smitty wrote:Robert Hammersmith Monkey-Top 5 in every event played
James Guy NO EVENTS
Bren Nordgren Monkey 4 top 5 finishes (7)
Brad Merys Playes Open
Tim Senft 1 top 5 (3)
Ryan Orton 4 top 5 (11)
Dustin Widener 6 top 5 (10)
Jeremy Rusco 7 top 5 (17)
Austin Streit 4 top 5 (8)
Tom Butler 5 wins and a second in 6 events
Kevin Kaiser 7 top 5 (15)
Nils Nordgren 2 top 5 (7)
Shan Mann Plays Open
Brock Barrett Plays Open
Randy Mattingly Plays Masters
Kyle Klinger Plays Masters
Dustin McDonald 2 top 5 (5)
Michael Schoenhofer 2 top 5 (6)
Adam Mosher 0 top 5 (4)
Andy Lewis 2 top 5 (12)
Most of these guys dominated in the PDGA events they played.
Another thing to look at would be if they would have cashed in Open.
I don't think that they should have to come to the Open divison and donate. I also donate think they should take donations from the largest field at most tourneys.
I am sure there are some Open players that would be able to move down and make a bigger expert field.
Actually, I played in seven events this year. One isn't posted yet. So, thats 5 wins and 2 seconds.
I have asked my question to the PDGA. I'll post the answer when I hear from them.
Here is the scoop on adv masters from the pdga.....
Greetings from Kansas City. I have a question regarding the new ratings based divisions. I usually play in the Advanced Masters division. My rating is currently 949. Does this rating force me to play in the new expert advanced division?
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Nope. No age or gender divisions have to play in the mainstream ratings brackets for the under 40 players. However, if all of your other Adv Masters under 935 decide to enter Intermediate or Rec, you may want to play Advanced versus playing in a division with only a few of you. The new system is just like this year with just the ratings breaks shifted upward.
i see "experts" not wanting to play in a 2-3 person division or donate to the open fields with lil or no chance of cashing..so they will do 1 or the other for a while then tire of just throwing $ into the wind and just switch to casual $ games with friends they can compete with
i myself a few years back was prob good enough to make the jump to pro and did play in a few events as a pro..never cashing but turning down last place cash 1 time. 5 man pro field"3rd"
for myself i spent to much time as a pro upset with myself for not playing better.,missing easy putts,just normal stuff that happens.but i found myself out on the course doing what i thought i loved but miserable alot of tourny rounds.i had never felt this way in advanced..
so i basically just stopped playing very much since i had kinda been at the top of the advanced division here and wasnt having fun playing open .now that i only play 3-4 times a month instead of 3-4 times a week and gotten older i can play advanced and dont feel like i should win everytime if i play good.now i have have to play great to have a chance
This is kind of interesting. I looked at all the people who qualify to play Expert and compared their scores with Open or Master depending on their AGE.
Hammer would have cashed in Lawrence.
Stun would have cashed in Pratt and Ransom.
Rusco would have cashed in Pratt, Ransom, Great Bend.
Nils would have cashed in Lawrence.
2K would have cashed in Great Bend
Tom would have cashed at the Sunburn Open.
Now there were many times that people would have missed the cash by 1 or 2 strokes. If they would have been in the Open division (mainly at smaller events) the payout would have gone deeper, and they would have cashed.
So basically this isn't going to effect the Open divison very much at all. A few people may drop down to expert. The guys in Advanced that usually get last cash or just miss out are probably going to cash more often. All these dudes who are going to be forced to play expert will have smallest division and will have to battle for their plastic.
We also will not have to hear the "I don't want to turn down cash" phrase any longer either. Ams that play in the Open division will be able to get paid in plastic and keep their Am status.
I'm sure the open players that cash in every tournament wouldn't be very happy if they split up their division to give the people on the line a chance!! It's the same point smitty is making with the people cashing in adv. Look through the kdga tourneys and am sure you will find the same names at the top in every tournament.
So, the only logical thing to do is to make a separate division for these top pros so the other open players won't be 'donating', and those players can duke it out instead of taking handouts... right?!?! Didn't think so.
It's the same thing!
However, I think you will find a lot of the advanced players that don't have the rating that requires them to be in expert, will move up anyway for the competition. Right now, in most advanced divisions, there is between 25-50% of the division that could play in the intermediate division, but choose to move up.
Is the "Expert" division only in affect at tournaments that are B tier and up? It seems like this will be a good idea for big tournaments like the GBO, where we have 40+ in advanced. If you get 10 players to move up, and 5 to move down from pro you will have a decent paying division. I do not think it will work at small tournaments such as Great Bend. I think we only had 4 or 5 in advanced the way it was. How are you going to split that division up?
I am willing to give it a try before I say I hate it. But, I think it is taking away from the competition. You have to practice and pay your dues. The people who win advanced week in and week out (baggers) spent time getting beat down themselves. If we take the 10 best advanced players and put them in this expert division, won't that mean that the next 10 people in advanced will be the baggers? They will be better than all of the others in advanced, but will not be good enough to play expert. All that has been accomplished is lowering the division and the average player rating of the people who are stuck in the middle.
The plastic instead of cash thing for ams playing pro is possibly the stupidest thing I have ever heard. If you are good enough to make money in pro there is no reason why you should stay am. Winning am worlds is like being the best JV quarterback of all time. You may be the best, but you are still playing JV.
I DO think that it should only be done at bigger events.
I DON'T think that after the expert division is started, you will be able to call anyone a bagger. Their rating will force them to play in the correct division. The only way they could be a bagger is if they missed putts and made bad shot on purpose. Then they should be called a bagger.
It WILL NOT lower anyones player rating. It will still be based on the people that play a course at a given time.
The expert division shouldn't efect the "Payout". The same number of people will equal the same amout of payout. It will be just spread over more people. If a player is worried about Payout, then they aren't an AM. I would like to give all ams player packs and the top few a trophy. That would be the best way to run an am event. IMO
As for winning an AM Worlds title. That would be sick! I don't care who you are if you win a major, you are a stud. Ask Jake Newell.
So lets say we had a b-tier tourney, there was 25 signed up fro advanced and 5 in expert. At that point is it the TDs discretion to keep the divisions separate or combine them? Just curious.
The way I understand it, they have already done away with Expert and Enthusiast divisions, and have simply redefined Advanced, Intermediate, Recreation, as well as added a new division called Novice.
wlbkr wrote:The way I understand it, they have already done away with Expert and Enthusiast divisions, and have simply redefined Advanced, Intermediate, Recreation, as well as added a new division called Novice.
