When cities consider installing a disc golf course, there is a natural temptation to build something impressive.
Long holes. Championship-level difficulty. Water hazards. Multiple par-4s and par-5s. A course capable of challenging advanced players and perhaps even hosting tournaments.
Those courses absolutely have a place in disc golf.
But if the primary goal of a city is to get more residents outside, increase recreational opportunities, introduce people to a new activity, and maximize how many people actually use a park, the available data points strongly in another direction.
Shorter, easier disc golf courses are generally better at attracting new players and generating recreational use.
And some of the strongest evidence comes from simply looking at which courses people actually play.
The Most-Played Disc Golf Courses Usually Aren’t the Hard Ones
UDisc provides the largest available dataset on everyday disc golf participation. Millions of players use the app to find courses and record rounds.
Its 2025 data revealed a remarkably consistent pattern.
Of the most-played disc golf courses in each U.S. state, 48 out of 50 offered an easy or moderate layout. Only two states had a most-played course that did not provide an easy or moderate option.
The same pattern appears worldwide.
Among the 100 most-played disc golf courses in the world in 2025, only 13 did not offer an easy or moderate layout.
In other words, 87% of the world’s 100 busiest courses offered players a recreationally accessible option.
That is probably more useful information for a parks department than asking experienced disc golfers what type of course they personally prefer.
The courses attracting the most actual play are overwhelmingly courses ordinary recreational players can enjoy.
The single most-played course in the United States in 2025 provides an excellent example.
Johnny Roberts Disc Golf Course in Arvada, Colorado is classified by UDisc as easy, yet players recorded 45,858 rounds there in 2025, more than at any other U.S. course.
Short and easy does not mean unpopular.
In many cases, it means exactly the opposite.
Beginners Are More Likely to Come Back After Playing an Easy Course
Traffic is important, but an even more important question for a city is whether a recreational facility creates repeat users.
UDisc’s 2025 Disc Golf Growth Report provides some of the most convincing data available.
Players who recorded their first-ever disc golf round on a 9-hole course went on to average more lifetime rounds than players whose first recorded round was on an 18-hole course.
UDisc also found that new players whose first round was on an easy course were 10% more likely to play a second round than players who began on a very challenging course.
That gets to the heart of why shorter courses matter.
A beginning player does not need a 600-foot par four to have a memorable experience.
A new player needs to experience success.
They need to see the basket and believe they can reach it.
They need opportunities to make a par.
They need to throw a disc close enough to the basket that they can imagine making a birdie someday.
They need to finish nine holes without losing three discs, spending two hours searching through weeds, or feeling like the course was designed for someone else.
A course that accomplishes those things turns a first-time player into a second-time player.
And that is how a recreational activity grows.
Hammond Park Shows What Happens in the Disc Golf Capital of the World
Emporia, Kansas is one of the best places in America to examine this question because Emporia has almost every type of disc golf available.
The city has hosted professional World Championships, the Dynamic Discs Open and other major events. It has championship-level courses specifically designed to challenge elite players.
And yet its most heavily used course is one of its simplest.
Hammond Park is a nine-hole neighborhood course.
Hammond Park is described as a “short recreational level course.” Eight of its nine holes are listed at under 300 feet, with no hole longer than 400 feet.
Visit Emporia specifically describes Hammond as one of the busier courses in town, especially for beginners.
Former world champion Paige Bjerkaas made the point even more directly when discussing Emporia’s courses with Visit Emporia:
“I see more new disc golfers playing that 9-hole course in Hammond than any of our other courses.”
She called Hammond one of the best things Emporia had done for disc golf because players could learn there before graduating to the city’s larger and more complicated courses.
There is another important piece of the Hammond Park story.
UDisc scores significantly undercount actual recreational use.
An observational counting project conducted by Emporia State University students found that actual player traffic at Hammond Park was far greater relative to Emporia’s other courses than UDisc score totals suggested. Many of the people using Hammond simply were not recording their rounds in UDisc.
That makes sense.
The casual family throwing a few discs after dinner is less likely to keep an official score than the experienced player spending two or three hours on a championship course.
UDisc’s own research confirms that this is a significant issue when using app scorecards as a proxy for total recreation.
In 2023, 1.4 million players used UDisc, but 44% never kept score at all. UDisc also found that, among users who tapped the app’s “Get directions” button for a course in July 2023, 70% did not subsequently complete a scored round that day.
So even among people who already have UDisc installed on their phones, enormous amounts of disc golf activity occur without a scorecard being recorded.
That distinction is particularly important with a course like Hammond.
If the purpose of a city park is recreation, the important measurement is not simply how many scorecards were submitted?
The better question is:
How many people actually used the park?
Observed player traffic provides a better answer to that question, and the Emporia State counting project showed the importance of Hammond Park in a way that UDisc scorecards alone do not.
Finland Provides an Even Better Example: They Actually Counted People
There is a similar example in Finland where administrators installed a physical visitor counter specifically so they would not have to rely on scorekeeping apps.
Puolarmaari in Espoo was described as a beginner-friendly, feel-good course designed for relaxed recreational play.
The City of Espoo installed a visitor counter in 2019 to determine how much the course was actually being used.
The numbers surprised even the people operating the course.
From June through December of 2019, players completed 52,242 rounds.
That included:
- 11,258 rounds in June
- 14,330 rounds in July
- 12,387 rounds in August
- more than 3,100 rounds during a single week
- and a peak of 606 rounds in one day
The course was being used from early morning until nearly midnight, effectively providing recreation 16 to 18 hours per day.
Those are not app check-ins.
Those are physical visitor-counter numbers.
