[Parks]

Kris, I appreciate that you did come on here and voice your criticisms. If people kept their concerns to themselves or just mindlessly bitched then nothing would ever improve.

Here's my take on this:

That group of 6 was me (playing Pro, though I'm not qualified to do that even in these events) paired with an Am (Ben), Eric (Pro, by any account) and his Am partner Chris, Darrin (Pro at High Bridge, Am everywhere else), and his Am partner Edgar (can shoot well, hasn't lately, but in either case I think they were a couple strokes out of the deep paying cash).

The group that won it: David (playing up as a Pro) and Brandon (Am). They both played Intermediate (not even Advanced Am!) all last year in PDGA tournaments.

That being said, there were ZERO Pro/Pro pairings. If we had done random draw, that wouldn't be the case. We did not have enough Pros to do full Pro/Am (the preferred format), and that is partly because we had 38 people show up and there are barely 19 Pros in the area. So unless we're pulling Pros from Tri-Cities and Missoula for our weekly, full Pro/Am just isn't going to happen in that case.

As for how the groups are flighted out, its pretty much just find a group and find a hole. We could mix it up more by organizing it with cards, but then people complain about not being able to play with friends and long walks to their starting hole. I generally just let my partner pick or try to grab a team of people that I haven't played with in a while.

Its a balancing act and I can't please everyone, but I want to make it as fair and enjoyable for the players as possible. How would you suggest improving the event?