2008 Illinois Open Series

[Bruce Brakel]

Yeah.  This time with passion.

The IOS Fall Summit was very productive. 

Things may change in the next 6 hours to 6 months, but this is what we are coalescing around:

A six tournament series with a Worlds break, April through October.  A similar schedule with similar venues.  Maybe there will be a Brass Cash event in August, but it won't be for IOSeries points. 

Saturday: Open, 2, 4. 
Sunday: All masters, women, juniors, 1 and 3

That means we'll offer three divisions on Saturday: Open, Am 2 Advanced, and Am 4 Enthusiast.  Every other PDGA division will go on Sunday.  I think we'll have plenty of gators among the Am 4 Enthusiasts so they will play tees they can be enthusiastic about, but we'll keep an eye on that at each tournament. 

No trophy-only in pro divisions.  Instead we'll offer "Half in" for the budget plan pros.  Half the entry fee, half the payout.  When half-ins cash, the half they decline will be paid to the top according to a conceptually simple but verbally complex formula.  I'll lay out the rules in the Half In thread. 

Ams Playing Pro:  Ams can take prizes in pro divisions and stay am.  Half-ins are included in this.  A half-in am playing pro can take her half in prizes, and stay am, and the other half bumps up as cash [to Barrett!!!  ] 

We're keeping the pre-reg discount and trophy-only in the amateur divisions.  Jon and I hate all the work involved in the surfeit of entry fee options, but we are "The TDs Who Do More." 

We want to do something special and different with the Rockford leg.  Something grade A quality.  We need to talk to the park district and the PDGA.  Watch this space.  Speculate among yourselves. 

Entry fees will be similar to what we were doing this year, or something slightly different.  We forgot to discuss that!     They won't go up or down significantly. 

[skipache]

idk if you have decided on sites or plan to use the same as this year but i think oswego and peoria would be great to include

[DiscGolfSchodt]

Yes, another year of trying to get saturdays off 

[stpitner]

(terrible pun fully intended here), I'm very "enthusiastic" about moving to Saturdays   I know my story isn't the same as everyone else - but this Enthusiast greatly prefers playing on a Saturday.  It will be cool seeing some of the Pro cards just tearing up a course while the enthusiasts are out there shanking 10 foot putts!

[damonshort]

Saturday: Open, 2, 4. 
Sunday: All masters, women, juniors, 1 and 3

That means we'll offer three divisions on Saturday: Open, Am 2 Advanced, and Am 4 Enthusiast.  Every other PDGA division will go on Sunday.

so 'all masters'  includes non-pros and all over-40 players?

[pickax]

The way the divisions are laid out. Anyone (except for the young hot shot male pros rated over 985(?)), can play up on the opposite day.

[tacimala]

So looks like I'll play pro half-in on Saturday and Expert on Sunday on the weekends that it works out for me!

[skipache]

i would plan on doing the same as Mr. Cimala playing two days is always better than one

[Bruce Brakel]

Saturday: Open, 2, 4. 
Sunday: All masters, women, juniors, 1 and 3

That means we'll offer three divisions on Saturday: Open, Am 2 Advanced, and Am 4 Enthusiast.  Every other PDGA division will go on Sunday.

so 'all masters'  includes non-pros and all over-40 players?

All masters means all age restricted divisions for older people.  Over 40 players can play on Saturday in Open, 2 or 4 if that works for them. 

This split divides the field in half as closely as possible based on our past tournaments, is easy to remember, and gives everyone the option to play up a division other day.  It also gives some of the women, masters and juniors an opportunity to play in a parallel ratings based division the other day. 

I might have to play up a division, although I did my best at Fairfield to bag my way down to Am 2, but i'll be a Saturday player regardless. 

[mirth]

so, pro open would be saturday and pro masters on sunday?

[pickax]

yup

[discpro99]

so, pro open would be saturday and pro masters on sunday?

i dont know if that would be a good idea due to the fact that open and master players usually travel together.

[Tom McManus]

so, pro open would be saturday and pro masters on sunday?

i dont know if that would be a good idea due to the fact that open and master players usually travel together.

I don't know how often this happens, but this does give an opportunity for pro masters to play both days if they are so inclined.  Also can someone please explain exactly what 1, 2, 3, and 4 represent to minimize possible confusion?

[stpitner]

1 = AM1 = Expert Division (PDGA Rating : 935+)
2 = AM2 = Advanced Division (PDGA Rating : 900 - 934)
3 = AM3 = Intermediate Divsion (PDGA Rating: 850 - 899)
4 = AM4 = Enthusiast Division (PDGA Rating: Less than 850)

[pickax]

1 = AM1 = Expert Division (PDGA Rating : any)
2 = AM2 = Advanced Division (PDGA Rating : <935)
3 = AM3 = Intermediate Divsion (PDGA Rating: <900)
4 = AM4 = Enthusiast Division (PDGA Rating: <850)

Just clarifying Scott's post to indicate playing up is allowed. These breaks are for Ams.

[stpitner]

heh, I actually had it that way and then changed it because that's what was in the PDF released information from the PDGA.

all I can say is that don't make an AM5.  Not playing well enough to even make it out of AM4 is bad enough

[airspuds]

firmly entrenched in 3 land

i like sundays as i usually go the ball game with the family on sat night

but then other areas do it opposite  (joliet)

[Bruce Brakel]

Some people might have to find other people to ride with, but that is going to be true of any split that evenly divides the field. 

Open-2-4 takes away the Pro Masters' opportunity to play the registration game where they see who and how many are in each division and then decide which is their better bet.  Maybe they'll start doing that with Expert and Pro Master!     That was not intended but it is a consequence.

TDs who don't think creatively about how to divide their split-weekend tournaments are going to fill one day and be turning people away while they are half empty the other.  For our field, Open-2-4 gives us a clean split on the average and at most tournaments too. 

[smyith]

You know it be cool to have tournaments in the winter further south. Be a true Illinois open and not a northern Illinois open series. 

O i think sinnissippi park should have a tournament in the IOS Maybe inclufde the joliet area courses.

I think its a bad idea to split the divisions that way. It should be Pro, Am 1 and 2 on saturday. Speed of play i think is the issue. I am the biggest hater of being iced in the world by having 1 slow group holding up the entire field. Plus as far as peoples friends i think it works better that way too.

[Jon Brakel]

I think its a bad idea to split the divisions that way. It should be Pro, Am 1 and 2 on saturday. Speed of play i think is the issue. I am the biggest hater of being iced in the world by having 1 slow group holding up the entire field. Plus as far as peoples friends i think it works better that way too.

But it doesn't work for all the players that played the series this year to be able to play next year. We would overfill one day and underfill the other day.