Fun new addition to the app this week – course & layout difficulty!
If you’ve ever been downhill skiing, you’ll see the inspiration behind the new symbols on the course list, as well as on layouts:
Courses with Smart Layouts will have these new icons - you can learn more about the system at the Release Point blog! Disc Golf Course Difficulty Now On UDisc | UDisc
This is pretty cool, and a huge bonus for courses that are more difficult, that we can display that prominently. But I’m not seeing how to control it, is that something course ambassadors have any level of control over or is it all decided automatically?
I believe it’s all automatic using some math between course par and average scores, I think. The course I’m ambassador for had it automatically applied.
Edit: I was partially wrong, but the link in the OP has the answer if you scroll down to “How does disc golf layout difficulty work on UDisc?”
Thanks for pointing that out! I am wondering how this works for courses with multiple pin placements that are changed on a monthly basis. I have one hole that will have 5 different anchors ranging from 250 feet to 500 feet. If I move one basket, does it need to collect more round data based on the new average distance and difficulty? A course with 3 anchors on 18 holes, has 387,420,489 possible layout combinations. Two teepads makes the combination 1,511,627,776.
“When you see a “difficulty pending” message, it means a Smart Layout exists, but we’re waiting for more rounds to be scored on it to ensure an accurate difficulty rating.”
Good question! The calculations are done on a per-path-configuration basis (i.e., for each possible tee/target combination) and then rolled up to the layout level. This means we don’t need to start from scratch every time a layout is updated to one of the millions/billions of possibilities—this is the beauty of Smart Layouts! To be extremely pedantic, the quote you referenced should technically read:
When you see a “difficulty pending” message, it means a Smart Layout exists, but we’re waiting for more scores to be recorded on some of its holes in order to ensure an accurate difficulty rating.
That makes sense, thanks for the response!
How many rounds need to be scored for a course difficulty to be assigned? I just converted some classic layouts to smart layouts and interested to know when they will get a course rating.
Hi @sinkmt3, I don’t recall ever seeing the prerequisites for course difficulty generation beyond making being a smart layout with enough completed scorecards. Maybe @marky can give you an estimate based on how busy your course is? That might not be possible as I think our AI overlords are in control now. 
Thanks Matt. That was my question. How many rounds need to be scored before it gets a rating?
Ah, I don’t think that there is a set number of rounds as I assume it depends on getting enough different players as well. I’m also not sure if the different players are weighted differently according to their scoring history. The AI will probably need to meet a certain level of confidence in the result before publishing one. And then I’m not sure if the difficulties are published live or if they are pushed out in intermittent updates. But a staff member like Markell might be able to give a time estimate if you name the course.
Edit: if you don’t want to dox yourself, then you could try emailing help@udisc.com
Thanks. I shot them an email. Appreciate the responses
A layout will need at least 10 unique play counts prior to a layout difficulty being assigned. Models are updated on a weekly basis, so you should see an update within a week of your Smart Layout reaching this.
This article has some other details FAQs that may answer any other lingering questions - What are UDisc round ratings and how do they work? : UDisc Support
