Is it worth the drive?

I have this theory and hopefully you all can help me prove it. How far are some of you willing to drive to play at a 'good' disc golf course (assume at least a 3.5 on the dgcoursereview)? My theory boils down to this:

These are max drive times to play 'good' courses

9 holes: 15-20 min drive

18 holes: 20-30 min drive

24 holes: 30-45 min drive

29 holes: 45min-1hr

... and so forth

Luck or deliberate choice may place you close to one of these 'high count' courses thus skewing what kind of drive is 'worth it' to you. I live only 1hr and 45mins from Mason County (72 holes). I haven't worked Highbridge's hole count into this theory yet, given it's a 10 hour drive for me.

 

[David Sauls]

What about frequency?  Are you talking about regularly driving to  a course?  Or at least once a year?

Personally, number of holes (beyond 18) has little influence on me.  I'll drive to play a good or great course; I'm not more likely to drive to play 2 courses, or an 18+ hole course.

And yes, local situation will highly affect this.  (For myself, I have 3 3.5+ courses near where I live, work, and in between).

 

[Destraayer]

Good question about frequency. I'm gonna say at least once a week for league play or something of that nature. Obviously, over an hour drive makes once a week unrealistic, so maybe once a month for drive time over an hour.

[David Sauls]

By that frequency standard my answer is "None of the above".   My time schedule, and the good courses near my home & work, mean I don't drive to any other courses once a week.

But if someone says, "Let's go play __________ course this weekend", an hour to a good course is acceptable, for variety if nothing else.  A great course 2 hours away might be doable.

And, of course, the range expands considerably for tournaments on good and great courses. 

[Pete Maher]

I have 9 courses all within an hour drive from me and most are within 30 minutes. 2 are 27-hole courses, 1 is a 9-hole and the rest are 18-hole courses. the best one around also happens to be one of the closest ones to me, Tyler (which is one of the top ten disc golf courses in the country) so I play that the most. but when i want to switch it up i go to one of the other courses in the area(and they aren't lacking either, Nockamixon, home of the 2005 world championships for example) but also if I only have like an hour to play I'll play the 9 hole that's in the park that backs up to my house. getting back to the question you asked though, every year for the past 4 years me and my friends have driven down to Florida pretty much just to play disc golf for the week. so that's 20 hours give or take to get there, but the amount of holes and courses we play play it probably equals out to your theory of max drive times to play "good" courses lol

[Jeff Nichols]

The CLOSEST course to my house is not my favorite, but is 18 holes and is about 30 min away in good traffic. I generally drive at LEAST 40-45 minutes each way to go play, regardless of the amount of holes. I drive quite often about an hour each way to go play a little 9 hole course that is NEVER crowded and is a technical course. More about the Quality than Quantity, for me.

[Pete Maher]

Yea the nine hole right next to my house lacks quality and quantity lol  I feel like half the fun of disc golf is playing new courses. i love traveling and the adventure. I have traveled all over to play new courses, and there are still many more in the area that I want to get to

 

[Steve West]

Quality and size of course are not independent.  There are very few 3.5 rated 9-hole courses.  The average for 9 holes is 2.1. (3.1 for 18)  Raters seem to place a lot of weight on how many holes a course has, even if all the other features are the same.

[Jeffery Nugent]

I'm kinda screwed on this one, it's a 35 minute drive to the closest course for me, 45 minutes to the course where leagues are played. I'll easily drive over an hour for a "good" course, up to 2-3 hours for tournaments.

[Jeff Nichols]

Jeff, Do you live near Seattle Too???? Lol. :)

[Jeffery Nugent]

No, I live out in a rural area southwest of indianapolis, we have close to 20 courses in the area, just none close to me. I need 7 more baskets and I can have a 9 hole course on my property.

[Donny Olow]

Experiment and see what's right for you !!!  Play them all !!!

[Destraayer]

It's more as a reference to use in a situation where presenting the idea of installing a disc golf course to a park board. You could illustrate to them how far people are willing to drive to come and play at their park. This maybe just the thing to convince them to install more holes instead of less.