How much more often would you play your home course, if it were never crowded?

I'm calibrating my Course Location Optimizer. I'd especially like to hear from players near the following courses, but any replies will be helpful.

Kendall Indian Hammocks Park, Morley Field, Sunset Park, Whittier Narrows Park, Santa Cruz River Park, Lafreniere Park, Burns Park.

[Longneck]

My course is 4 star rated. 20 mins away from my house in the middle of nowhere. other than the couple tournaments and morning group it is empty.

[david k. reisner]

every sunday, hawaii is a disc golfer's paradise, but not many DGers over here. the most i've seen at mackenzie was at the safri turni , i'd say about 30 DGers.

[Mikey]

every day...but people keep stealing the damn baskets..lol sad stuff really

[Steve West]

Thanks. I'll also need to know which course, and how often you play it now.

[Mikey]

Lola Valley in Redford, Mi. I play it at least once a week

[Derek Tonn]

I would probably play ours even more if it were **MORE** crowded. Springfield, MN...we've chatted several times before, Steve. :-)

I'll bet we still average less than ten people per day on our course here in town (14 holer)...and I can think of three times since we opened in 2006 where I've seen more than two groups on the course at the same time. It's actually a very fun course too! Lots of risk-reward shots, scenic little corners, etc. It's just that locals in our tiny town of 2,200 people haven't "caught the fever" yet. About 2/3 of the players on the course that I've spoken with are driving in from 30-45 minutes away. Cool in some regards (that players think it's worth the drive)! However, I still wish more locals were out there playing.

[ROBEY the one.]

do something about it! teach a session at the high school or put up a flyer at the high school for leagues (which you would have to run).if you get a few people started it will spread like the wildfires in california.

[Derek Tonn]

Hey Robey!

Sometimes I get in trouble with my wife and a few City officials for trying to do a little TOO much. :-) Spent over 700 hours redesigning and improving 10 of our 14 holes. Run an every-week league over five months. Ran two tournaments on the course in the past year. Offered to coach a "club" team at our schools (one K-6, one K-12) where we could travel to neighboring towns to take kids from those schools on. Offered to run a Summer community ed program. People in the community are very, very supportive of the course! They just don't get out and play it much. That's been the disappointment for me.

[ROBEY the one.]

that sucks. goodwork though trying to drum up support.

[Steve West]

Derek -

You might get a few more from your town, but don't expect many more. The best numbers I can come up with (and they are very sketchy) is that in the areas where there are a lot of courses and an active disc golf culture, the number of players per week is about 1 player for every 200 to 400 in the general population. That would be just 5 to 11 players from your town.

I would expect that most of the players on your course would come from out of town, because a 30-45 minute drive is pretty short as far as drives to disc golf courses go. (That's another thread, though.)

If your interested, your course calculates as less busy than 95% of all courses. It'll get an Availability factor near 100%. It's easy to set the Availability factor for non-busy courses - whether it gets a factor of 95% or 99% doesn't make much difference.

However, at the other end of the scale, an Availability of 5% is five times better than an availability of 1% - and that makes a lot of difference.

So, I'd really like to hear from everyone who lives near a busy course.

Mikey -

Thanks for the data. I have Lola Valley in the top 35% of courses.

[Mikey]

no prob

[ConniJo]

Crowded? I play Russellville AR at 7 AM-not many people around.