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| Here is a map showing the number of courses within 100 miles of the center of each pixel.
Of course, what really matters is how many courses are within 100 miles of you or me. So, for every census tract, I computed how many courses are within 100 miles. The results are in the following chart.
This shows the percent of population that has at least x many courses within 100 miles. About half of the population of the United States has 50 or more courses within 100 miles. Somewhat troubling is that 2,046,884 people don't have any courses within 100 miles.
| At least |
|
| 0 |
100.00% |
| 5 |
97.24% |
| 10 |
94.27% |
| 15 |
89.48% |
| 20 |
83.61% |
| 25 |
80.06% |
| 30 |
76.63% |
| 35 |
72.97% |
| 40 |
69.32% |
| 45 |
62.49% |
| 50 |
52.88% |
| 55 |
45.40% |
| 60 |
39.22% |
| 65 |
34.49% |
| 70 |
30.10% |
| 75 |
25.47% |
| 80 |
22.52% |
| 85 |
19.02% |
| 90 |
16.48% |
| 95 |
14.18% |
| 100 |
12.01% |
| 105 |
10.17% |
| 110 |
7.97% |
| 115 |
6.63% |
| 120 |
6.01% |
| 125 |
5.48% |
| 130 |
4.48% |
| 135 |
3.52% |
| 140 |
2.41% |
| 145 |
1.41% |
| 150 |
0.98% |
| 155 |
0.78% |
| 160 |
0.54% |
| 165 |
0.19% |
| 170 |
0.05% |
| 175 |
0.00% |
If you go to www. PDGA.com or DGCourseDirectory.com and look for the courses near a particular place, you will see a list of courses with the distances from the place you searched. This leads people to brag about having "this many courses within this many miles". Everyone then wonders if that is more than anywhere else.
I thought I should end the debate. I decided to use holes instead of courses as a better measure of how much disc golfing there is in an area. (That will leave open the debate about "most courses" so people can still play with the Directory results.
Also, I wanted to find exact points, not just the best zip codes.
So, for every point that is halfway between two courses that are between 20 and 200 miles apart, I calculated how many holes are in all the courses that are as near or nearer than those two courses. This was hundreds of thousands of points, each of which has a certain number of holes within a certain number of miles (between 10 and 100).
I kept only those points that have more holes than any other point for that distance.
Below is a table with the results, based on the 09/2010 PDGA Directory. For example, the place with the most holes withing 15 miles would have 304 holes within 14.08 miles.
You can use Google Maps or something similar if you want to see the exact locations. If you want to see where your city lands on the list, I can't help you. There are too many combinations of locations and radii to produce any kind of complete "list". Also, I haven't found a mechanical way to assign particular coordinates to an area that is thought to be part of a certain city's domain.
| Center |
(Lat. Long.) |
General Area |
Holes |
Within Miles |
| 37.0548 |
