What division to play in a tournament?

[General Scales]

So I've played a few tournaments, and I've been hukking for a couple of years now. My question deals mainly with what divisions a person should be playing.

The first two tournaments I played intermediate am. My first one was Chump Challenge 2009 and I played so bad the first day I was on the last card. The second day I dropped my score by 14 strokes and put myself in the middle of the field.

Second was Corbin Parks Ice Bowl 2010. Took 6th with a 5 over par. I think par for two rounds was 108. I know for a definite that the winner of the intermediates should of been playing advanced or even the open. He shot a 100 even for two rounds and if I recall correctly was the third best score of all the divisions.

So this long story now has a point. At what point should one move up from intermediate to advanced or advanced to open? What should the criteria be? Score for the course or general knowledge of playing? Length of time playing the game? I only ask this because I'm going to play the D.R.O. coming up and I'm debating my division.

My best score @ Downriver is a 1 under par. Par being 54. My average is two to three over per round. Should this put me back in intermediate or should I step up and start playing advanced?

All input would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Stu

[Parks]

You're good to go in Advanced for DRO. There's no real reason to play in Intermediate if you play fairly often and shoot the scores that you are posting. At least around here.

As for Advanced to Open, that's a tough question. In a place with a good Advanced field, you should play it until you are about 950 or 960 rated.

In a place like Spokane without many Advanced players, moving up to Open when you're around 940 rated might not be a bad idea since the top rated players here are ~980.

On the other hand, if you're looking to do Am Nationals or Am Worlds at some point then you should either not move up until you're 970+, or play in Open and deny cash for the experience.

As for the Intermediate winner at the Corbin Ice Bowl, you have to take those scores with a grain of salt. With enough mulligans on a short course like Corbin, just about anyone can shoot an insane score.

[emmarose]

when i got my membership package from the pdga, they included a very clear, very concise description of all of the divisions... they gave a range of distance for drives with consistent accuracy, how many years you've been playing, how many 30 foot putts out of 10 you hit on average, etc. i found it very useful, and now i know what i need to do to move up to pro... maybe you can find it somewhere on the website?

peace,
em

[DMajor]

Play where you think you will have the most fun

[Nathan]

Move up. You'll play better. The people you are playing with will push you to shoot better or worse in your playing in a lower division.

My score often reflects on who I am playing with. I've been happy with moving from Int. to Adv.

[Bruce]

I don't know about you guys, but I'm dropping down from pro to rec with how I've been playing lately!

[Ol' Bob]

Razor blades are still an option (except they might not have DG on the other side).

[Sausage Fingers]

Move up. You'll play better. The people you are playing with will push you to shoot better or worse in your playing in a lower division.

My score often reflects on who I am playing with. I've been happy with moving from Int. to Adv.

Hey! It took 5 posts before someone extols the virtue of disc golf osmosis! WTF?!?! Who is slacking around here...SAM!:pirate:

[GettinBetter]

Play where you think you will have the most fun

True dat. Having Fun = Playing Good (most of the time anyways) If you feel like putting up with some folks that don't really know the rules and you feel like waiting on every hole then play MA2.

[OneDarkRebel]

I think that this is based on what you want out of disc golf...do you want to be good/great at the sport of disc golf or do you want to have a good time enjoying the hobby of disc golfing? Personally I want to be good, or hopefully great sometime, at the sport of disc golf. I believe getting to the higher level entails challenging yourself by taking the appropriate moves that will make your game better. I played my first Advanced tourney at a 908 rating at the BSF. I was very intimidated but this experience helped me with my game and made me a better player. Some say win a tourney in a division and then move up, but that is really dependent on the size of the tourney. You can't really quantify your level of play by winning a 10 person division at a C-tier event, I think you get the drift. To make this a little less winded, I believe that one should "test the waters" of the next division when they are 10 pts under the PDGA recommended guidelines for that division--definitely start in intermediate (imo), test advanced at 925 rated, pro at 960 rated. This is if you want to be good/great at the sport! If you check out most tourney results, the PDGA guidelines work...910 rated rounds place you in the middle of the pack of an int field, 935 rated rounds place you in the middle of the adv field, 970 rated rounds place you in the middle of the pro field. And we only really substantially improve our player ratings by consistently shooting at least 10-15 pts better than our rating...I'm 935 rated (until I drop tomorrow) and if I want to achieve a higher player rating I need to be shooting consistent 945-960 rated rounds which would place me in the higher end of an advanced division at a tourney, which would then mean if I can do that consistently I should then think about the move to pro, for myself that is. If you want to get better then challenge yourself earlier than what the recommended PDGA guidelines are. If you want to have fun then have fun, but I think most people tend to have a little more fun when they are improving and getting better.

