oppyland]

I think a lot of what happens is that pretty much anyone who went to college knows what ultimate is...

I went to college about a million years ago, and I do know what ultimate is. I know a grand total of 2 people that have ever played, and can honestly say I have never seen a match in person.

Back on topic: Most people just go on their individual perceptions (which are inherently biased and rarely correct). Ultimate is FAR, FAR, FAR more popular than disc golf.

So your perception is more valid than mine? Got it.

Not saying it isn't bigger nationally, since DG is a definite niche activity, but ultimate doesn't seem all that popular around here. I will admit to being far from the demographic, but I have 3 recent college grad offspring, and they know little to nothing about it.

 

[PeterMonk]

Working at a college with a disc golf course I find it difficult to convince students to 1) try out DG and 2) try it with the proper discs (e.g. not their Ultimate discs). Ultimate captures their imagination of what disc sports are about.

 

[mashnut]

Working at a college with a disc golf course I find it difficult to convince students to 1) try out DG and 2) try it with the proper discs (e.g. not their Ultimate discs). Ultimate captures their imagination of what disc sports are about.

Why not let them throw their ultimate discs? They're PDGA approved. If that gets them out on the course, they'll eventually decide to try other discs, but it doesn't hurt anything to let ultimate players throw what they're used to to try things out.

 

[Star Shark]

IIRC, the IOC did recognize the WFDF as a sports organization. This is the first step to getting Olympic Ultimate.

 

[Aim For The Chains]

Why not let them throw their ultimate discs? They're PDGA approved. If that gets them out on the course, they'll eventually decide to try other discs, but it doesn't hurt anything to let ultimate players throw what they're used to to try things out.

I was actually trying to bang 100+'ers from outside of the garage into the basket in the detached garage with an ultimate disc earlier tonight.. what a blast! 4 cage hits and 2 chains but I can't say im any B. Smith yet'

 

[Abrookdg]

More popular in terms of what?

What validates this as more popular? Sales? Online? Players?

Outside of sales, I bet we could find stats for: Participation and online presence.

I saw research that said more people play Ultimate, but I'm very willing to bet more google searches are done for Disc Golf than Ultimate.

Awareness? With MLU making the top 10 on sportscenter often, and Brodie being an Ultimate guy(though his trade is more aligned with DG) I'd give the edge to Ultimate. It's played in more PE classes and is more popular worldwide.

 

[juju]

Discraft sells 10 Ultrastars for every golf disc sold. Not even close.

 

[jeremyhilss]

As much as I cringe to say it (even though Ultimate is awesome), I think Ultimate is much more well known and participated. The way things look, DG is on a continual upward slope in popularity, but let's not kid ourselves - Ultimate's on ESPN. Then again, billiards is on ESPN2 so who knows...

 

[trumbulldore]

I live in the Cincinnati Area(northwest of it in butler county), thanks to a high quality pro-course with a High Quality pro-shop near cincy, disc golf is fairly active in our area. However around the college campuses (miami, uc, etc.) I see more ultimate because all you need is a disc and a couple friends. In my city disc golf is pretty much non-existent due to no courses, but i've been working on trying to change that.

 

[JTacoma03]

So your perception is more valid than mine? Got it.

No my facts are. I also didn't mention that many, many more universities have ultimate teams than disc golf teams (the flagship university in your state has a competitive team).

What validates this as more popular? Sales? Online? Players?

Outside of sales, I bet we could find stats for: Participation and online presence.

I saw research that said more people play Ultimate, but I'm very willing to bet more google searches are done for Disc Golf than Ultimate.

Awareness? With MLU making the top 10 on sportscenter often, and Brodie being an Ultimate guy(though his trade is more aligned with DG) I'd give the edge to Ultimate. It's played in more PE classes and is more popular worldwide.

The only thing I disagree with in this post is that more google searches are done for disc golf. I think YouTube hits and google searches would have at least a decent correlation coefficient, and if I'm correct there than it's Ultimate >>>>> Disc Golf. Brodie Smith by himself has 88 million hits on his channel. With all of the major disc golf channels lumped together we don't even top 10 million hits.

 

[oppyland]

No my facts are. I also didn't mention that many, many more universities have ultimate teams than disc golf teams (the flagship university in your state has a competitive team).

My daughter just graduated from there. I guarantee neither she nor any of her friends know anything about ultimate. In fact, I bet the average UW student knows more about Humans vs Zombies than ultimate. That and beer pong and/or flip cup.

But that's really immaterial. If the question was which sport has a bigger following on college campuses, you'd be absolutely correct, but the world doesn't end after college (well, not entirely... ).

 

[PeterMonk]

Why not let them throw their ultimate discs? They're PDGA approved. If that gets them out on the course, they'll eventually decide to try other discs, but it doesn't hurt anything to let ultimate players throw what they're used to to try things out.

Your correct that it is better to see them out using the course, and I never chase anyone away. More students the better, the course is for them.

It is just that I worry that they will get frustrated and quit on the game when they are needing five shots on an open par three. I will often invite groups to try out one of my midrange discs or understable driver so they can see and experience the difference.

 

[eegor]

~80 million search results for Texas High School Ultimate Frisbee vs under half that for disc golf.

The "Dallas Ultimate Association" has seven teams. Seven places to play pickup games. Zero college teams. Zero high school teams. Three tournaments this year. DallasUltimate.org

As compared to disc golf... there is zero comparison. Disc golf, with over 60 courses and growing. Over 50 tournaments in DFW every year and growing. Crowded courses everywhere you go on evenings and weekends.

In North Texas, ultimate is something that some of the people that moved from where you live do with others that came from where you live.

 

[Disc414]

I always thought disc golf would be more popular just because you can play it by yourself.

 

[Porthos]

It seems that some don't believe Ultimate is more popular, but even if you think otherwise, you have to admit Ultimate is more mainstream. Has disc golf ever made a SportsCenter Top 10? This one has two plays from Ultimate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88_JBnl_Xp0

 

[bobmcnelly]

This thread isn't about what is more mainstream or more popular nation wide. It's about what is popular in your particular area. For instance multiple people from Texas have said that DG seems to be much more popular than Ultimate. So I was just trying to get some regional input. I'm aware the Ultimate is much more mainstream.