OK quick question here....

I renewed this year as a pro, thinking I was ready. After struggling through my first couple of events, I was curious if I am able to play advanced?? I feel like I can play pro, but I feel like I need to play advanced. I have cashed once, but my rating right now is well below the cutoff line.

Any opinions or suggestions??

I feel that I need to move down and play,maybe win, an advanced tourney to prove to myself that I belong in the pro division.

You can play advanced until your rating is 970 or more.

you are allowed to play advanced as you are under the 970 cut-off.

winning adv tourneys, on the other hand, is completely unrelated to "belonging" in the open division.

Thanks for the info. I understand that winning a tourney playing advanced doesn't relate to belonging in open. I just feel that I need to prove to myself that my decision to renew and play as an open player, was the right one.

As you may be able to tell, I had a poor weekend on the course. Granted, I was playing this course for the first time during the tourney, which I am sure this was the main reason for my struggles. My feelings towards moving down may change as my next few tourneys are locals, at courses I am very familiar with. This is likely to skew my thoughts once again.

Just as a point of reference, no one is allowed to "move down" within PDGA competition. In other words, no one can play in a lower division than allowed by their rating. If you choose to play in both pro and am divisions at various times during the year, you will always be moving either sideways or playing up if you play in a division above your ratings, age or gender based division. Playing down - not allowed.

Thanks for the clarification

registered as a pro, playing adv= playing down regardless of rating.

Sorry Biscoe, you're just hanging on to the past. With no cap on Advanced ratings, we can and I expect will have more and more Ams over 1000.

until you succeed in overlaying ratings onto pro divisions playing am will remain a step down.

Even though I'm a thoroughly modern Millie when it comes to ratings, I agree with Biscoe that am-anything is a step down from pro-anything. Even though most pro women cannot compete in Advanced Men, advanced men is a step down because they are playing for 50% or less of their entry fees at most tournaments whereas the pro women are playing for 90% or more, most of the time.

When we have tournaments where we're taking half of the pros' entry fees for lunches, fees, expenses, added prizes for the ams, or to fund next week's Am A-tier, then maybe there'll be a pro division that is a step down from am.

That's not necessary. I'm a GM Pro. If I play Master Pro or Open, I'm playing up. If I play GM Pro, I'm not playing down. If I enter Advanced, it's definitely sideways. I'm not allowed to play down in Advanced Master even though they are younger players because my rating is 12 points too high. If a Pro Woman with a 910 rating plays Advanced, I'd say she's playing up and even more so than playing in the typical Pro Women field. If you play wehre your rating allows, you can only be playing sideways or up.

That's not necessary. I'm a GM Pro. If I play Master Pro or Open, I'm playing up. If I play GM Pro, I'm not playing down. If I enter Advanced, it's definitely sideways. I'm not allowed to play down in Advanced Master even though they are younger players because my rating is 12 points too high. If a Pro Woman with a 910 rating plays Advanced, I'd say she's playing up and even more so than playing in the typical Pro Women field. If you play wehre your rating allows, you can only be playing sideways or up.



I say tomato.

That's not necessary. I'm a GM Pro. If I play Master Pro or Open, I'm playing up. If I play GM Pro, I'm not playing down. If I enter Advanced, it's definitely sideways. I'm not allowed to play down in Advanced Master even though they are younger players because my rating is 12 points too high. If a Pro Woman with a 910 rating plays Advanced, I'd say she's playing up and even more so than playing in the typical Pro Women field. If you play wehre your rating allows, you can only be playing sideways or up.




Here boys and girls is a verbal illustration of manure

Posters here are perfectly capable of smelling the truth. It's obviously been in the best interest of pros to use the perjorative term of "moving down" all these years to psychologically trap and prop up their number of donators. I'm finally calling you/us out now that there's free flow based on ratings between our pseudo-Pro and pseudo-Am divisions.

propped up - ahh that would be manure on a stick

keep playing up. do you really need the plastic? is it really all that much more fun trying to win advanced? i personally think it's much more worthwhile to try to make the cash line in open.

i personally think it's much more worthwhile to try to make the cash line in open.



Of course, that's why we have the choices for players to play up or sideways - to meet different player preferences and the reality that not enough players at your level may show up for a division.