PDGA Payouts

[Jon Brakel]

How are the payout differences incentive to move up?

Say I'm a player who doesn't like the payout in Intermediate, how does moving up to advanced help me?  Now I have to pay a higher entry fee and since I'm an intermediate player, I have little chance of even getting a prize.  So players should ignore their skill level I guess and just go with the division that has the most logical payout table.  This doesn't make sense.  You choose your division based on what level you think you can compete at.

People who do not have ratings or whose rating does not reflect their current skill level do not have an incentive to play at the level where they are most competitive if the payout is the same at the lower division. Trust me Dan, I would never post anything that doesn't make sense!    

[Jon Brakel]

the PDGA payout charts are only suggestions

The PDGA chart is the standard but no where in the rules or sanctioning agreement does it state that I have to follow the standard payout chart. Of course the PDGA has forced me to not do other things that are not against the rules or sanctioning agreement, so everything is relative until someone at the PDGA office finds out we're doing it.

[Jon Brakel]

How are the payout differences incentive to move up?

I'm not an advocate of switching am payouts to Daisey Girl payouts where everyone WINS! just for trying. However, I think it makes sense that there is a natural progression in entry fees, payouts and competition in the PDGA divisional ladder. Recreational should have a low entry and a flat but deep payout. This progresses to Advanced where the payout is less deep and steeper. Then the pro division ups the ante even more by paying out in ca$h, shallower and steeper still.

I think that the intermediate payout should fall some where in between the recreational and advanced payouts. That is what makes sense to me. Using the bonus table for the intermediate division would raise the payout for the winner to match the increase of competition over the recreational division.

[Dan Michler]

How are the payout differences incentive to move up?

Say I'm a player who doesn't like the payout in Intermediate, how does moving up to advanced help me?  Now I have to pay a higher entry fee and since I'm an intermediate player, I have little chance of even getting a prize.  So players should ignore their skill level I guess and just go with the division that has the most logical payout table.  This doesn't make sense.  You choose your division based on what level you think you can compete at.

People who do not have ratings or whose rating does not reflect their current skill level do not have an incentive to play at the level where they are most competitive if the payout is the same at the lower division. Trust me Dan, I would never post anything that doesn't make sense!  

i'll agree that for these people who are capable of playing at a higher division and placing well, the flat payout can be an incentive to move up.

[Bruce Brakel]

I think I might try to concoct some sort of neutral fair survey.  

The bottom line is that we will continue to run the kinds of tournaments that we would rather play.  But if tweaking the payouts a little will attract more players, we'd probably rather play those tournaments.  

[Clonefan94]

For me, what would keep me coming back to a tournament is good competition. Knowing if I register for whatever division, I can count on being in the running if I play well. Knowing that each place was seperated by a couple of strokes would give me a lot of incentive to come back and play better next time. Rather than knowing that player (X) is coming back, sined up for the same division, and has one the last 3 years by 7 strokes or more over 2nd place when the rest of the field was pretty close in score. As I said before, whatever payout I would get is really secondary to the reason I would play a tournament. Contrary to what I said before, maybe the lowers should have a more even payout, keeping them smaller. If you join a "Recreational" division you should be playing for recreation and fun and because you don't have a ton of time to dedicate the the sport. You shouldn't be playing "Rec" because you know you'll get a huge payout when you win.

It's a tough call though, some people are into payouts. If you plan on getting a big payout though, are you really a recreational player?

[Dan Michler]

I would agree that people shouldn't be playing any Am division for the reason of collecting big payouts, although in reality its not like there are advanced players that are just making loads of money off of playing advanced.  Its all just for fun.

But there is going to be a payout, however large or small it is isn't the issue.  I just feel that most players find it more fun to have the payout differentials be relatively significant.  I can see the logic in increasing these differentials as you progress through the divisions.  However, I think it would be a good idea to have these differentials be alot more significant than 1 dollar between 1st and 2nd for all divisions if at all possible.  I believe this would satisfy more players.  If this means going against the PDGA suggested payout chart, then so be it.

[Jon Brakel]

I agree with that Dan. I was hoping to get some more opinions from our Intermediate players. I think it's odd to have 1 brass difference between places also. I think it's odd even when it is the difference between 8th and 9th place. I'm willing to try the bonus payout at the next IOS but I'd like to get some idea from our Intermediate players that they agree that fewer players should get prizes but the winners should get more.

[Brian]

Even if I get ripped off at a tourney at a great course, I'm still coming back to get ripped off again most likely

Tower Ridge is an example of this, the payouts aren't the best compaired to other events I've been to.  However, the course is awesome and kicks you in the face if you mess up.  It's because of the course and the people who play in it that will keep me returning.