The City of Espoo subsequently used information from the counters when considering and planning additional recreational facilities.
And the popularity has continued.
In UDisc’s 2025 international data, Puolarmaari was the most-played course in Finland, with another 18,143 UDisc-recorded rounds. UDisc classifies its layout as easy.
So Finland gives us both kinds of evidence.
The app data says the easy course is enormously popular.
The physical counter says the actual amount of use is much greater still.
Iceland Changed Its Strategy After Difficult Courses Failed to Attract Players
Iceland may provide the clearest case study of all.
Birgir Ómarsson spent approximately two decades helping develop disc golf in Iceland. Like many experienced disc golfers, his first instinct was to build courses he personally found interesting.
They were difficult.
They did not attract many players.
Ómarsson later summarized what he learned:
“The first courses I built were too difficult, and it didn’t catch on. Making easier courses drives in more people.”
The strategy changed.
One of the important early beginner courses was Klambratún in Reykjavík. Its holes averaged only about 48 meters, or 158 feet.
Instead of being too short to attract players, it became one of the country’s most-played courses.
Disc golf participation began accelerating.
A similar experiment occurred in Akureyri.
The community already had Hamrar, a difficult course that Ómarsson considered one of Iceland’s best. But for roughly a decade, it received relatively little use.
Then the community built a shorter, easier course closer to the population.
People began playing it.
More importantly, traffic eventually increased at the difficult course too.
Players learned the game on the easy course. After developing their skills and becoming disc golfers, some wanted a greater challenge and moved on to Hamrar.
That demonstrates an important principle for municipal recreation:
An easy course does not take players away from an advanced course. It creates the players who will eventually use the advanced course.
Iceland has now embraced this model on a much larger scale. Nine-hole courses are common, and beginner facilities are frequently located alongside other public amenities.
Today Iceland has the highest concentration of disc golf courses per capita in the world, with approximately one public course for every 4,500 residents.
Short Does Not Mean Boring
One objection to shorter courses is that they will not be enjoyable enough.
Actual player behavior suggests otherwise.
UDisc’s 2025 worldwide traffic data shows that 87 of the 100 most-played courses in the world provide easy or moderate layouts.
UDisc has also begun maintaining a worldwide ranking specifically for purpose-built short courses. To qualify, courses must have nine holes or fewer, average roughly 80 to 200 feet per hole and contain no hole longer than 295 feet.
Those rankings are not editorial choices. They are derived from UDisc’s database of more than 6.5 million course ratings submitted by more than one million individual disc golfers.
In other words, there are purpose-built courses with holes averaging less than 200 feet that players genuinely enjoy enough to rate highly.
One recent example is Bullitt County Disc Golf Course in Kentucky.
The nine-hole course is only 1,620 feet long in total, takes about 32 minutes to play, and has only three holes longer than 200 feet.
Yet the course became the sixth-most-played course in Kentucky in 2025 and was ranked among the state’s best courses in 2026. It also supports weekly leagues and community fundraising events.
Good course design does not require extreme distance.
Trees, elevation, angles, landing zones and basket placement can make a 180-foot hole interesting without making it frustrating.
The goal should be achievable challenge, not maximum difficulty.
Cities Are Already Building More Nine-Hole Courses
The growth of shorter courses is not theoretical.
According to UDisc’s 2026 Disc Golf Growth Report, nine-hole courses have been installed at approximately twice the rate of 18-hole courses since 2020.
There are obvious reasons.
A typical new nine-hole disc golf course costs approximately $9,000 to $18,000 to install, according to UDisc’s survey of 2025 course builders.
They require less property.
They fit into neighborhood parks where championship layouts cannot.
They take less time to play.
They can serve families, children, seniors and beginners while still providing experienced players with opportunities to practice putting and approach shots.
UDisc estimates that a nine-hole course with four players per hole over a 12-hour recreational day has theoretical capacity for 432 player uses per day. That is more than twice the hourly capacity UDisc calculated for a four-court pickleball facility.
For cities trying to generate recreational opportunities from limited budgets and limited park space, that is a compelling equation.
Build the First Course for the People Who Don’t Play Yet
There will always be demand for great championship disc golf courses.
Communities with established disc golf populations should have long courses that challenge advanced players, support leagues and tournaments, and provide opportunities for players to improve.
But those courses solve a different problem.
When a city is installing disc golf primarily to increase recreation among its residents, it should think first about the people who do not already play.
A serious disc golfer will drive across town to play a difficult course.
A beginner probably will not.
A serious disc golfer may happily spend three hours playing 18 difficult holes.
A family with two children probably will not.
An experienced player might view a 175-foot hole as easy.
For a child throwing 80 feet, a senior throwing 120 feet, or an adult picking up a golf disc for the first time, that same hole may be exactly the right challenge.
The participation data bears this out:
48 of 50 states’ busiest courses provide an easy or moderate option.
87 of the world’s 100 most-played courses provide an easy or moderate layout.
Players who start on nine-hole courses average more lifetime rounds.
Beginners who start on easy courses are 10% more likely to come back for a second round.
Nine-hole courses are being built twice as quickly as 18-hole courses.
And physical visitor counters in Finland have demonstrated that an approachable recreational disc golf facility can generate tens of thousands of rounds in a matter of months.
The lesson is fairly simple.
If the objective is to build the most challenging disc golf course possible, build a championship course.
But if the objective is to get the most people outside, provide an inexpensive activity for families, introduce residents to a lifelong sport and generate as much recreational use as possible from public park space, start shorter.
Make it easy enough that someone who has never touched a golf disc can have fun.
Give people a reason to play their first round.
Then give them a reason to come back for their second.
