Growing Disc Golf Through Community Analysis
Most avid disc golfers love to see new events and opportunities come up within their community, but depending on what level of exposure your local area has to disc golf in general, any ideas could either be a big hit or fall flat. When you want to make an impact in your town’s disc golf scene, how do you know where to start?
A little analysis can go a long way, and by determining what stage your community is at with their disc golf exposure, you can better formulate a game plan moving forward. How exactly do you do that? Let’s see some of the ways that you can evaluate the mood of the area.
Starting With The Basics
One of the most obvious ways for you to gauge the readiness of your community when it comes to disc golf is by examining the courses in the area, or lack thereof. If your town has absolutely zero courses to play on, you’re preparing yourself for a long yet rewarding journey. Attending city meetings and going through the steps to get a course installed can sometimes take years, but it may be worth it if you’re passionate enough. How to approach a council
You may find a temp course or two in your area, or your community might be rich with a variety of courses all within a reasonable driving distance. Identifying the current lay of the land will help to get you started in the right direction.
Examining league play, local clubs, and frequency of tournaments in the area will also clue you into just how ready your area is for an infusion of disc golf. If you want to turn your town into a mecca of frisbee but there are zero clubs and no weeklies, you’ll have to take different steps to market your plans than if you already had an established community.
A Real Life Example
Sometimes it can be a big task to bring disc golf to others in the area, as politics and personal preferences can hinder one’s efforts. We recently spoke with Jeff Spohr, a well-known disc golf player and business owner in Southern California. Through his company West Coast Disc Golf, he’s been able to create a thriving disc golf atmosphere by paying attention to a few key things.
Jeff speaks exactly to the idea of evaluating the community’s needs: “I feel that one of the main keys to us having consistent turnouts at our weeklies, monthlies, & PDGA tournaments have been our consistency in the ‘style’ of events we host. The players know exactly what to expect from our events and we try our best to provide a fun and organized environment for our tournaments that we hope caters to beginners as well as the avid tournament player. I think our events have grown over time by welcoming feedback from players and doing our best to constantly try and improve the players’ experience.”
Not only is consistency key, but Jeff also relies heavily on social media to get the word out about the events he runs. This communication is essential, not only from a promotion standpoint but also in making sure you don’t step on the toes of others. “If someone was looking to host new events in their area or just organize work days at the local course, reaching out to all the different clubs and asking if they would like to help would be a great start,” says Spohr.
Growing disc golf within your town can be a labor of love or a huge pain depending on how you look at it, but ultimately you’ll need to assess where things are at before you jump in headfirst. Have you had any success in growing the sport in your community? Share your stories with us in the comments below!
