You’re on this page because you are new to the sport, and you want to find out more. We’ve collated some information for new players below, but if something is unclear or missing, let us know! We want to make this easy, and answer common questions.
Disc golf is a game in which players attempt to throw a frisbee disc from a tee box into a standing basket hole. It’s similar to ball golf, in that players try to get their disc into the basket in the least number of throws, or strokes.
Image from Giphy
Instead of reinventing the wheel, we highly recommend you visit https://discgolfnow.com/disc-golf-101/. Despite all the ads, it is a well laid out site that is full of great information.
There are numerous benefits to playing disc golf. A quick internet search will show dozens of articles, listing hundreds of benefits. Here are some of the key ones:
- It is a low impact, physically active sport.
- Get out in nature and explore your local green spaces.
- It is suitable for all ages, making it an excellent family activity.
- Although it can be played alone, disc golf is primarily a group activity, providing social interaction.
- Most courses are free to the public and discs are inexpensive.
See our page on Melbourne courses for all the info on courses around Greater Melbourne, including location, course maps, hole notes, and where to get loaner discs if available.
You can find other courses across Victoria here.
Information for courses across Australia is here.
If you are just wanting to try your hand at disc golf before purchasing, check our course information page. Many local courses have option for loaner discs.
If you are ready to purchase discs, we would encourage you to purchase locally from one of the many Australian providers. Further to that, we would love it if you could support the Melbourne Disc Golf Shop. We have a large stock of discs and ship Australia-wide.
We have been told that this can be difficult for new players. There are a lot of different events that include large tournaments on the Australian Disc Golf (ADG) tour down to local Social Days, League Days and other events. These can really be broken down into two categories.
ADG sanctioned tournaments and events
Any event that is sanctioned by the ADG and / or the PDGA will be found on the ADG calendar of events here. The calendar includes links to the event information and registration page. These are typically larger tournaments designed for players who have some disc golf experience. Having said that, they offer a wide range of divisions so you will be able to find a comfortable level to compete at to start out. As your skills grow, you can keep moving through the divisions. More on the ADG divisions can be found here.
Localized club events
These are the events that are run by the local disc golf clubs such as Melbourne Disc Golf. They include more casual events such as weekly or monthly Social Days or League Days (depending on the club terminology) and other fun events such as doubles competitions, one disc challenges and more. The best place to look for these is by keeping an eye on the club’s calendar of events. The calendar for MDGC can be found here.
You will also find links to any tournaments that we are running here as well as on the ADG calendar. Most of the Melbourne events use Metrix for scoring and you must be an ADG member to play in them for insurance purpose. They are both free to join and you can do so by following the following these links:
Some of the other larger clubs around Southern Victoria are:
To play in MDGC Social Days, you need to:
- Have an Australian Disc Golf (ADG) number (this grants public liability insurance)
- Register with Disc Golf Metrix.
Both of these steps are simple and free. To get your ADG number, go to this page: https://www.australiandiscgolf.com/join/. After entering the necessary information and clicking “JOIN NOW”, you will get an email with your new ADG number. You should also be able to see your name added to the list of members here: https://www.australiandiscgolf.com/memberlist/.
Once you have this number, register with Disc Golf Metrix here: https://discgolfmetrix.com/?u=login#panel2.
Now that your Disc Golf Metrix account is created and you have an ADG number, you can register for a MDGC Social Day. You can find these on the MDGC Upcoming Events page, or on Metrix club events page.
Registration is done on Metrix. When registering for an event, you will be required to provide your ADG number.
Note: You will need to be signed in to Metrix to register. If you navigate to the link via the Facebook app, it’s likely you will need to log in again.
Rules and safety guidelines.
The basic rules for Disc Golf
This is more around casual play but includes some info on safety and etiquette.
PDGA Official Rules
These are the more serious rules that all comps should follow at least to a certain extent. They must be followed for ADG sanctioned events.
Course search and scoring Apps
PDGA Live App
This has links to the rules, live scores and is the scoring app used for most tournaments.
Android iPhone
UDisc
https://udisc.com/
A simple and versatile app used for scoring, and discovering disc golf courses. It can track player statistics, and includes links to the official (PDGA) rules.
Android iPhone
Metrix
https://discgolfmetrix.com/
Another scoring app/website, focused on managing tournaments and handicaps.
Play It Forward is an initiative created by the Melbourne Disc Golf Club to help grow the sport, encourage new players, and lower the entry barrier. It started out with club ambassadors passing out discs to new players but has recently expended to using these discs to seed library loaner disc programs to get more discs into the hands of new players.
Many of you may have been directed to this page after receiving a Play It Forward Disc and scanning the QR Code. You can find out more about how that program came about here.