Has the PDGA peaked?

[da Crippler]

3% of disc golfers have a PDGA number. Why would anyone listen to anything they have to say? Kind of pathetic if you ask me.:\

 

[Jugular]

How do you source that figure?
What figure would mean they hadn't peaked?
What are the goals of the PDGA? Why does the figure you state matter to those goals?

 

[biscoe]

I would imagine that figure is mirrored by something like 97% of tournament disc golfers having a number.

 

[trasf]

Don't know about global numbers, but in Finland ~6% of players who play weekly have active license. Sources finnish ministry/olympic committee and pdga.

I can't imagine it being much different in global scale. There could be some outliers like Estonia, where they are nuts about competitive side of discgolf. Anywhere else I expect it be way lower.

 

[_MTL_]

3% of disc golfers have a PDGA number. Why would anyone listen to anything they have to say? Kind of pathetic if you ask me.:\

The PDGA's main goal is growth of the game and knows that their tournament model isn't for a majority of the people that play. If they were not transparent about this, you wouldn't see the figure on their demographics about how many people play compared to how many people are members.

 

[Three Putt]

3% of disc golfers have a PDGA number. Why would anyone listen to anything they have to say? Kind of pathetic if you ask me.:\

LOL!!!

Dude, I'm sorry but this is hysterical. At the very maximum a governing body like the PDGA would have 5% of players, and as an activity grows that % goes down. That you have thousands of PDGA numbers issued and the % of disc golfers with a PDGA number only at 3%, that means growth.

It's also a made up number because you can't count casuals. It's an estimate. They could have said 4% or 2% depending on how you do the math.

Bottom line: Lots of chuckers with no PDGA number is a good thing. It makes Cities feel good about the $$$ they spend on courses. It makes the next town over want a course. Participation, baby! It's not just for the PDGA.

I mean, what did you want that % to be?

 

[ToddL]

How many players on your local course are club members vs casuals? I'd assume most places are well under 10%. Hundreds or thousands of casual golfers vs a club membership of 50-100?

 

[Three Putt]

Also, we had this conversation yesterday. I live in a college town and have a rag-tag Sunday morning crew of college kids that show up to play. None of them have even joined the local club, and it's mostly a social thing to force them to get up on Sunday.

One of them graduated last fall and was in town to visit so he came out and played with us again. He has four discs, but I gave them to him. He showed up to play with this group, but he left town in May. He had a summer job in St. Louis and now is in grad school in Boston. He has no idea if there is a course in the St. Louis or Boston areas. The thought of playing disc golf since he left town never crossed his mind. He showed up to hang out with friends.

Is he a disc golfer? How do you define a disc golfer?

So are any of the clowns who show up on Sunday really disc golfers? All of them play with discs I gave them. None of them have played another course despite the fact that they all went someplace else for a summer job. I'm willing to bet that by the definition of most of the people on this site, none of them are what you would consider disc golfers. They don't have the fever.

If I'm a parks department or the PDGA estimating how many people play disc golf across the country, all of those guys count. Who cares if they have the fever? They are in a park flinging plastic. They count.

So when you talk about a "disc golfer" and they estimate the number of people playing disc golf, it might be apples to oranges and you are not even talking about the same thing.

 

[ThrowBot]

Unlike the lazy whiners, I'm doing to step up and do something about the low PDGA membership stats!

About to buy an extra PDGA number. I guess I'll need a pseudonym. Perhaps ThrohBoht.

 

[DG_player]

Unless you play tournaments, what direct benefit does the PDGA provide to a member? Personally I see no reason to join, unless sometime in the future I got into tournament play.

I'm not sure what all the USGA does, but they did maintain a handicap for me without any need to play in tournaments (In case people aren't familiar, any round at a rated course goes towards your handicap). Having a handicap was useful for playing local leagues, competing against friends, and the occasional times I would play in a handicapped club tournament.

