Who Are Disc Golfers?
Who Are Disc Golfers?
A quick and simple survey.
There are many who would agree that one of the next phases in disc golf's development will be gaining support from outside brands and businesses. Just gaining more spectators might be a great first-step in demonstrating that disc golf is intriguing and engaging. However, if we know nothing about our players' and fans' behavior, consumer preferences, and values, then we might as well just prop up cardboard cutouts at tournaments.
The Disc Golf Survey began in 2001, as an exercise of the Mid-Atlantic Disc Club, when we were working to gain support for the 115+ annual events we administrated and scheduled in our region. Interestingly, the idea for conducting such a survey came to me after I purchased a cordless drill. Included in that box was a postcard that included some of the same questions we have used over the last 15 years to help identify disc golfer demographics and behaviors. Of course, some of the questions were modified, and other questions were added, but it was the realization back then that we need to find out more about disc golfers' lifestyles if we are to gain the outside sponsorship and support that so many have identified as necessary in our sport.
This 2015 Disc Golf Survey is the 5th edition of our exercise, the last one being conducted in 2012, when we collected responses from nearly 2400 disc golfers. We believe this survey may be quite useful in guiding our future disc golf partnerships, as we measure how many disc golfers speak Spanish, how many own a cat and/or dog, and how many donate to health and environmental charities, just as a quick sampling of what the survey covers.
Additionally, we measure how many of our respondents are PDGA members, the gender ratio in our sport, and the preferred disc brand of our players.
All these data are useful on their own, but even more powerful when measured over time, since it can help us spot trends in the preferences, behavior, and values of our disc golf community. We hope that you'll spend the two short minutes it takes to fill out our Disc Golf Survey, so that you too can help guide the future of our sport.
We anticipate gaining enough respondents and analyzing and presenting the results sometime around Thanksgiving. Thank you for your support and willingness to help out!