Disc golfers don't wear cleats or drive carts.
We plant more aggressively, though. We tear up the ground as much as golfers (with our feet).
Disc golfers don't wear cleats or drive carts.
Here in the Sacramento area, an 18- hole championship level course was installed at a 9-hole ball golf course by Drew Gibson and his father. They charge $15 for 9 holes of BG and $6 for 18 holes of DG. About half of the DG course is through a wooded area not used for BG. Some of the rules they set up are that ball holfers always have the right of way, so they get to play through; and the greens are OB not even to be walked on by DGers since they're not paying for the greens maintenance. Having been to the location before, they have a bar and grill that does live music and art shows sometimes, it seems they weren't overloaded with ball golfers, but I've seen a lot of DGers out there since it opened. They started off with a 60 day trial period to see how it went, making sure disc golfers weren't a nuisance and that they didn't deter ball golfers from playing. The baskets in the ball golf areas are on rollaway stands and they haven't installed tees or permanent signs. Starting out with the trial and low fee as well as establishing those rules seem like the best approach to me. Maybe try contact Drew or his father Marty, who runs the Sunrise Disc Golf Course FB page, to get some tips.
We plant more aggressively, though. We tear up the ground as much as golfers (with our feet).
We plant more aggressively, though. We tear up the ground as much as golfers (with our feet).
eventually they'll need to install tees. Probably the turf kind which have gained popularity in europe.
Also, it is the only county in California without a course.
In Price Theory, the product they are selling – a tee time – is a wasting asset. After the time passes, it becomes unsellable.
The costs they have are, in large part, fixed. The staff needs to be paid and grass needs to be fed and mowed whether anybody plays or not.
So, it is in the best interest of the course to collect whatever they can at the moment the tee time is about to slip into the past.
(Note that for this theory it doesn't matter whether tee times are formally defined as every X minutes, or whether they are reserved in advance or just sold as walk-ups who get in line at the first tee.)
Almost all golf courses sell tee times at a discount – different times of the day or week or to very old or very young golfers. So, they are familiar with the idea of collecting less to collect something.
As some have pointed out, the price they can collect from a disc golfer may be less than what they can collect from a golfer, but it's more than they would collect if no golfer ever bought the tee time.
The limiting factor is getting people through the first tee. Disc golfers can tee off about five minutes after the group in front, where golfers need to wait about ten minutes. So, the inventory of tee times is doubled for disc golfers.
It would seem that the optimal strategy would be to tell disc golfers they have to step aside until there are no golfers waiting. However, then you would be changing the product from "the soonest" tee time (or a "reserved" tee time) to only a chance of getting to play before dark. No one would buy that. Disc golfers need to be able to reserve (or walk up for) tee times the same way as golfers. Just as the golfer who gets a Senior discount can get in line with the full price golfers.
If the course has analyzed the variable costs of golfers, they might be able to calculate that the extra expense of a disc golfer is less than the extra expense of a golfer. Disc golfers don't hurt the greens or the special grass on the golf tees or dig their shoes into the sand traps. This could also be used as justification for charging disc golfers less, to keep the net variable profits the same between the two types of customers.
In any case, the admission fee is only part of the revenue. Disc golfers will also pay for food, beverages, new equipment, and cart use.
Peter,
I ran for a stint trying to sell DG setups to smaller, less busy ball golf courses in Washington State. My motivation was to spread DG and get more courses. It seemed like a good use of an already established space and in my thinking, would generate additional revenue for courses during slow days, winter months, etc. I had first encountered a course with a parallel DG setup near Oceanside CA. We were allowed to play the same fairways, and bunkers and greens were OB, and the baskets were placed out of the way near the greens. We were charged considerably less to play and in my encounters with traditional golfers on the course, I was met with no animosity. Although I had a pretty rock solid sales pitch and data to back up my idea, I was met with no love. The course administrators all felt that disc golfers would bring the wrong image to the course. They felt that groups of disc golfers would distract, impede or disrupt the flow of the games of the ball golfers. Even my pleading that disc golf plays at a faster rate and would allow faster cycling through the course, they could not be persuaded. They were concerned that discs would damage the greens, foliage, trees and facilities. I offered free installation and design, and all the course would have to pay was the cost of tee pads and baskets at wholesale prices, and still, they would not budge. At first I was discouraged and hurt because of the time and thought I had invested, but looking back I now realize that although financially and ecologically it makes sense to share a space, good disc golf courses are not the same as ball golf courses. We as disc golfers NEED roughage, canyons, thick trees, grassy meadows. We want primal. We want dirty. We want boulders and mud and although it would be awesome to have a hot college co-ed driving a beer cart around to our beck and call, we don't want snobby dicks heckling in our run-up. I know this is a convoluted answer to your question, so simply.....Most wont. There are a few oddities out there in the world that I have come across, but for the most part, ball golf and disc golf can't cohabitate, for any cost. In some kind of utopia we could all get along and sing "the age of Aquarius" and be golf brothers, but....I guess my point is, I think Disc Golf should evolve as its own sport, free from the shadows of ball golf. blah blah blah blah.