What division?

by **rwmurrow** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:31 am

How does a player who has never played in a turnement before determine what division to enter when he finally goes to his first tourney?

by **garublador** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:33 am

Here's a good start:

http://www.pdga.com/documents/2006/06DivisionsGuide.pdf

by **jamsisjams** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:38 am

Depends on your experience level with the course, how well you shoot that particular course and/or how well you shoot other courses. Probably Rec or the next one up--Intermediate, I believe. Remember to take the field into account, as well.

I honestly don't know for sure but having faced this question while signing up for it, I had to learn the hard way. I generally shoot between par and 6 over, depending on the course. I played the 2nd highest division--Advanced--and I finished poorly.

Mind you, it was on a course that I hadn't played before in fairly cold conditions. I also took a 10 on the frozen lake shot... :evil:

Never again... :wink:

by **rwmurrow** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:46 am

Right on.

I don't know how my local courses compare to other courses but at the easy one I shoot from -5 to -10, and usually right around par at the hard one. I have an average long drive of 400ft. I have been improving my putting now scince I got a basket of my own and practice more.

I dont really want to start at the lowest level. should
I anyways just because it would be my first tourney?

by **ericdmb** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 12:04 pm

rwmurrow wrote:Right on.

I don't know how my local courses compare to other courses but at the easy one I shoot from -5 to -10, and usually right around par at the hard one. I have an average long drive of 400ft. I have been improving my putting now scince I got a basket of my own and practice more.

I dont really want to start at the lowest level. should
I anyways just because it would be my first tourney?

no, if you think you can do well in the higher divisions play up - if not and you win the Int. Am division by a ton of strokes, you will for sure hear the bagger chants!

by **MR. WICK** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 12:11 pm

I started one level higher than I thought I should be playing. I would rather play with the better players and get beat and learn something along the way.

by **jamsisjams** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 1:03 pm

I was under the assumption that your game wasn't as spot on as you claim. If you've got the confidence, go for broke, my man. It depends on how much you value placing and earning your money back, I suppose. Do you know how you stack against the competition? I would guess that to be a contributing factor, as well.

by **rwmurrow** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 1:26 pm

90 perent of the past maybe 200 games I have played have been by myself scince I like to go play early in the morning before my classes.

The other day I played in the afternoon and joined a group of 5 other guys. asked them if they ever played in the local minis and they said they did frequently. I won that round by a couple of strokes and made some new freinds. I guess I should have asked them what division they competed in.

by **roadkill** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 2:02 pm

If the course(s) you play have pdga sanctioned events held on them you could look up past results to see how different divisions scored and choose the division your scores are most comparable.

by **some call me...tim?** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 3:49 pm

I'd recommend starting at Intermediate. When I played my first casual tournament, I figured I'd be playing at an Advanced level and would likely do well. Since it was just a small little monthly, they only had Pros & Ams, so I played Ams of course. I ended up in a 3 way tie for last place (at least I wasn't alone at the bottom, right?) Since then, I've found out that you can be pretty damn good (by my standards at least) and still be considered an Intermediate player. And one thing to count on is that your tournament score will more often than not be worse than a casual score. If you play intermediate and end up stomping the competition, well, more power to you...just make sure you move up to advanced the next time around. Nobody has any right to call you a bagger if you've never competed before. On a different note though, a guy I know is going to be playing his first tourney this weekend, and will be playing pro. I don't know how its gonna work out for him, but I'm gonna be rooting for him the whole way!

by **jist313** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 6:48 am

I played my first tournament this year in February. I started playing a little over a year ago. I wasn't sure what the competition level would be like because I normally play solo. The TD said to start AM2 and see how it goes. I thought I would be borderline. However, I beat the second place by 9 strokes and thrid by 14. I actually would have taken AM1 by three. So, I heard the bagger chants. I will only play AM1 from now on.

by **rwmurrow** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 8:01 am

Holy cow! Good job.

by **esip** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:29 pm

in my first tournament i was told to play am3 no matter what, but with some pressure from my friends i gave in and played am2

the tournament was a B tier and i felt a good amount of pressure on my shots. its no lie-i cracked and finished 2nd to last in am2 i think i would have done better playing am3 first just to give me more confidence and experience. it is true that you will learn more playing in a higher division, but you will have many chances to do so.

also, it might not be a bad idea to play a unsanctioned tournament that is a bit more casual than a PDGA sanctioned tourny.

good luck

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