Maybe if the PDGA provided some sort of direct benefit outside of tournament play, it would get more members and have more success at "growing the game".

 

[tbird888]

Unlike the lazy whiners, I'm doing to step up and do something about the low PDGA membership stats!

About to buy an extra PDGA number. I guess I'll need a pseudonym. Perhaps ThrohBoht.

Go cajun...ThreauxBot

 

[brutalbrutus]

EDGE

 

[ejvogie]

Unlike the lazy whiners, I'm doing to step up and do something about the low PDGA membership stats!

About to buy an extra PDGA number. I guess I'll need a pseudonym. Perhaps ThrohBoht.

Turd Ferguson.

It's a funny name.

 

[F. Howl]

3% of disc golfers have a PDGA number. Why would anyone listen to anything they have to say? Kind of pathetic if you ask me.:\

Start throwing Aerobie Pro Rings, putt like Jordan's free-throw-line dunk, use cookies for mini markers, fairway mulligans, dogs and cats living together, etc, because we can all just amicably agree on our own set of rules for every different weekly and casual round we play, right?

Hey, I love a good sixer and an unsanctioned weekly, but in the least, we need that governing body providing a set of rules we all agree upon. Otherwise there would be too much bickering.

 

[Cgkdisc]

There's one word that's the core mission/function for the organizing body of any sport: LEGITIMIZER. Their very existence is important, not only to the small percentage who compete and join, but to everyone who plays whether or not they see the benefits of the organization's existence.

The org provides baseline credibility that an activity is legit, providing demographics to define the potential player pool, design & equipment standards, game rules, and communicating important events and information relevant to the sport's development, originally via printed and now web-based media for Park Departments to commit money and resources for those mostly free courses we've all enjoyed over the years and to entrepreneurs who may determine different ways they may be able to make money providing equipment and services for the sport.

How well an organization serves its members utilizing the dues and fees it receives in excess of what's needed for "legitimizing" activities is a matter for those members to continually discuss and vote regarding the priorities for deployment of those resources available. But everyone who is not a current member should still be rooting that their sports org will survive to support the indirect benefits each of us receives due to its ongoing existence as legitimizer.

 

[Broken Shoulder]

I guess the USBC should have folded years ago then.
Mom and her rugrats bumper bowling aren't members.

 

[MikeK]

The org provides baseline credibility that an activity is legit, providing demographics to define the potential player pool, design & equipment standards, game rules, and communicating important events and information relevant to the sport's development, originally via printed and now web-based media for Park Departments to commit money and resources for those mostly free courses we've all enjoyed over the years and to entrepreneurs who may determine different ways they may be able to make money providing equipment and services for the sport.

And the award for longest sentence goes to...

Good post btw.

 

[Cgkdisc]

And the award for longest sentence goes to... Good post btw.

I saw that and decided not to break it up.

 

[Innova63]

I saw that and decided not to break it up.

Casey is Chucks alter ego....

 

[Casey 1988]

Unless you play tournaments, what direct benefit does the PDGA provide to a member? Personally I see no reason to join, unless sometime in the future I got into tournament play.

I'm not sure what all the USGA does, but they did maintain a handicap for me without any need to play in tournaments (In case people aren't familiar, any round at a rated course goes towards your handicap). Having a handicap was useful for playing local leagues, competing against friends, and the occasional times I would play in a handicapped club tournament.

Maybe if the PDGA provided some sort of direct benefit outside of tournament play, it would get more members and have more success at "growing the game".

Now for The PDGA were to do something what they could do is make some actual input from players about some rules to make some clearer as well as PDGA survey type thing for courses in your area for players with PDGA numbers then the PDGA might be on to something. It feels that they have the PDGA board trying to do all this work without consulting those with PDGA Numbers who play in PDGA events on how things operate outside the PDGA administration in the real world with regards to rules or courses what the vibe is like at/near them. The second part would also streamline the process of how to find PDGA Worlds courses, possibly opcorn: even one not in the USA.