-86.3557 |
Bowling Green, KY |
186 |
10.30 |
| 44.9674 |
-93.2639 |
Minneapolis, MN |
194 |
10.60 |
| 44.8984 |
-93.2250 |
Minneapolis, MN |
195 |
11.02 |
| 36.1456 |
-95.9117 |
Tulsa, OK |
216 |
11.10 |
| 44.9622 |
-93.2188 |
Minneapolis, MN |
223 |
11.62 |
| 44.8963 |
-93.2498 |
Minneapolis, MN |
225 |
11.83 |
| 44.9363 |
-93.2564 |
Minneapolis, MN |
230 |
11.88 |
| 44.8936 |
-93.2716 |
Minneapolis, MN |
233 |
12.28 |
| 45.0099 |
-93.2597 |
Minneapolis, MN |
235 |
12.57 |
| 44.9227 |
-93.2948 |
Minneapolis, MN |
236 |
12.91 |
| 44.9374 |
-93.2346 |
Minneapolis, MN |
265 |
13.17 |
| 44.9285 |
-93.2342 |
Minneapolis, MN |
272 |
13.44 |
| 44.9294 |
-93.2107 |
Minneapolis, MN |
304 |
14.08 |
| 45.0177 |
-93.2284 |
Minneapolis, MN |
307 |
16.25 |
| 44.9772 |
-93.2634 |
Minneapolis, MN |
313 |
16.47 |
| 44.9831 |
-93.2027 |
Minneapolis, MN |
328 |
16.51 |
| 44.9254 |
-93.3047 |
Minneapolis, MN |
331 |
16.54 |
| 44.9237 |
-93.3093 |
Minneapolis, MN |
341 |
16.80 |
| 44.9961 |
-93.2331 |
Minneapolis, MN |
349 |
17.75 |
| 45.0043 |
-93.2432 |
Minneapolis, MN |
358 |
18.31 |
| 44.9637 |
-93.3771 |
Minneapolis, MN |
368 |
18.78 |
| 41.7582 |
-88.0879 |
Chicago, IL |
392 |
19.45 |
| 41.7597 |
-88.0489 |
Chicago, IL |
401 |
20.55 |
| 45.0380 |
-93.2323 |
Minneapolis, MN |
403 |
20.65 |
| 41.7536 |
-87.9962 |
Chicago, IL |
410 |
20.77 |
| 41.7552 |
-88.0123 |
Chicago, IL |
419 |
21.27 |
| 41.7399 |
-88.0530 |
Chicago, IL |
428 |
21.51 |
| 45.0310 |
-93.3468 |
Minneapolis, MN |
440 |
22.26 |
| 41.7325 |
-88.0113 |
Chicago, IL |
455 |
22.66 |
| 41.7466 |
-88.0549 |
Chicago, IL |
467 |
22.95 |
| 41.7526 |
-87.9849 |
Chicago, IL |
484 |
23.09 |
| 41.7806 |
-87.9475 |
Chicago, IL |
493 |
23.96 |
| 41.7812 |
-87.8996 |
Chicago, IL |
511 |
25.14 |
| 41.7726 |
-87.9004 |
Chicago, IL |
529 |
25.47 |
| 41.8045 |
-87.9825 |
Chicago, IL |
530 |
25.72 |
| 41.8331 |
-87.8972 |
Chicago, IL |
557 |
27.29 |
| 41.8245 |
-87.8979 |
Chicago, IL |
584 |
27.66 |
| 41.8875 |
-88.0693 |
Chicago, IL |
594 |
29.36 |
| 41.8771 |
-87.9884 |
Chicago, IL |
623 |
29.98 |
| 41.9131 |
-88.1476 |
Chicago, IL |
630 |
30.59 |
| 41.8786 |
-88.0160 |
Chicago, IL |
641 |
30.86 |
| 41.8914 |
-87.9949 |
Chicago, IL |
650 |
31.00 |
| 41.9167 |
-88.0835 |
Chicago, IL |
657 |
31.21 |
| 41.9114 |
-87.9103 |
Chicago, IL |
665 |
32.46 |
| 41.8985 |
-87.9314 |
Chicago, IL |
683 |
32.51 |
| 41.9407 |
-88.0232 |
Chicago, IL |
693 |
33.48 |
| 41.9756 |
-88.1400 |
Chicago, IL |
702 |
34.93 |
| 41.9744 |
-88.2408 |
Chicago, IL |
711 |
36.30 |
| 42.0026 |
-88.1790 |
Chicago, IL |
720 |
36.72 |
| 41.8111 |
-87.8547 |
Chicago, IL |
722 |
37.72 |
| 41.8683 |
-87.7590 |
Chicago, IL |
728 |
38.26 |
| 41.8675 |
-87.7596 |
Chicago, IL |
764 |
38.30 |
| 41.8125 |
-87.8823 |
Chicago, IL |
767 |
38.70 |
| 41.9688 |
-88.1379 |
Chicago, IL |
785 |
39.60 |
| 41.9032 |
-87.7427 |
Chicago, IL |
800 |
40.10 |
| 41.8576 |
