AI disc golf is better when it can check the data

AI has a confidence problem. Ask it which disc you should add to your bag and it can produce a beautifully argued answer in seconds.

There is only one small problem. It may have no idea what is already in your bag.

That is like asking for restaurant advice from somebody who does not know which country you are in. The answer may be eloquent. That does not make it useful.

So I have given AI somewhere better to ask.

Three of my disc golf projects now connect directly to compatible AI assistants. BagIQ can analyse your bag, The DiscList™ can check discs and market data, and DiscGolfAPI can check courses and locations.

Once connected, you ask a normal disc golf question and the AI can call the right specialist tool. That is where AI disc golf starts getting interesting.

The AI does not need to know everything

We spend an extraordinary amount of time asking which AI model is smartest. Increasingly, I think that is the wrong contest.

A brilliant AI with poor information gives you a brilliant-sounding guess. The better question is what can your AI check before answering?

That is where MCP comes in. MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, which is an impressively technical name for a fairly simple idea.

Think of it as giving your AI a useful contacts list. Bag question? Call BagIQ. Disc question? Call The DiscList. Course question? Call DiscGolfAPI.

The AI still has the conversation. MCP simply gives it someone better to phone.

It is basically “phone a friend” for AI, except the friends are specialist tools and nobody has to pretend they know the answer while a studio audience watches.

BagIQ can tell you what your bag actually needs

BagIQ gets the dangerous job. It answers what should I change?

Give it the discs you carry and it can look for missing flight slots, unnecessary overlap and gaps in your stability coverage.

You could also ask which two discs in your bag are doing the most similar job. That question is surprisingly useful.

Disc golfers are very good at asking, “What should I buy next?” We are considerably less enthusiastic about asking, “Do I already own three versions of it?”

BagIQ is allowed to break the bad news. Sometimes the answer is another disc. Sometimes the answer is that your bag already contains enough plastic to solve the problem.

The disc golf retail industry may prefer the first answer.

The DiscList can check the discs

The DiscList™ has a different job. It does not tell you what to buy. It supplies reference data.

Its MCP tools can search discs, retrieve flight information, compare molds, find close flight matches, inspect manufacturers and query weekly DiscList™ rankings and market movement.

So instead of asking, Is a Passion like a Leopard3?, give the AI something less vague to work with.

You can also ask it to find the closest Discraft flight matches to an Innova TeeBird, or check which discs have risen furthest on The DiscList over the last four weeks.

That last example matters because AI is extremely good at sounding current. Actually being current is a separate skill.

According to The DiscList™, its rankings are based on aggregated retail listing performance observed over time and update weekly. The DiscList provides the scoreboard. Golf With Discs can then help explain what the numbers might mean for a player.

DiscGolfAPI can check the courses

DiscGolfAPI handles another simple question. Where can I play?

It can search disc golf courses, find courses around coordinates, retrieve known course information and check recent additions or changes.

“Structured geographic course data” sounds spectacularly dull. “What courses are near my hotel?” does not.

This is often how useful technology works. The engineering sounds complicated. The job it removes sounds obvious.

DiscGolfAPI supplies the facts. Your AI can then organise those facts as part of the conversation.

Adding the tools is easier than explaining MCP

You do not need to understand MCP to use any of this. You need three web addresses.

All three are public and read-only. There is no API key to request.

For most players, Claude is currently the simplest place to start.

How to add the disc golf tools to Claude

Claude supports custom connectors using remote MCP. If you use an individual Pro or Max plan, open Customize, choose Connectors, click +, then choose Add custom connector.

Give the connector a name such as BagIQ, paste the relevant MCP URL and click Add. Repeat that for The DiscList and DiscGolfAPI.

Then open a conversation, click the + button beside the message box, choose Connectors and enable the ones you want Claude to use.

That is it. No coding, no software installation and no mysterious configuration file copied from a forum post written three years ago.

Claude currently supports remote custom connectors on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans. Free accounts are limited to one custom connector, while Team and Enterprise connectors may need to be added by an organisation owner first.

Start with your bag

The quickest way to see the difference is to give BagIQ your real bag.

Then compare two discs from that bag. Then ask DiscGolfAPI what courses are near where you are staying.

Three specialists, one conversation. You do not need to know which tool call happened behind the scenes any more than you need to know which database your banking app queried before showing your balance.

The fun starts when you combine them

One connected tool is useful. Three let you ask much better questions.

Now one request can involve course locations, your bag, missing flight slots and disc comparisons. Each service still has one job. DiscGolfAPI supplies course information, BagIQ analyses the bag, and The DiscList supplies disc reference data.

The AI joins the pieces together.

That is a much saner arrangement than creating one enormous “disc golf AI” and expecting it to know everything. We use specialists everywhere else in life for a reason.

Five prompts worth stealing

Change the location, change the discs and give it your actual bag. The usefulness rises very quickly once the question contains real context.

Using the MCPs with Cursor

If you use Cursor, you can connect all three remote MCP servers through its MCP configuration. Add them globally in ~/.cursor/mcp.json, or use .cursor/mcp.json for a project-specific configuration.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bagiq": {
      "url": "https://data.bagiq.app/mcp"
    },
    "thedisclist": {
      "url": "https://api.thedisclist.com/mcp"
    },
    "discgolfapi": {
      "url": "https://io.discgolfapi.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

This is probably most useful if you are building a disc golf website, app or data tool. If you merely want an explanation for why your bag contains six fairway drivers, Claude is the easier option.

Using the MCPs with Claude Code

Claude Code users can add the three remote servers directly from the terminal.

claude mcp add --transport http bagiq https://data.bagiq.app/mcp
claude mcp add --transport http thedisclist https://api.thedisclist.com/mcp
claude mcp add --transport http discgolfapi https://io.discgolfapi.com/mcp

Then check the connections with claude mcp list. After that, Claude Code can call the same disc golf tools during a normal session.

Using them with ChatGPT

ChatGPT also supports remote MCP-based custom apps, although access currently depends on your plan. Full MCP support is available to Business and Enterprise/Edu workspaces, while Pro users can connect MCPs with read and fetch permissions through developer mode.

So the servers are ready for ChatGPT, but the setup is currently less straightforward for an individual player than it is in Claude. If your main aim is to try the tools rather than study AI product settings, start with Claude.

AI makes specialist data more valuable

There is a popular assumption that AI makes specialist databases less important. I think the opposite is happening.

As good AI becomes widely available, having access to good AI becomes less remarkable. The advantage moves to the information the AI can reach.

One AI can confidently guess which disc might suit your bag. Another can ask BagIQ what your bag is missing, check candidate discs against The DiscList and use DiscGolfAPI when you ask where to play.

Those are no longer the same product, even if the words appear in the same chat box. Better context beats prettier confidence.

Of course, data does not remove judgement. A disc with similar flight numbers may feel terrible in your hand. Two discs may overlap on paper but have completely different jobs for you. A course can be close to your hotel and still be a terrible idea at 7am after the night before.

The tools improve the information available to you. You still get to be the disc golfer.

Try it

If you use Claude, add BagIQ, The DiscList and DiscGolfAPI using the three URLs above. Then forget about MCP and ask about your bag.