Amnesty for Pro

[CEValkyrie]

Amnesty For Pro Players As many of you already know after 3 years at the same rate membership fees will be going up in 2007. A general amnesty has been granted in consideration of those Pro players, current or otherwise, who may not be as competitive or as active as they once were but want to remain a valued member of the PDGA while continuing to support our great sport.We don't want to lose you!

Any Pro player wishing to return to Amateur status may do so no questions asked between now and the end of 2006. Your 2007 Am renewal must be received by December 31, 2006 in order to take advantage of this amnesty. After January 1, 2007 anyone wishing to reclassify from Pro to Am will once again be subject to a petition process.

All Amateur classified players are eligible to compete in Amateur Major events including the PDGA Amateur World Championships.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions pertaining to this program or anything else relating to your membership or the PDGA. I am here to assist you all anyway I can.

Take care everyone

Lorrie

Lorrie Gibson
PDGA Memberships Manager
706-261-6342 office@pdga.com


Am Worlds Here I come! 

[Bruce Brakel]

Every pro should take advantage of this.  Even if you are going to continue playing pro, why not save the $25 on your renewal? 

[stpitner]

Have they ever offered something like this before?  A no questions asked amnesty like this, while probably good-intentioned, seems quite odd.  You would think it would be abused heavily?

[Jon Brakel]

Have they ever offered something like this before?  A no questions asked amnesty like this, while probably good-intentioned, seems quite odd.  You would think it would be abused heavily?

Other than saving $25, how can it be abused? Pros that can even occasionally win money will still play pro for cash. Why wouldn't we want pros that can no longer play for money be able to opt out and start playing for prizes again?

[stpitner]

Agreed that if they want to play for cash, they stay pro, but it almost feels like a bagger type of move.  I completely understand those that would want to move down after deciding they can no longer play for money.  It just seems to open the doors for some people to abuse it somehow, but this is also the first year that I've been a PDGA member.  I haven't seen any of this in action before

[CEValkyrie]

I'm not sure what I think of it. I am thinking about saving the $25.00 and playing Bowling Green next year since I never got a chance to play BG.  It's before any event I would play in 2007. I'm sure people would have issues with that.

[Bruce Brakel]

I won't have any issues with that.  You've got my support.   

You're no lock in Advanced at national tournaments.  You're 16th by ratings among current amateurs.  Every year more amateurs wait longer to go pro. 

If I were 980, I'd go am for Milwaukee Worlds.  And maybe another shot at Nationals.  Nationals comes first next year, in June.  If school is done by then you could come out for the DGLO [as an amateur!] stay in the trailer, and stick around for nationals. 

But here's the other thing, you can sign up as an am and then decide.  If a lot of 970-980 players go this route, you have protection in numbers.  If you're the only one and you have second thoughts, you can take some pro cash at the March Warmup and forget about it. 

[stpitner]

Interesting points.  One stipulation I'm surprised to not see after reading all this is something from the PDGA saying that you have to remain an AM for the entire year OR you have to play in at least one sanctioned AM tournament before returning to Pro.  Saving $25 is great, but I don't know if the PDGA would think that

I definitely do agree that a Pro going to AM would not be a lock for first place in an AM tourney.  I guess the difference between Pro and AM just comes down to this bad pun reference to my store: do you want paper or plastic?