2011 Beaver State Fling presented by Keen Footwear - June 24-26

[Bullseye]

Stumptown Disc Golf is once again partnering with KEEN footwear in conjunction with Innova & Next Adventure to bring you the 2011 Beaver State Fling (www.beaverstatefling.com). This PDGA Elite National Tour event will again take place on Milo McIver State Park’s two beautiful 18 hole courses lining the banks of the magnificent Clackamas River in Estacada, Oregon. Due to changes in the National Tour schedule, the Beaver State Fling, which traditionally had taken place on Memorial Day weekend, has been moved to the weekend of June 24th - 26th. Tournament Directors Jeff Mittl and Jeff Hagerty, who have joined forces to deliver yet another high caliber National Tour event, are hoping this schedule change will result in even better weather for this great event. The Beaver State Fling has a storied past and tradition of excellence which continues to draw top level disc golfers back to the grandeur of the Pacific Northwest year after year.

This year we plan a return to the festival feel from years past. With that objective in mind we are returning to a combined pro-am event on a single weekend. There will be plenty of side events to entertain the masses during and after rounds: including the epic mini disc golf course, a putting competition and a skills contest. We will again be using both the East and West courses which are played as pro par sixty with lengths in excess of 8000 feet. Camping will also be offered again on site this year with more space for RV’s and tent campers, including a space for Thursday camping arrivals. Reservations for the parks designated campground can be made at www.reserveamerica.com.

We will be offering 160 Professional spots this year for the NT and 144 Amateur spots for the A-Tier event. As always, we are hoping more ladies will make the trip this year to compete for the crown and help round out the field of competitors. The professional divisions will be playing 2 rounds again on Friday, competing for the mid day tee times on Saturday. Their final round will be on Sunday to wrap up the weekend competition. The Amateur Division will be playing two rounds on Saturday with tee times. The first round will be in the morning and the second round will be in the later part of the afternoon. The third and final round will be with tee times on Sunday morning.

Professional Registration:
Due to the overwhelming demand for this event and our own desire to attract the very best players this sport has to offer, with the support of our primary sponsors, we have asked the PDGA for, and were granted, permission to institute tiered, ratings-based registration for the NT side of the event.

Here is how tiered registration will work:

Phase 1: 03/16/2011 @ 6:00pm PST - Registration opens for all 1000+ rated MPO players, plus all FPO women.
Phase 2: 03/30/2011 @ 6:00pm PST - Registration opens for all 970+ rated professional players, regardless of division, plus all age-based professional divisions.
Phase 3: 04/13/2011 @ 6:00pm PST - Registration opens for all remaining professional players.

Important Notes:
* We will have division size caps in place to ensure non-mpo divisions remain viable.
* Anyone attempting to register before their tier is open will have their registration declined.
* As per the NT agreement, we will also be holding a limited number of slots for 2011 National Tour Champions and returning 2010 Beaver State Fling MPO & FPO champions.


Professional Division Sizes:
(Note: these may change slightly based on registration trends. For example: If we receive more than 20 FPO registrations in the first phase of registration we will accept those entries.)

Division - Initial # of Slots
MPO - 80
FPO - 20
MPM - 32

This leaves 28 slots available for "other" professional divisions.

Amateur Registration:
Registration for the amateur side of this event has also proven to be quite the undertaking in the past. The event has filled so quickly that registration felt more like a case of who has the best internet connection, or who can race home to get registered in time. In an attempt to make this as fair as possible for everyone, and with the support of our primary sponsors, we have obtained permission from the PDGA to institute a lottery system for amateur registration.

We will open pre-registration on 04/01/2011 and it will remain open for two weeks. During that time period anyone who would like to play in the event can pre-register at no cost. At the end of the 2 week pre-registration window we will sort all prospective players by division and begin randomly pulling names. We will then send an email to those people containing an email link where they can formally register for the event. Players who are selected will have 2 weeks to register for the event, after which time their slot is forfeited and goes back in to the pool.

Once the event has filled, all remaining names from the initial two week pre-registration window will be randomly sorted and placed on the waiting list. If a slot opens we will pull names from the waiting list in order.

Important Notes:
* We will have division size caps in place to ensure non-MA1 divisions remain viable. We will be requiring at least 4 players in a division.
* Anyone attempting to register before their tier is open will have their registration declined.

Amateur Division Sizes:
Division - Initial # of Slots
MA1 - 72
FW1 - 16
MM1 - 32

This leaves 24 slots available for "other" amateur divisions provided the division meets the four players per division requirement.

