All the best things in life are FREE? Or are they?

You make money doing this?
That's what I used to hear when I sat at a drawing table everyday 'drawing pictures.'
Oh man all you do is draw, how hard can that be?
Now it's disc golf too?!
How dare you do something fun in your life.
And make money?!
Know people that get paid installing, designing courses too.
Oh my god. Think of it, Disc Golf as a business, who'd a thought.

It's all about growth.
Real growth comes from efforts that are rewarded.
No one is getting rich, no one is robbing from the poor and giving it to themselves.
We are not investment bankers (that's another story).

This sport is growing, ask The big boys Innova, Discraft, Gateway, Lightning, .......
The suppliers.......

The only way that this 'sport' we call it that, believe it is more of a passion, is going to grow is by supporting those that are growing it.

There aren't any big philanthropists like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet types caring about disc golf.

Any thoughts? Please no delusional fantasies... Disc Golf is not all everything of how great it can be type discussions, you know what I mean?

Try to keep the disc'ussion on planet earth, not some fantasy land.

[Rescue]

To much growth to quick worries me. Just look at all the ball golf courses that have gone under after the big "Tiger" explosion died down. Small well planned growth with good direction is what will keep it alive. Right now I see growth, but no clear direction. Just look at some of the posts in regards to tournaments. I've also played my share of tournaments and I see no clear cut guidelines. I think you have to look at it more like a "chain". Now I'm not saying to loose a torunaments appeal, but the one's that need "help" cound beniffit from a cookie cutter template from the PDGA. A perfect example was when I brought up a question on the rule of "verticallity"(didn't know it had a name mind you). The person who wrote the rule had explained what his intent was when he wrote it, but was told. "NO" that's not how it is interprated...Huh?
So in short I think we need to get are collective stuff together before we grow without a true direction.

[Disc Player Sports]

How old is 'ball golf?"
It did not really explode until, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus came around and the advent of television and mass consumerism.
Well planned growth and by whom, will manage this growth.
Growth has all ready steamrolled and will not stop.
Go to the pdga website and see how many disc golf courses are now in its registered directory.
And there are more that are going in the ground right now.
It's the real estate market that has hurt the "ball golf" industry.
Golf courses are built to make housing projects.
Come down to Florida, there are more golf courses here than in the rest of the country.

[Corey Fisher]

I have the land and the brain..what can i do?

[Disc Player Sports]

Do you have incentive?
Willing to work a lot of hours. (That's part of owning a small business).

Your best bet is to see what others have done and learn from them.
You need to have a course(s) for 3 levels of play. Pro, Advanced & most important Amateurs.
You need to be able to move your baskets around. Proper signage, a pro-shop (do you have a garage to start?)
Will you need a local business license?
Family and friends that will support your 'crazy' idea?
Also, very important is location.
Are you willing to have 'strange'rs walk on your property, and the liability? You'll need liability insurance.
Also a waiver is not a bad idea.
Are there disc golfers in your area that will come support your course? Pay a fee?
You might have to get a second job? Unless you have some rich backers who are willing to wait.

Suggest looking at the existing "private courses" and see their locations, demographics and all that they do for the community. The community has to support the course. There has to be a need for it.
Was only kidding in my post "all I do is draw pictures" there is more to it than achieving anything, it's effort has to be involved. Things don't just happen.

Oh and very important, the course has to be both challenging and rewarding.
Seek help with this and put your ego in your pocket. There are some resources out there.

What are your skills that you can bring to the project?

And don't answer these questions here.
Think about it for a while.

[James Banevicz]

Sell everthing you have,invest all the money in disc golf , then sit and wait.

[Disc Player Sports]

Are you a religious cultist?
Own a church of disc golf?
Now there's an angle.... ha ha ha ha :)

[Charles Isaac]

The question is why the growth? Till you know that . . . it is hard to manage and everything PDGA does is catch-up.

Personally I think part of the growth problem is the economy, with a 10% (on unemployment) to an actual 17% unemployment (people who are unemployed, stopped looking and working PT instead of FT) numbers; cheap is on the in. Disc golf is something fun you can do and after a small invest of $$ with no recurring costs. The basic cost about $18-24. Most people can afford that little of money with a large upswing of time and no extra money.

I do think events need to get the act together. That will maintain longer term growth.

[Rescue]

Sorry to be the dark cloud. It may continue to grow, but without direction. It will fizzle out. I sure as heck hope I'm wrong, I truly do. Pretty soon you will have splintered goups with 20 differnt ways to do the same thing. Just read some of the posts on the people who had terrible torunament experiences.

[Disc Player Sports]

Growth is not about tournaments.
It's about how many people purchase and take up the game.

Because of financial burdens, strongly believe that there will only be a few worthy tournaments.
The people that run tournaments need to be compensated.
Right now there is too much disc golf given away, for the sake of running an event.

There is more 'casual' organizing going on.
Weekly leagues, handicaps, doubles, a lot less headaches.

[Rescue]

That's why it won't be able to go "big time" and eventually growth will decrease do to that. Also Tournaments and $$ are a must, but you need sponsors for that and that's were the other part of the growth will come from. If you ran a tournament with a template made by the PDGA. Followed it to the letter. Your headaches would be less, because the people playing in it. Will know what is expected.

[Disc Player Sports]

How many tournaments have you run?
Was a TD at a Worlds, and all the PDGA do was run around and be of little help.
And the tournaments, being part of exceeded PDGA expectations.

[Sean McFarlane]

You also need to look at WHO the sport is attracting. A lot of vagrants are attracted to the no money-sink sport..go drink have fun and while your at it trash the course. This leaves any businesses that would be interested in funding less likely to fund. We need to find a way to minimize vagrant activity and get the majority of the public to stop looking at it as a stoner hippy thing if we really want it to grow to PGA size.
Personally i think the best way to market the sport would be through a state exercise program, like the one Michigan is trying to put out there. Our sport while not supper physical is moderate exercise, and if done on a regular basis could be beneficial. Put the word out.