About Try Discs

Try Discs helps disc golfers figure out what to throw and where to find it.

Today, you can use Try Discs to explore and compare discs, search live inventory across online disc golf retailers, find similar discs, use our Disc Recommendation Quiz, browse the Disc Flight Matrix, and check whether a mold is out of production. The site also maintains a detailed disc database with manufacturer flight ratings and physical specifications from the PDGA. Those are all different versions of the same problem we started trying to solve in 2020.

It started with “try before you buy”

The original idea for Try Discs came during a round of disc golf in June 2020: wouldn’t it be nice to try a disc before buying it?

And at first, that was literally the business. The plan was to mail disc golfers test kits so they could try several discs and send back the ones they didn’t want. We bought trydiscs.com that July, surveyed disc golfers on Reddit, and spent the summer modeling different rental, subscription, and try-before-you-buy ideas.

But that raised another question: how do you know which discs are worth trying in the first place?

So the project shifted toward data. We started combining manufacturer flight numbers with PDGA measurements such as diameter, height, rim width, and rim depth to find discs with similar characteristics. On November 3, 2020, that became the first public version of Try Discs: a disc recommendation search engine.

We called it “Our First Step.” At the time, we still thought the next step might eventually involve mailing people discs.

It didn’t.

Then finding the disc became the problem

By early 2021, the pandemic-era disc shortage had made finding a specific mold almost as difficult as choosing one.

What started as a personal script searching more than 100 retailer websites eventually became the Try Discs retailer search. In August 2021, we launched a version that let disc golfers search dozens of stores at once instead of checking them individually.

That changed the direction of Try Discs. The goal was no longer just to answer “What disc should I try?” It was also to answer “Who actually has it?”

It also introduced us to hundreds of smaller disc golf stores that many players might otherwise never have found. Today, the Buy search still checks retailer inventory and sends shoppers directly to the stores selling it.

Try Discs today

We’ve kept building outward from those same two questions.

The original recommendation model evolved into the current Explore and Compare tools, individual disc pages, the Disc Flight Matrix, the Disc Recommendation Quiz, and a database covering flight ratings, PDGA dimensions, plastics, videos, reviews, and other disc information. The retailer finder grew from a few dozen stores into the larger search platform that powers the Buy section today. The site itself was rebuilt from the ground up in 2024, and in 2026 we opened part of the database through the Try Discs API.

Try Discs doesn’t sell discs itself. Some retailers partner with us and receive additional visibility, while we also index non-partner stores to give shoppers more places to look.

The tools have changed quite a bit since that first spreadsheet in 2020. The basic idea hasn’t: make it easier to find the right disc, and then make it easier to find somewhere to buy it.

Built with a lot of help

Try Discs has always been shaped pretty heavily by the disc golf community.

Some of the earliest business-model feedback came from Reddit. So did criticism of our recommendation model, retailer lists that helped inspire the multi-store search, UI mockups, missing stores, bug reports, and plenty of feature ideas.

And if you find bad data, a missing disc or store, or something that simply doesn’t work, please send us feedback. That’s still one of the main ways Try Discs gets better.