Disc Golf Scene and PDGA Club Best Practices
The “disc golf scene” refers to the community, culture, and activities surrounding the sport of disc golf. It's a global network of players, courses, tournaments, and organizations that come together to enjoy and participate in disc golf.
This is not to be confused with Disc Golf Scene, which is a platform for disc golfers to connect, track scores, find events, clubs, and more.
Disc golf clubs come in many shapes and sizes, but one thing remains clear, Disc Golf Scene (DGS) is a tool that can help clubs manage membership, plan activities and events, track performance and season-long challenges such as bag tags, etc. The problem is that users do not utilize DGS in the same way, and the efficiency of the system is therefore lost. The following is a set of “best practices” for PDGA Clubs using DGS, with the goal of these clubs adopting a singular method of tracking their activity. Once this is achieved, we can start to develop new opportunities for the PDGA Clubs program.
Club Registration
Why do I want to register my club on Disc Golf Scene?
Registering your club on Disc Golf Scene gives you access to a centralized and popular platform for managing club activities, communicating with members, and growing your community. It streamlines your administrative tasks and increases your visibility to disc golfers in your area.
Key benefits of registering your club
For club management
- Centralized membership registration: Easily collect and track club dues online through the Disc Golf Scene system. You can collect information like PDGA numbers and contact information and even offer tiered registration options if it’s a PDGA-sanctioned event.
- Event management: Post and manage all your club events in one place, from weekly leagues and bag tag challenges to tournaments. Disc Golf Scene's tools include options for registration tiers, waitlists, and setting player caps.
- Integrated communications: Send announcements and updates directly to your club members through the platform.
For member engagement and growth
- Increased visibility: A registered club appears in Disc Golf Scene's searchable database, making it easy for local disc golfers to find and join your organization.
- League and tag tracking: Use the platform's features for league scoring and for tracking club bag tags, which encourages ongoing competition and engagement among members.
- Promotion of club perks: Publicize the benefits of your club membership, such as early tournament registration, member-only events, or discounts at local businesses.
- Simplified payment and fundraising: Manage club finances easily by collecting membership fees and fundraising for course improvements directly through the site.
For club tournaments and series
- Seamless PDGA integration: If you run sanctioned events, Disc Golf Scene automatically integrates with the PDGA website to update registration lists.
- Series management: Run a series of events and create leaderboards to track player points throughout the series, which builds excitement and participation.
- Customizable registration: Tailor your registration forms to collect the specific information you need and add options for items like T-shirts, discs, or ace pots.
Process
In order to register your Club on Disc Golf Scene, all you need to do is select “Clubs” on the top menu, then select “New club” at the top left. You will need a DGS account to do so. Once you have provided all the necessary information, select “save changes” at the bottom of the page.
That’s it! Now that your Club is listed within DGS, you can use that space to manage membership, plan activities and events, track performance and season-long challenges such as bag tags, and much more. See below for tips on some features on DGS.
Membership Portal
Disc Golf Scene has a feature that allows Club Membership as a standalone page. Example of a club membership page on DGS
Under the hood, the functionality is basically identical to tournament registration. There are some cosmetic changes that make it more obvious that it's club membership, though.
Also, it is important to note that existing tournament pages can be changed to Club Memberships.
Bag Tags
Bag tag management at events is set up very similar to that of Club membership, but instead of selecting event type “Club Membership,” the user would select “League.” Example of Bag Tags on DGS
Questions about getting your bag tag info on your profile? FAQ for setting up a user profile on Disc Golf Scene
Series
Series are intended to combine multiple tournaments into one group. For example, the PDGA National Tour was a Series. The National Tour used Disc Golf Scene to automatically update and track tour points for all players. Series are comprised of 2 major components: Events and Leaderboards.
A Series can include any number of events. All events must be tournaments registered on Disc Golf Scene.
Information about setting up a series on Disc Golf Scene
Volunteer Sign Up
Clubs often need a method to sign people up for an activity in order to manage volunteer efforts and log “hours worked.” DGS can provide a capability for that too! The most effective use of DGS for this would be to set the effort up as a “tournament,” then have people register on a separate spreadsheet.
Place all event information under the “About” section. All aspects of volunteerism should be addressed here, to include a volunteer guide (if applicable), rewards/incentives for volunteering, available shifts and positions, etc. Example of a tournament set up for volunteer tracking
Club Events and Insurance Certificates
Clubs run all kinds of events, but some of them are run ONLY for the locals. If you want to run an event exclusively for your PDGA Club, here are a couple of tips:
First, naming convention is important, if only to grab the attention of your Club members. Using the moniker "X Club Members Only” is a good practice to distinguish your event from others on the schedule. This moniker also serves as a trigger for PDGA staff to make certain accommodations, such as set up complimentary insurance or mark the event as a Competition Endowment Program (CEP) event, upon request.
As you may know, the PDGA provides event insurance free of charge for its sanctioned activity in the US and Canada. If the TD or local organizing committee (LOC) needs a physical copy of the certificate and/or needs to name otherwise insured parties, the PDGA charges an administrative fee of $50 for a copy of that certificate of insurance (COI).
Beginning in 2025, the PDGA began offering complimentary COI for PDGA Clubs at any event sanctioned as a Club-Only event as described under CM 1.02C(4). This benefit is only available to registered PDGA Clubs for club-only events.
In order to take advantage of this benefit, those sanctioning the event will need to follow these instructions:
- Make sure your event is named as described in CM1.02C (4)d (ex: “Shooting the Breeze with the Augusta DGC – Club Members-Only Event”)
- In the notes field, please also state whether it is a “club-only event” or a “club-only event that requires insurance.”
- Lastly, in the notes field of the sanctioning form, provide the necessary insurance/COI information:
- Name of entity needing to be additionally insured
- Address of entity needing to be additionally insured
That’s it! Once these steps have been completed, a staff member will contact the TD for follow up and delivery of the COI prior to the event. For additional events throughout the year requiring the same COI, that request must be made in the notes field at the time of sanctioning.
PDGA Competition Endowment Program (CEP) Events
The PDGA Competition Endowment Program (CEP) has been created to provide a means for Tournament Directors to promote events that have traditionally been unsanctioned such as Ice Bowls and Charity events as well as events that are geared toward promoting the awareness and growth of the sport members and association.
Information about the CEP Program