-87.8497 |
Chicago, IL |
812 |
40.16 |
| 41.8812 |
-87.7097 |
Chicago, IL |
815 |
41.84 |
| 41.9300 |
-87.7520 |
Chicago, IL |
827 |
41.98 |
| 41.9263 |
-87.6771 |
Chicago, IL |
833 |
42.51 |
| 42.0619 |
-88.0458 |
Chicago, IL |
848 |
44.04 |
| 41.7884 |
-87.9877 |
Chicago, IL |
857 |
44.34 |
| 41.8152 |
-87.9969 |
Chicago, IL |
875 |
46.24 |
| 41.9028 |
-88.0042 |
Chicago, IL |
884 |
47.51 |
| 41.8174 |
-88.1332 |
Chicago, IL |
893 |
48.21 |
| 42.0731 |
-88.2700 |
Chicago, IL |
900 |
48.64 |
| 41.7990 |
-87.8090 |
Chicago, IL |
908 |
50.31 |
| 42.0054 |
-88.2857 |
Chicago, IL |
929 |
50.34 |
| 42.0350 |
-88.2618 |
Chicago, IL |
938 |
50.63 |
| 42.0264 |
-88.2626 |
Chicago, IL |
947 |
50.99 |
| 42.2344 |
-88.2812 |
Chicago, IL |
948 |
53.00 |
| 42.1985 |
-88.1990 |
Chicago, IL |
984 |
53.12 |
| 42.1799 |
-88.2124 |
Chicago, IL |
1004 |
53.84 |
| 42.2085 |
-88.1270 |
Chicago, IL |
1022 |
54.61 |
| 42.1999 |
-88.1278 |
Chicago, IL |
1031 |
55.07 |
| 42.1654 |
-87.7455 |
Chicago, IL |
1034 |
57.03 |
| 42.3086 |
-88.0221 |
Chicago, IL |
1076 |
57.90 |
| 42.3208 |
-88.1229 |
Chicago, IL |
1092 |
58.82 |
| 42.3436 |
-87.9603 |
Chicago, IL |
1103 |
59.74 |
| 42.3474 |
-88.0773 |
Chicago, IL |
1110 |
60.82 |
| 42.0507 |
-87.9905 |
Chicago, IL |
1124 |
62.42 |
| 42.3499 |
-88.1780 |
Chicago, IL |
1128 |
62.60 |
| 42.3625 |
-88.1099 |
Chicago, IL |
1148 |
62.92 |
| 42.3825 |
-88.0254 |
Chicago, IL |
1157 |
63.33 |
| 42.4077 |
-87.9705 |
Chicago, IL |
1175 |
63.80 |
| 42.3905 |
-88.1239 |
Chicago, IL |
1211 |
65.11 |
| 42.3819 |
-88.1247 |
Chicago, IL |
1220 |
65.62 |
| 42.4459 |
-88.0698 |
Chicago, IL |
1247 |
67.69 |
| 42.3435 |
-88.5959 |
Chicago, IL |
1263 |
69.13 |
| 42.3417 |
-87.8368 |
Chicago, IL |
1298 |
70.07 |
| 42.3446 |
-88.4952 |
Chicago, IL |
1310 |
71.39 |
| 42.3036 |
-88.5032 |
Chicago, IL |
1328 |
72.25 |
| 42.2950 |
-88.5039 |
Chicago, IL |
1337 |
72.65 |
| 42.4086 |
-87.8185 |
Chicago, IL |
1370 |
74.20 |
| 42.4364 |
-87.7237 |
Chicago, IL |
1388 |
74.84 |
| 42.2405 |
-88.3590 |
Chicago, IL |
1409 |
77.11 |
| 42.2090 |
-88.4549 |
Chicago, IL |
1436 |
78.76 |
| 42.2786 |
-88.3616 |
Chicago, IL |
1445 |
79.24 |
| 41.5717 |
-89.0540 |
Middle of Northern IL |
1469 |
80.23 |
| 42.2777 |
-88.2823 |
Chicago, IL |
1505 |
81.91 |
| 42.4757 |
-87.0619 |
In Lake Michigan |
1511 |
82.29 |
| 42.3559 |
-87.0075 |
In Lake Michigan |
1530 |
82.37 |
| 42.3736 |
-87.0252 |
In Lake Michigan |
1566 |
82.44 |
| 42.4690 |
-87.0899 |
In Lake Michigan |
1569 |
83.55 |
| 42.2929 |
-87.0718 |
In Lake Michigan |
1587 |
84.82 |
| 42.3900 |
-87.2123 |
In Lake Michigan |
1590 |
84.97 |
| 42.3749 |
-86.9324 |
In Lake Michigan |
1626 |
85.39 |
| 42.5202 |
-86.9984 |
In Lake Michigan |
1635 |
85.75 |
| 42.5094 |
-86.9866 |
In Lake Michigan |
1677 |
85.97 |
| 42.4274 |
-87.2141 |
In Lake Michigan |
1698 |
86.83 |
| 42.4792 |
-86.9610 |
In Lake Michigan |
1704 |
87.36 |
| 42.4736 |