[OneDarkRebel]

Yikes, that was a long post.

[Tim]

True dat. Having Fun = Playing Good (most of the time anyways) If you feel like putting up with some folks that don't really know the rules and you feel like waiting on every hole then play MA2.

Better to learn the rules in MA2 though, wouldn't you say? I'd say play at least a few PDGA events in Int. first, learn the rules, customs, etiquette of tourney play there. If you end up mopping the floor with your competition, then yeah, move up. And tourney play is gonna be slow no matter what division you play in. ;)

[Joshua Olmsted]

I'd probably side with MA2 here. Though it's no fun to watch someone finish in the top 3 in MA2 event after event, being able to compete seriously in a division, as well as sharpen your tournament chops and rules knowledge in the MA2 division isn't a bad idea. I began playing MA2 when I was rated 864 and moved up after about 2 and a half years once I had reached 911, I think I made the move at the right time. It sounds like your stay in MA2, no matter what you decide for your next tournament, will be much, much shorter than mine but, in all honesty a big part of it is simply where you feel comfortable playing.

[GettinBetter]

Better to learn the rules in MA2 though, wouldn't you say? I'd say play at least a few PDGA events in Int. first, learn the rules, customs, etiquette of tourney play there. If you end up mopping the floor with your competition, then yeah, move up. And tourney play is gonna be slow no matter what division you play in. ;)

Thats what I was saying.... if you don't know the rules as well as you should then play MA2 with the others...

[GettinBetter]

I think ratings can be misleading when you don't have a lot of rated rounds under your belt. Most people know their ability levels after playing a while. I decided to move up to MA1 this year even though my ratings say I defenitely shouldn't. But I know that I am playing a lot better now and would be competetive in MA1.

[General Scales]

Thanks to you all. I have made my mind up and I'll play the advanced for the sake of improving myself. Now I just gotta mail in my registration form. That'll have to wait till friday.

Speaking of which, what is a 2 over @ Downriver in the ratings column anyways? I know the rating has changed since it's not the 21 anymore...

[Jonesy]

yall have inspired me. i'm gonna try to get ahold of tom embree and switch to MA1 for the GNO.
________
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[ScottW]

Thanks to you all. I have made my mind up and I'll play the advanced for the sake of improving myself. Now I just gotta mail in my registration form. That'll have to wait till friday.

Speaking of which, what is a 2 over @ Downriver in the ratings column anyways? I know the rating has changed since it's not the 21 anymore...

Is that a 2 over consistently or a one time best? +2 will be a decent Adv. score and a bottom end Open Score.

[Parks]

2 over on the current Downriver layout is ~930, depending on conditions.

[Sausage Fingers]

2 over at Downriver is ~925, depending on conditions.

And 925 qualifies you to play MA2! Get a few tourney rounds on the front card in MA2 under your belt and make the move to MA1...:pirate:

[Sausage Fingers]

yall have inspired me. i'm gonna try to get ahold of tom embree and switch to MA1 for the GNO.

Your scores over the winter in TDG indicate that you are ready to step up. And the win at Trojan didn't hurt any either.:biggrin2:
:pirate:

[General Scales]

Is that a 2 over consistently or a one time best? +2 will be a decent Adv. score and a bottom end Open Score.

Thats my score for my last 3 out of 5 rounds. The other two rounds were 5 and 6 over perspectively which I'll still take.