How Many Holes Does a Disc Golf Course Have?

Disc golf is badass. It’s a sport that is very tough, yet surprisingly simple to play and to learn. And it all starts with you, your discs, and the course ahead. You’ve prepared for the round, bought your equipment, and might’ve even played before.

But you’ve gotta start to understand the basics before you can really get into the game. Those basics start with this post, because you have no clue what you’re gonna do out on the course or how many holes you have to play. Today, we’re going to address the question that you’ve come to this post for: how many holes does a disc golf course have? Then we’ll show you how to navigate the course and end with a couple of good beginner tips so let’s get going!

How many holes does a disc golf course have?

A standard round of disc golf consists of 18 holes. Most courses have 18 holes, with some courses having only 9 holes. Par 3 courses can have either 9 or 18 holes, but 18 holes is the average and is the amount of holes used in professional disc golf tournaments.

3 ways to successfully navigate a disc golf course

So it’s not always easy to navigate a disc golf course, especially when you’re new. But that’s why we’re here. Hopefully you’ve got a buddy that can help you out, but if you don’t, just follow the following simple steps below.

Step 1 – Find the course layout map

When you get to the course, look for the course layout map. This should be something like a big board sticking up out of the ground with a layout of all the holes. The picture below comes from one of my local courses

If your local course doesn’t have one, download the UDisc app on your phone. This app will show you the course app and allow you to keep score of your round if you want to.

Are holes marked?

Yes, on almost all courses, holes are clearly marked and you’ll be able to find them pretty easily. Each hole should have a sign indicating the hole with at least a number. Some nicer courses have the number, the par of the hole, and the distance to the basket. Rougher courses tend to not have anything but a concrete or dirt teepad. Just do the best you can. The picture below is how most holes tend to look.

Step 2 – Find the first hole, then the basket

Once you get onto the course, find the first hole of the course (like in the picture above). That’s hole 1. Now find the basket so you know where you will be throwing your disc. Throw until you can get your disc onto the basket.

Step 3 – Look for markers for the next hole

Once you’ve completed the first hole, move on to the next. You should see something of a path or a marker showing you where hole two is. Then hole 3, hole 4, and so on and so forth until you complete all 9 or 18 holes. Just like that, you’ve crushed your first round and should be ready for another very soon! Check out the tips below to help you start learning the game a little bit better.

A couple of quick tips for learning disc golf

1. Use the right discs

make sure from the first day you start playing disc golf, you are throwing discs that are made for beginners. If you just start off playing with any old disc, it might end poorly because there are a ton of discs that are only for intermediate to advanced players. So you have to make sure you’re buying beginner-level disc golf discs.

If you’d like to see an awesome list of beginner-level disc golf discs, check out our post, the “37 Best Disc Golf Discs for Beginners (You Need These).”

2. Learn technique…immediately

Oh boy, technique is so important. When you’re learning the game of disc golf, you need to start with a proper foundation (which is learning technique). Check out our post, “7 Steps to the Best Disc Golf Technique and a Perfect Throw,” for a great guide to learning proper technique.

3. Have patience

This is advice that I was told the very first day that I played disc golf. The funny thing is that I didn’t listen to it. I wanted to play every day and learn everything right away. Well, I got tired of that and I skipped a few months. So my disc golf game suffered. Eventually I got back into playing and realized that I needed to stress this idea of patience so that I could get better. So here are 2 quick reasons why you need patience on the course

• You don’t want to burn out – just like what I just mentioned, you don’t want to burn out and start hating disc golf. That’s when you’ll stop playing and, well, bye bye disc golf. Take your time on the course and only play a couple times per week at the most. Once you’ve got a firm foundation and want to get more competitive, then you can crank it up.

• You can’t learn it all in one round – disc golf is simple, but it’s also somewhat technical. There’s a lot of strategy to learn, along with a bunch of different throws, angles, and techniques to understand. And it takes a while to figure it all out. You won’t learn it all in one round, or 10 rounds, or 30 rounds. It took me a solid 40-50 rounds of play before I started to get better and get the hang of disc golf. And after hundreds rounds for me, there was still plenty to learn.

If you want to read an interesting article on patience, check out SportsPsychologyToday.com’s article, “Patience is a Powerful Mental Tool in Sports,” here on their site.

Extra – check out our 101 tips list

Before you go, be sure to check out my epic tips post, “101 Disc Golf Tips to Take Your Game to the Next Level.” That post is absolutely stuffed with awesome tips and resources for you to learn about disc golf. And every time I create a new post that can help make that post better, I update it so that it’s just that much better.

Great job!

If you’ve gotten this far, you must really want to learn more about disc golf! If you’re interested in more of what we have to say about the sport, check out some of our best posts below.

50 Ways to Get More Birdies and Improve Your Disc Golf Game

The 50 Best Disc Golf Drills to Change Your Game Forever

The 27 Best Disc Golf Distance Tips for Beginners

The 15 All-Time Best Disc Golf Discs

All of these posts are our absolute best resources for practice, drills, and disc selection so check them out!

Don’t forget

You can also grab a copy of our book, “The Disc Golf Player’s Manual,” here on the site. It’s packed full of extremely practical tips and tricks to help you immediately start improving on the course!