This is why I like private courses

[Seabrook]

Today's announcement at GBO that Friday rounds from Olpe course will not be count is unfortunate especially from an important event like an NT. The reason for the cancellation is not because of the rain, every course receives rain sooner or later. It is because this is a public park and as with many parks its located on a flood plain, generally unusable land for anything else.

Its time we see real investment in courses, building on private land with proper facilities. We as a sport need to suck it up and say "I'm willing to pay $500-$700/year to play on high quality facilities that are specifically dedicated to disc golf. Essentially we need to take the model for a private ball golf course and apply it to disc golf.

There are lots of private DG courses out there but not enough. We as the sport's general population need to change our mentality that we are cheap and this is a cheap sport to play. If you are really excited to play disc golf then show it with your wallet.

I live in an area where DG is relatively new but growing fast, unfortunately we are not going to see a private course too soon (unlike Maine just below us) however I would pay the price to have a dedicated facility.

 

[Halcón]

We as a sport need to suck it up and say "I'm willing to pay $500-$700/year to play on high quality facilities that are specifically dedicated to disc golf.

Lulz. No thank you.

 

[puck'n'disc5]

Coming from someone that plays a lot of ball golf, most ball golfers won't even pay that to play for a year.

 

[Keller]

There is no way I would pay that much to play the same course over and over again, the boredom would kill the game for me. It's one of the reasons I never joined a course/club when I played ball golf.

 

[B3NDER]

So. much. hilarity.

 

[dbanderson]

Obviously we are a long ways off from ball golf, but I believe we will eventually have some very nice disc golf facilities in the future. I've been playing for 20+ years and watched as we had very few courses to having many courses that includes a few pay to play courses and a handful of complexes around the country. And it amazes me the number of people that play now along with the desires for disc golf to become mainstream. A beautiful disc golf only facility somewhere is only a matter of time imo.

BRP and Visionquest are just the beginning.

 

[WhiteyBear]

Then get ready for $90 putters.

 

[dbanderson]

I want to add that I played all of the courses at the IDGC two weeks ago and thought I was in heaven. It's a beautiful park, the facilities were top notch and the golf courses were amazing. I believe we will have more places like this in the future.

 

[eegor]

combining ball golf and disc golf is the best scenario for better courses. The land that's too rough for ball golf is ideal for disc golf. Large tracts of land are hard to come by.

 

[Three Putt]

Its time we see real investment in courses, building on private land with proper facilities. We as a sport need to suck it up and say "I'm willing to pay $500-$700/year to play on high quality facilities that are specifically dedicated to disc golf.

No way. I play disc golf because I'm cheap, it's cheap, the discs are cheap...you get the drift. No way I'm spending anywhere close to $500 on a hobby/year total, much less to support one private course. Next plan, please.

 

[apdrvya]

No way. I play disc golf because I'm cheap, it's cheap, the discs are cheap...you get the drift. No way I'm spending anywhere close to $500 on a hobby/year total, much less to support one private course. Next plan, please.

in the year of our lord 2016, so says the three putt.

 

[WhiteyBear]

Buy your own land
Spend your own money setting up a course
Maintain your land with all your free time
Pick up litter and cigarette butts all day
Get complaints from disc golfers that it wasn't worth their $5, and you ripped them off
realize that the worst thing about disc golf, is disc golfers
Rip out course
Invest in cattle/cattle feed
Make profits
Travel
Love life

 

[Aim For The Chains]

Then get ready for $90 putters.

Only premium plastic

 

[Hampstead]

I don't know how much I'd be willing to spend to play a dedicated course where there are no joggers, dog walkers or drunk chuckers. I don't know how much, but I promise that I would be willing to spend something. Maybe not $500 a year, but definitely $5-$10 per day. $10 if the place bans dogs and music (earbuds excluded).

 

[Jay Dub]

We have over 35 courses in this area. Except for the annual park fees only one is PTP.

Why would anyone spend $500 extra to play one course when we have this?

Maybe the OP has enough money to invest money in a losing venture, most people don't have that type of money.

 

[DavidSauls]

Besides, private courses are no guarantee that you wouldn't have flooding, or even cancellations, as prompted this post.

There's a pretty good private course near me, but it's been wrecked by flooding before, and if there were a major tournament at that time, it would have been a real issue. Particularly when the bridges washed out and the creeks were impassible.

Not only are public courses sometimes put on "bad land" that the park can't use for anything else, but sometimes that "bad land' is what makes the disc golf course better. The same thing happens sometime with private courses---the worse the land for other uses, the better the course.

 

[AndyJB]

We have a few private and semi-private courses here in Colorado that are amazing. All mountain courses. Including my all-time favorite course,Phantom Falls.

Their structure of pay to play, rather than a strict membership, seems to be working very well for them. I'd say that's more likely for the future of disc golf than a yearly membership.

Im sure the OP was exaggerating with the 500 bucks a year thing. Id say serious to semi serious players spend that much a year in discs...but asking disc golfers to shell that much out at once to play a course, no matter how nice, will amount to nothing.

 

[scarpfish]

Today's announcement at GBO that Friday rounds from Olpe course will not be count is unfortunate especially from an important event like an NT. The reason for the cancellation is not because of the rain, every course receives rain sooner or later. It is because this is a public park and as with many parks its located on a flood plain, generally unusable land for anything else.

And this couldn't happen on a private course with similar terrain features?

 

[DavidSauls]

Im sure the OP was exaggerating with the 500 bucks a year thing. Id say serious to semi serious players spend that much a year in discs...but asking disc golfers to shell that much out at once to play a course, no matter how nice, will amount to nothing.

One possible model---and I think it's being tried somewhere---is a network of top-quality, amenity-rich private courses, with a single membership to cover them all.

 

[Cgkdisc]

A few decades ago, Snapper Pierson, one of the first proprietors of a pay to play course, Morley Field in San Diego, discovered that players wouldn't buy annual or even half year passes to play but would buy monthly passes even though you could play in the San Diego climate all year. Apparently, many disc golfers then and perhaps even today can only plan ahead, choose to plan ahead and/or have financial resources to handle expenses no more than a month in advance. I think we see that "one month" planning window today with regard to tournament advance entries other than well run events known to sell out fast every year.