World’s Best Disc Golf Courses 2022
The Canyons at Dellwood Park is ranked #22 in the world!
When we opened The Canyons in 2014 world rankings never crossed our mind, we just wanted to build an amazing course on the unique property that Dellwood Park offered. Back in 2014 UDisc was an app but wasn’t as widely used as it is today. It wasn’t until 2018 that UDisc partnered with the PDGA becoming the official smartphone app for disc golf scoring. When you use UDisc you can make a profile, keep score, see analytics and sync rounds with friends. We often push the use of UDisc in the shop because it allows for the players to see the many layouts of The Canyons and guides the way using GPS technology. You can also look up disc golf courses and shops that are near you on the interactive map. UDisc has grown over the years, you can now use UDisc for tournaments and leagues which makes running events easier on the tournament directors and allows for players to keep an eye on scores in their phone instead of crowding tournament central to catch a glimpse at the leader board.
In 2020 UDISC started using their analytics to rank disc golf courses worldwide.
In 2020, The Canyons was ranked #5 in the world and #1 in Illinois
In 2021, The Canyons was ranked #8 in the world and #1 in Illinois
In 2022, The Canyons was ranked #22 in the world and #1 in Illinois
The Canyons isn’t the only ranking to proud of…
In 2021, Chicagoland was ranked the #2 Disc Golf City in the United States
Even though The Canyons was bumped out of the top ten in 2022, we are still proud to be ranked at #22 (There are over 80,000 disc golf courses in almost 80 countries.) The top ten courses all have something in common, they are pay to play or on private land. The Canyons is on public property, still free to play, and we share that property with common park goers. There were three other public courses that got bumped out of the top ten this year (Idelwild, THE Diavolo DGC & Milo McIver) Our community has done a great job at sharing the course with others although there is still the random family that walks through the fairway oblivious at where they are. We hope to bring more awareness to the course to educate those that might not know about disc golf, more signage and split rail fences would help direct park patrons find a safer alternative to set up their picnic. A lot of the course improvements are paid for from the course fund, we run events all year long and collect from $1-$5 to put towards the course, whether it is for erosion control, planting trees or installing alternate tee pads and additional pin locations for the many layouts available to play at The Canyons. The Lockport Township Park District also does a great job of keeping the fairways and greens mud-free and looking pristine by spreading wood chips and mulch.
The overwhelming majority of the world's disc golf courses – about 90% – have no costs associated with playing them. They're on freely accessible public land – typically parks – and are maintained by local disc golf club members and/or public employees.
However, the majority of the world's best disc golf courses charge fees. Of the top 100 courses, 55 match a strict definition of pay-to-play. Three more specifically encourage players to donate, and seven others have unavoidable costs associated with them that aren't tied directly to disc golf (e.g., a general park access fee, a parking fee).
In the top 10, pay-to-play's dominance is even more stark. Eight of the top 10 are privately-owned pay-to-play facilities and the other two strongly encourage players to donate when they play. -UDIsc
The Canyons, Hole 2, erosion control project. Installed in 2020, paid for by the course fund.
In 2020, the pandemic grew the sport of disc golf and we witnessed that growth first hand. New players were at The Canyons daily, we saw new faces at tournaments and new disc golf clubs and groups popped up everywhere. You can find a disc golf event almost every day of the week here in Chicagoland, which is why we are proud of that #2 ranking!
We are excited for 2022 and will continue to improve The Canyons.
You can help by donating to the course fund by playing in our events or by donating directly to the fund in the shop.
Download UDisc to keep track of your rounds and rate The Canyons and other courses on the app!
Mike Apostolou, UDisc extraordinaire, making sure Clash at the Canyons V Live scoring went smooth.
Joe Moore on the mic.