-87.1675 |
In Lake Michigan |
1722 |
87.81 |
| 42.4950 |
-87.0251 |
In Lake Michigan |
1764 |
88.05 |
| 42.5516 |
-87.0475 |
In Lake Michigan |
1779 |
89.35 |
| 42.5720 |
-87.2092 |
In Lake Michigan |
1795 |
90.17 |
| 42.4754 |
-87.0621 |
In Lake Michigan |
1830 |
90.26 |
| 42.4597 |
-87.0857 |
In Lake Michigan |
1860 |
91.78 |
| 42.7059 |
-87.2746 |
In Lake Michigan |
1867 |
93.16 |
| 42.6201 |
-87.0944 |
In Lake Michigan |
1904 |
93.60 |
| 42.6206 |
-86.9848 |
In Lake Michigan |
1961 |
94.15 |
| 42.6029 |
-86.9672 |
In Lake Michigan |
1970 |
94.29 |
| 42.7139 |
-87.3087 |
In Lake Michigan |
1987 |
95.14 |
| 42.7396 |
-87.2656 |
In Lake Michigan |
1993 |
95.39 |
| 42.7431 |
-87.1747 |
In Lake Michigan |
2014 |
95.42 |
| 42.7338 |
-87.2458 |
In Lake Michigan |
2038 |
96.08 |
| 42.7386 |
-87.3120 |
In Lake Michigan |
2050 |
96.57 |
| 42.7723 |
-87.1711 |
In Lake Michigan |
2113 |
97.04 |
| 42.7155 |
-87.1773 |
In Lake Michigan |
2119 |
97.92 |
| 42.7223 |
-87.1667 |
In Lake Michigan |
2134 |
98.37 |
| 42.6358 |
-87.1185 |
In Lake Michigan |
2177 |
98.80 |
| 42.7125 |
-87.1885 |
In Lake Michigan |
2222 |
99.21 |
It may be possible to refine these a bit. Perhaps a place a few feet over might give a smaller radius, for example. However, when you realize that almost all these points are in a few general areas, it seems useless to refine the method further. No matter what you do, the places that can brag about the most holes (or courses) within a certain number of miles are going to be mostly around Minneapolis and Chicago.
To see what I mean, look at this map, with a circle representing each area in the above table.
As
you can see, for most of the shorter distances the places with the most
holes for that distance are in the Minneapolis Area. Two notable
exceptions are the clusters near Tulsa and Bowling Green. At longer
distances, areas around Chicago (and its northern suburbs) have more
holes. At even longer distances, Lake Michigan has more holes than
other areas.
So, would a disc golfer would think that the middle of
Lake Michigan is the best place? I doubt it. That's why I don't like this
method of finding places with a lot of courses. By simple geometry,
most of the courses within X miles will be out at the rim of the
circle. There is simply more area out there. About half of the area
of a circle is beyond 70% of the radius of the circle. Most places found with this method will have few courses actually close by.
Another problem is deciding on the proper distance to measure. Every
point has 2,500 different radii (one to each disc golf course) to
consider. Who is to say whether 15 courses within 15 miles is better
than 100 courses within 100 miles? Shouldn't the closest course count
more than the farther courses?
If you want to see my resolution of these difficulties, see my Service Levels page.
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