In Closing:
We understand some people may not approve of this plan, but after much deliberation we decided this method of registration was as fair as we could possibly make it. We are also confident it will alleviate the server-load issues we have had in the past during registration. We hope people understand the dilemma we face when putting on an event with far greater demand than available spots.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us through the Beaver State Fling website.

Jeff Mittl & Jeff Hagerty - CO-TDs 2011 Beaver State Fling

[XandorF]

Originally Posted by Bullseye

In Closing:[/b]
We understand some people may not approve of this plan, but after much deliberation we decided this method of registration was as fair as we could possibly make it. We are also confident it will alleviate the server-load issues we have had in the past during registration. We hope people understand the dilemma we face when putting on an event with far greater demand than available spots.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us through the Beaver State Fling website.

Jeff Mittl & Jeff Hagerty - CO-TDs 2011 Beaver State Fling

to fairness!

Thanks guys!

[Bruce]

Good luck to everyone that gets in. I won't have enough time to get my rating up, sadly.

[Joshua Olmsted]

Thanks so much for instituting the lottery system this year, I thinks it's a fantastic decision, last year on registration day I was in Santa Cruz, on a public library computer at least 10 years old with no shot at winning the internet speed competition.

[larsonjeff]

I think this is a very fair process. Thanks for doing the work to hash it out!
Some may not be happy, but consider that a compliment... everyone just wants to play this awesome event!

[scottycb1]

Originally Posted by larsonjeff

I think this is a very fair process. Thanks for doing the work to hash it out!
Some may not be happy, but consider that a compliment... everyone just wants to play this awesome event!

Great idea guys, hope i get in! I love the BSF!

[OneDarkRebel]

I'm all for any system and I always feel fortunate to get into any event in the Northwest, especially the BSF. I had an idea that the AM registration follows something similar to the PRO reg side and models Am Nationals qualifications. Being that the AM event is a Supertour event, for next years BSF for the AM's how about giving a few days priority registration to those who finished in the top 20% of the field in the previous years event? Sounds fair and, not to knock anyone or their level of play, this assures that there will be a high skill level representation which I would think a Supertour event should display.

[Scott]

Originally Posted by OneDarkRebel

I'm all for any system and I always feel fortunate to get into any event in the Northwest, especially the BSF. I had an idea that the AM registration follows something similar to the PRO reg side and models Am Nationals qualifications. Being that the AM event is a Supertour event, for next years BSF for the AM's how about giving a few days priority registration to those who finished in the top 20% of the field in the previous years event? Sounds fair and, not to knock anyone or their level of play, this assures that there will be a high skill level representation which I would think a Supertour event should display.

That's not a bad idea, and it could be easily worked into the system that Jeff described. Everyone registers ahead of time. Those that registered and were in the top 20% last year are automatically in. Everyone else goes into the lottery.

["Over the Hill" Bob]

Any other Sr. Grandmasters out there?

Bob

[snap7times]

I think that was an excellent post and excellent ideas. I did wonder about the MA1 division guaranteeing that the top 15-20 players get a chance to play again in 2011.
One thing I thought of, is that maybe not leave such leeway for other divisions to be formed and just stick to the popular divisions. Having 2 or 3 divisions of 4 takes away from the bigger divisions that those 4 could join. If there were smart enough intermediate players, they would register for MA2 and force the division to open and that would open a can of worms maybe with the MA1 cap situation?
Just my opinion, stick to the 4 popular BSF Am divisions and make them all big. (MA1, MM1, FW1, GM1). For example;
72 MA1
20 FW1
36 MM1
16 GM1

However the BSF committee decides to do it, I will support, just talking to provide different perceptions on this complicated issue that was well thought out by the committee.

[Toby Puttzinski]

Can't wait to call up my disc golfing friends this May, exclaiming that "I WON THE LOTTERY!!"

[Weatherman]

Really... I do not agree with a "lottery" system and will not be participating If that is the final solution. (might be my loss but I do have private course on my land. so I won't be unoccupied in any case) The lottery systems is used when way to many folks what to engage in an activity with limited spots. They use this in elk,deer and longhorn sheep hunting, let's be better and find a awesome solution, a suggestion would be a series of qualifiers at milo with top whatever number of openings (just to make math easy lets say their are 150 spots open for am's) so top 150 unique player's in qualifiers's have a guaranteed entry with some form of notification and time limit to commit. The entry fee in these qualifiers would pay for BSF entry. No other payout on qualifiers.

Dave Heider

[Kenny B]

I still would like to see some priority given to players that volunteered at last year's BSF.

