With the explosive growth that disc golf has seen in the last decade, it only makes sense that an equally impressive boom in the disc golf industry would come to fruition as well. Not surprisingly, it has. It feels as if every few weeks there is yet another new disc/equipment manufacturer, website, apparel company, etc. breaking into the market. And with good reason.

PDGA membership and PDGA sanctioned events have been growing at a rate of +20% year-over-year. It was only a matter of time before third-parties would begin working on ways to help tournament directors and event staff to stay organized, communicate with players, and manage their event before it begins, while it is happening, and after its completion.

In 2007, 24-year-old Peter Crist #24472, a web developer and avid disc golfer based out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, decided the time was right to begin constructing what would eventually become the PDGA’s preferred online event registration partner, The Disc Golf Scene (discgolfscene.com). In its early years, The Disc Golf Scene served more as a general purpose disc golf site where players could upload event information, results, course info, etc. A few years later in 2010, Pete began working on the tournament registration features and slowly began working towards a full-blown disc golf event management system.

Pete's story, as far as how all of this came to be, is similar to that of many other disc golf website creators. ”Our local club had a really crappy website", said Pete. "Being a young guy that was trying to figure out how to do this type of work [web development], I said, 'Hey, I'll build this site for you.' So, I built it, and gave them a better way for them to add photos and upload tournament scores. I figured it was the logical next step to make that generic and allow people to do the same for their own clubs." 

Now, as we near the end of 2016, anyone who’s run a PDGA-sanctioned event in the last few years has likely taken advantage of what The Disc Golf Scene has to offer, which now includes but is not limited to:

• Advanced tournament registration system
  • Automatic integration into your event's PDGA results/registration page
  • Automatic integration into the PDGA Tournament Manager
  • Customizable, printable Player Card templates
  • Pools and waitlists management
  • Player information editing
  • Entry fee and refund services
  • Direct exports custom built for the PDGA TD Report
• Tournament, league, club, and course information.
• Video library
• Customizable News and Events pages. 
• "Trading Post" for buying/selling/trading disc golf merchandise

The Disc Golf Scene became the PDGA's preferred tournament registration partner in 2013, orchestrated by PDGA Technology Director Steve Ganz. “Pete had built the best tournament registration experience out there by far. From both the tournament director and tournament player’s perspective, it just worked," said Steve. "Disc Golf Scene was the obvious choice for the PDGA to partner with and Pete has been a pleasure to work with from day one. He was super responsive, very customer service oriented, and was able to fulfill every crazy requirement we threw at him with ease.”

As the years passed by and the feature set continued to grow on The Disc Golf Scene, Ganz began to see that this partnership could eventually lead to something much bigger. “When I first joined the PDGA as Technology Director in 2012, one of my first objectives was to identify and hire my eventual replacement. Pete became a clear choice for me very early on in our working relationship and I’ve been working to bring him on board full-time ever since.”

After several months of negotiations and the stamp of approval from the PDGA Board of Directors and the PDGA Executive Director, Brian Graham, the PDGA will officially acquire The Disc Golf Scene and Pete Crist will begin his new position as PDGA Lead Developer on January 1st, 2017. "The PDGA is pleased to announce the acquisition of Disc Golf Scene and excited to have Peter Crist joining our technology department as lead developer," said Graham. "This deal will allow the PDGA to have its own tournament registration system and fast track some exciting technology projects to grow the sport and provide additional services to our members."

“I'm really, really excited to be working on this full time," said Crist. "Not having to worry about another job is going to be great and what I'm especially excited about is that disc golf is growing, but it still feels small. I have the opportunity to have a really positive influence on the sport and on the organization, and I look forward to being able to make things better for the people out there that run and organize disc golf tournaments and leagues. There's a lot to be done. I know and have been involved in that part of the sport for a long time, and I feel like there's a lot that I can contribute.”

When asked about what's to come of The Disc Golf Scene, Ganz stated, “Our vision is to maintain The Disc Golf Scene brand as an independent entity for as far as the eye can see. Pete and I will work to integrate the two systems everywhere it makes sense to ensure a seamless experience for players and event staff alike.”

Ganz added that the PDGA has no intention of requiring the use of The Disc Golf Scene for tournament registration services or anything else for that matter. “We have always believed that people should have a choice and the acquisition of The Disc Golf Scene doesn’t change that. At the same time, we believe that the player experience begins at the time of tournament registration and we think The Disc Golf Scene provides the best experience available today.”

This acquisition of The Disc Golf Scene and the hiring of Pete Crist is a great step forward for the PDGA. There are already some exciting projects being worked on including a fully functional mobile app and a new feature for tournament series management. Stay tuned for more information about new features and other developments via the PDGA website and the PDGA social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn).