Courses That Hurt The Game?

[biscoe]

Bad courses do not hurt the game per se. Dangerous courses on the other hand stand a very real chance of hurting it. IMO it is just a matter of time to the first fatality on a public course. I am having a hard time convincing myself I want to sell any more courses in public parks.

 

[Royal Hill]

Bad courses do not hurt the game per se. Dangerous courses on the other hand stand a very real chance of hurting it. IMO it is just a matter of time to the first fatality on a public course. I am having a hard time convincing myself I want to sell any more courses in public parks.

specifically tied to multi use parks? multi use in the same area parks?

I do think many courses can be trouble when successful. When not entirely successful, they end up being ok, but success brings different crises. Many courses are designed not envisioning someday success, and instead rely heavily on past assumptions of "light occasional use".

success in this case meaning usership levels. (to the max)

 

[Dave242]

Bad courses do not hurt the game per se. Dangerous courses on the other hand stand a very real chance of hurting it. IMO it is just a matter of time to the first fatality on a public course. I am having a hard time convincing myself I want to sell any more courses in public parks.

I think you are being a little over dramatic. Maybe you as a safety-conscious designer should be trying to get the design job rather than someone else.

I would think skate parks in public parks are a little higher risk, no?

And if you are thinking that death or serious injury are only to unsuspecting non-participants, walking trails are much more dangerous as bikers might use them to ride on. Getting hit by a bike is much higher and more probable risk....and so is being hit by falling tree limbs.

 

[JC17393]

I think you are being a little over dramatic. Maybe you as a safety-conscious designer should be trying to get the design job rather than someone else.

I would think skate parks in public parks are a little higher risk, no?

And if you are thinking that death or serious injury are only to unsuspecting non-participants, walking trails are much more dangerous as bikers might use them to ride on. Getting hit by a bike is much higher and more probable risk....and so is being hit by falling tree limbs.

Skate parks are risky to the people using them. Disc golf courses can be risky to anyone who happens to be walking by. That's a significant difference. In one, the user is knowingly taking the risk. In the other, non-participants are the ones more at risk.

The growth of our game absolutely needs to happen away from multi-use areas. Exclusive use and private courses are the future.

 

[KingofKings696]

The problem is went you start to speak of private and DG exclusive that usually includes a pay to play tag or lack of maintenance. Also do you really think a new player especially the younger generation are going to pay the 5 bucks or however much it might be to play everytime the reason disc golf is sooo loved as you can pay 5 bucks for an old used disc and play or like many of us spend hundreds to thousands to find the perfect set up and practice all the time. However i DO agree we do need to figure out a way to make safer courses and to educate the newer players (and some of the not so new players) on etiquette and how to play safely to protect others around the course as well.

 

[optidiscic]

I do think there will be a disc golf fatality in a public park soon and it will spell trouble for pur sport

Ive seen some close calls and heard of some awful moments

bottom line is a bad marriage between reckless selfish players and poor safety design

Its sadly inevitable

 

[deadbody]

The problem is went you start to speak of private and DG exclusive that usually includes a pay to play tag or lack of maintenance. Also do you really think a new player especially the younger generation are going to pay the 5 bucks or however much it might be to play everytime the reason disc golf is sooo loved as you can pay 5 bucks for an old used disc and play or like many of us spend hundreds to thousands to find the perfect set up and practice all the time. However i DO agree we do need to figure out a way to make safer courses and to educate the newer players (and some of the not so new players) on etiquette and how to play safely to protect others around the course as well.

I think people given the chance will happily pay $5-10 per day to play good courses. Bryant Lake is a pretty course. Not particularly hard or interesting, but looks great. Always busy at $5/day.

Lots of people will pay a small amount of money to play a nice course. And many would rather play a sole use course, than a free park where other people are always in the way.

 

[BrotherDave]

Bad courses do not hurt the game per se. Dangerous courses on the other hand stand a very real chance of hurting it. IMO it is just a matter of time to the first fatality on a public course. I am having a hard time convincing myself I want to sell any more courses in public parks.

I know of a relatively new course that wasn't designed well in terms of the park is getting a fair amount of complaints from neighbors and patrons as well as course volunteers constantly fighting over control of the redesign. I can easily see the parks and rec of said county getting a bad taste in their mouths regarding disc golf and bar it from going into other parks. So safety notwithstanding, I do think it is possible for poor design to harm the growth of disc golf in this aspect.

 

[KingofKings696]

I maybe spoiled as where I am has a few pretty good courses all free. We do have a few good pay to play 1 is 25 annual pass so that really reduces the cost per round. But think about those of us that want to play during most free time which could be 5 times a week and on days off could play 3 rounds maybe more at 5 dollars a pop thats a lot of money per week. You are talking about 30-50 a week which those of us with jobs that pay only 10 bucks an hr with bills added in it adds up pretty quick to cant afford that. I understand your point for sure if funds were less of an issue I would gladly pay to play for DG specific parks all day. Even now I pay that 25 to go to rolling hills in Mi as its a nice little course in MI. However if it was 5 bucks everytime id probably only attend for special occasions or a random round not every week.

 

[DavidSauls]

I do think there will be a disc golf fatality in a public park soon and it will spell trouble for pur sport

Ive seen some close calls and heard of some awful moments

bottom line is a bad marriage between reckless selfish players and poor safety design

Its sadly inevitable

My guess is that there won't be. Not a fatality to a non-disc-golfer. It is, at the least, extremely improbable that any injury will be that severe.

Though I'm not sure it matters. There have been serious enough injuries on unsafe courses to have an effect, at least in their local areas.

 

[DavidSauls]

I know of a relatively new course that wasn't designed well in terms of the park is getting a fair amount of complaints from neighbors and patrons as well as course volunteers constantly fighting over control of the redesign. I can easily see the parks and rec of said county getting a bad taste in their mouths regarding disc golf and bar it from going into other parks. So safety notwithstanding, I do think it is possible for poor design to harm the growth of disc golf in this aspect.

This is where the danger lies. Not in courses that are bad for the players. Courses that are bad for the parks they're in.