[Scott]

Originally Posted by Weatherman

Really... I do not agree with a "lottery" system and will not be participating If that is the final solution. (might be my loss but I do have private course on my land. so I won't be unoccupied in any case) The lottery systems is used when way to many folks what to engage in an activity with limited spots. They use this in elk,deer and longhorn sheep hunting, let's be better and find a awesome solution, a suggestion would be a series of qualifiers at milo with top whatever number of openings (just to make math easy lets say their are 150 spots open for am's) so top 150 unique player's in qualifiers's have a guaranteed entry with some form of notification and time limit to commit. The entry fee in these qualifiers would pay for BSF entry. No other payout on qualifiers.

Dave Heider

Pretty unfair to out of town participants.

[Bullseye]

To make this clear... this is not open for debate for this years event, however I do have a few responses to give you all window in to our train of thought...

OneDarkRebel: That would work, however, it would always give preference to people who have already played the event before. We decided to implement something fair for all amateurs regardless on level of play and history.

Weatherman: We thought about this as well, but decided against it due to the reasons the Scott pointed out in a later post. This would eliminate most out of town amateurs who should have the same chance to get in to the event as the locals. I'm sorry you have chosen not to participate, but at least your odds of getting in would have been exactly the same as everyone elses.

Kenny B: We did consider this as well, however, a considerable number of last years volunteers did so because it was the only way we were able to split the weekends to accommodate so many more players. Trust me, that is not meant to diminish their contributions last year. Volunteers are critical to the success of the event year after year. Also, this would be another blow to the chances of out of town players..

[OneDarkRebel]

[quote=Bullseye;90349]To make this clear... this is not open for debate for this years event, however I do have a few responses to give you all window in to our train of thought...

OneDarkRebel: That would work, however, it would always give preference to people who have already played the event before. We decided to implement something fair for all amateurs regardless on level of play and history.


QUOTE]

This makes sense, although I would argue that the top 20% of the MA1 field is only 16 people in a field of 80 (referencing last years BSF AM event) and some of those players may have chosen to move to PRO or migrated to Masters, therefore there might only be 10 of those 16 spots that get reserved. AND I did say "for next years BSF", meaning 2012, as the suggestion.

[bryan_luoma]

Thank you for your efforts and deliberation in coming up with a fair process. The lottery does give all amateur players the same chance at getting into this prestigious event.

I'm sure it was considered, but if not, it might be worth considering the tiered registration process that is being used for Pros (ratings based), for Amateur players too? This would harvest the most talented field of amateur players. Am I missing an adverse side-effect of deploying that process for amateur registration as well?

[Bullseye]

Originally Posted by bryan_luoma

Thank you for your efforts and deliberation in coming up with a fair process. The lottery does give all amateur players the same chance at getting into this prestigious event.

I'm sure it was considered, but if not, it might be worth considering the tiered registration process that is being used for Pros (ratings based), for Amateur players too? This would harvest the most talented field of amateur players. Am I missing an adverse side-effect of deploying that process for amateur registration as well?

We did consider it briefly, but felt it wasn't as fair of an option. Field size constraints have, in years past, already forced us to drop the Intermediate divisions, and we felt we should give every amateur player an equal chance of getting in to the BSF.

[Scott]

Originally Posted by Bullseye

We did consider it briefly, but felt it wasn't as fair of an option. Field size constraints have, in years past, already forced us to drop the Intermediate divisions, and we felt we should give every amateur player an equal chance of getting in to the BSF.

The perpetual ~900 rated players among us thank you!

[Sausage Fingers]

Originally Posted by Bullseye

We did consider it briefly, but felt it wasn't as fair of an option. Field size constraints have, in years past, already forced us to drop the Intermediate divisions, and we felt we should give every amateur player an equal chance of getting in to the BSF.

But all that does is fill the division with players who have no chance of winning...making the entry of the lucky few players who's rating actually qualifies them to play in that division, a much easier field to win...

If you are going to drop the MA2 division entirely then if you don't have a PDGA rating of 935 you shouldn't be able to take a spot from a player who does qualify for the division. And while this may not be exactly the same as a tiered entry like the Pro side it will be a better field of players on the AM side.

This is a SuperTour for the AMs, it should reflect that fact. With only MA1 being offered you should at least qualify for the division before you can knock out someone else who does by random draw. I'm throwing my 8-year old's name into the hat for MA1 entry...let's see how well that goes over...

*As always - we are talking about next year's entries and different ways of filling a tourney with way more demand than space.