The Most Popular Disc Golf Course In Every U.S. State: 2023

With well over half of the world's over 15,000 disc golf courses and a larger population of disc golfers than any other nation, the world's biggest disc golfing country is the United States. Here you can learn which disc golf course in each U.S. state was played more than any other in 2023.

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• What Does "Most Popular" Mean?
• Average Age of States' Most Popular Courses
• A Way to Avoid Crowded Disc Golf Courses
• What to Know Before Reading the Stats
• The Most Popular Disc Golf Course in Every U.S. State: 2023

What Does "Most Popular Disc Golf Course" Mean?

In short, "most popular" in this post means simply "most played."

Since most disc golfers play recreationally, the courses with top play counts usually have layouts that are enjoyable and encouraging for less-skilled players. This year, for example, only two state's most-played courses with layouts eligible for UDisc's disc golf course difficulty rating system don't have an "easy" or "intermediate" layout option (only five states didn't have rated layouts). They also tend to be near large population centers and easily accessible by car or public transport.

Notably, we release annual lists of each U.S. state's best disc golf courses as well, with rankings based on disc golfers' course ratings. There's some overlap in the courses that reach those ranks and those that are most popular, but it's not huge.

There are lots of reasons for that. Standout disc golf courses tend to require a lot of land, so they're typically built fairly far from population centers and therefore not as accessible. Extremely busy courses could take a hit in rating simply because players' moods are worse due to wait times. Possibly the players who are most likely to take the time to rate a course tend to be more experienced and so favor harder courses that get fewer plays over easier ones that are more popular. The list goes on.

All of that said, popular courses do tend to be very good courses — otherwise, who'd bother playing them? They're often doing something important for the growth of the sport, too, by providing places where beginners and now-and-again players can have fun rounds and find their perfect balance of challenge and achievability.

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What's the Average Age of States' Most Popular Disc Golf Courses?

Exactly half of states' most popular courses were built before 2000 (that's excluding D.C., which is included in the full list but isn't a state). That's a lot different than the ages of the each state's best disc golf course. Of those, nearly 60% were built in or after 2011 and under 15% were around before the turn of the century.

We can't say for sure why there's such a huge difference between the ages of popular versus the most highly-rated courses, but here are a few of our educated guesses:

• Older courses were often designed at a time when discs didn't fly as far and there was no YouTube to help people improve their form and technique. Their distances and difficulty, therefore, suit today's average recreational player (i.e., the majority of disc golfers) better than newer destination courses designed for the modern competitive player that wow visitors but get less repeat traffic.
• Older courses have had longer to build a reputation and community around them, making them more popular.
• Many of the most popular courses are in parks in or near large cities and perhaps established when there was less demand for public land. Available land in those areas has decreased as demand for disc golf has risen, so the established course is seeing lots of traffic while securing land for a new course in a similarly accessible location is extremely difficult.

Here are the five oldest and five newest courses to be a state's most popular in 2023:

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A Way to Avoid Crowded Disc Golf Courses

If your closest course is a popular one and you'd like a way to avoid the crowds, don't forget that players with UDisc Pro can see real-time disc golf course traffic online and in the app. Just check under the photos of any course listing in the app or on the right of your screen beneath the map location on the web (for web, make sure you're logged in).

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What to Know Before Reading the Stats

Here are important things to know before you dive into the table.

On Where the Stats Came From and Their Meanings

• $: This symbol means the course may require a fee of some type.
• Disc Golf Rounds Recorded: The number of rounds recorded in 2023 on a course with the UDisc app, the #1 app for disc golfers. Not every round of disc golf is recorded in UDisc, but it provides the best metrics disc golf has to figure out which courses are played most often.
• New Champ: A "Yes" in this column means a state had a different most popular course in 2022.
• +/-: How many spots the 2023 top course in a state rose or fell in relation to where the state's top course was on the 2022 list. For example, North Carolina's top course was #8 in total plays in relation to other states' top courses in 2022; this year it was #6 and has a ▲2 in this category. 
• World Pop. Grade: The "Pop." stands for "popularity." This is a quick and interesting way to compare every course's play total with 2023's most popular disc golf course in the world (a course in Denmark). If you've ever had a test graded on a curve, it's pretty much the same thing. The course with the most plays in the world set the bar and got a 100. The other courses' "grades" are based on what percentage their play counts are of the highest plays total. For example, if a course has a World Pop. Grade of 23, it means it had 23% of the plays that the world's most popular course did in 2023.

On Organization and Tips for Correct Interpretation

• The table is organized from the most played to the least played course, but...
• ... don't forget that the stats include only the top course from each state. Because some states have multiple courses with more plays than the top course in other states, no course's position in the table – other than #1 – reflects its overall popularity as compared to all courses in the United States.

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The Most Popular Disc Golf Course in Every U.S. State: 2023

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