Determining Player Rating???

[tomschillin]

How does one determine his/her player rating? I see these reviews that say "it's a good course for a 950 player" what the hell does that mean? and how do I figure out what my number is?:confused:

[darnella]

goto the pdga.com for help on player rating but basicaly it breaks down like this

1000 and above pro
935 -999 advanced
890- 935 intermediate
898- below recreational

all courses have a course rating say a course rating is 53

if you go out and shoot a 53 that would be a 1000 rated round

if you shot a 58 that would be a 950 rated round

if you shot a 52 1010 rated round
every stroke over the course rating subtract 10 points a stroke from a 1000

every one under add 10 points a stroke to a 1000

hope this helps a little

[ERicJ]

The easiest way to find out your player rating is to join the PDGA (http://www.pdga.com/) and play in a PDGA sanctioned event.

Pretty much everything you could want to know about PDGA Player Ratings can be found on this page:
http://www.pdga.com/competition/ratings/index.php
and these two PDF files:
http://www.pdga.com/documents/2008/08RatingsGuide.pdf
http://www.pdga.com/documents/2008/08PlayerDivisionsGrid.pdf

darnella has it pretty close. They've tweaked the divisions a bit for 2008.

There's no specific threshold for "Pro Class" though the generally accepted Open division minimum Player Rating is ~970.

For "Amateur Class" to play in:
Men's Novice division your Player Rating must be <850,
Men's Recreational <900,
Men's Intermediate <930,
Men's Advanced is open to any Amateur player (typically >930).

For typical courses that are rated with an SSA (Scratch Scoring Average) of ~50 a player with a 1000 rating would be expected to average a score of 50. At that SSA every 10 rating points equates to one stroke. So like darnella says, a 950 player should average a score of 55 on that course.

To get into even more detail: as courses get easier or harder, i.e. different SSA's, the 10 points/stroke value changes. That's due to a factor call "compression" and is explained in this PDF file:
http://www.pdga.com/competition/ratings/WhatIsCompression.pdf

[DGtourist]

Its like learning a new language, I can't help but to think a simplier method could have been used.

[ERicJ]

Its like learning a new language, I can't help but to think a simplier method could have been used.
It definitely is tough at first. But for me so was hyzer, anhyzer, turn, fade, etc..

Coming from a long career in racquetball I've really come to appreciate PDGA's rating system. Racquetball is just now getting around to developing a ranking (not rating) system. But they really don't have anything in place to delineate skill divisions. Sandbagging has historically been a problem.

The PDGA's system is actually pretty straight forward to me, but then I'm an engineer :cool: and deal with numbers and equations most of the time anyway. What the system lacks is a comprehensive handicapping method like ball golf has. That would allow players of all ratings to compete "equally". But given the variety of courses and complete lack of course standardization this will probably never be a reality.

However, that hasn't stopped me from trying to implement a handicapping system that, at least on the local level, starts everyone off as equally as possible: http://www.pdga.com/msgboard/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=Club980&Number=834906

ERic

[Donovan]

ERicJ,

Bro, that looks like it is working pretty good. The best players and worst players are close to the money. That is usually a good sign of a good handicap system. It shows that the good players are being consistent and that the worst players usually show the fastest improvement. NICE JOB!

[tomschillin]

thank you guys so much for the explanations...i'm still not really sure of what my rating is (hardly ever keep score) but at least now I know what those numbers mean...thanks again

[edge3281]

Is there a place that has the ratings for a particular course? I don't have a schedule that would let me compete in PDGA sanctioned events right now and it would be nice to have an idea of what my rating would be.

[ERicJ]

Is there a place that has the ratings for a particular course?

Yes! This page allows you to look up the SSA course ratings. Scratch Scoring Average is the average score a 1000 rated player will throw. The higher the SSA the harder the course is.

http://pdga.com/tournament/course_ratings_by_course.php

Enter your state to get a list of courses that have been rated, i.e. have had a PDGA sanctioned tournament played there.

Two things to note. Some courses are entered by state with full name, e.g. "Texas", and others have state abbreviations, e.g. "TX". So you may want to try searching both.

The other thing is that the SSA's are reported by event. That is some events may have been played from the long tees and generated a higher SSA than an event played from the short tees. Sometimes the same event will have better players playing long tees and lesser players playing short tees. In that case there should be two different SSA's reported.

All that get's you is the SSA of a course, not your player rating. If you're not going to play in a PDGA event the next simplest way to estimate your rating is to look at the scores from a PDGA event at a course on which you play.

http://www.pdga.com/schedule/search.php

Look at the individual scores and click the "Show Round Ratings" link. Then find a score close to you average and you should see a rating close to the same ballpark as what yours would be.

Here's a example of a page with round ratings shown. This event was played on three different courses, one for each round.

http://www.pdga.com/tournament/tournament_results.php?TournID=7296&year=2008&include_ratings=1#Recreational

[Olorin]

I've got a Rating calculator file that I'll try to attach, but had problems the first time using Firefox. I'll see if I can work out the problem...

[Olorin]

Tim,

It's an Excel file with macros and I keep getting an error message that it's an invalid file.

[ERicJ]

It's an Excel file with macros and I keep getting an error message that it's an invalid file.
From the Upload Manager: "Valid file extensions: gif jpeg jpg png".

Tim even checks to see if it's a real image file so you can't just change the ".xls" to ".png".

[Olorin]

Tim,

I can't attach Word docs either. Any idea why? Could it be my firewall?

[Olorin]

From the Upload Manager: "Valid file extensions: gif jpeg jpg png".

Tim even checks to see if it's a real image file so you can't just change the ".xls" to ".png".

Thanks Eric.

[timg]

http://www.dgcoursereview.com/stuff/PersonalRatingCalculator.zip

[Olorin]

I guess I need to give up on the idea of attaching files here, so check DG Resources (http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/DGResources/) in the Files section for files on calculating your rating and developing handicaps.

[edge3281]

Thanks everyone for the information and the file!!

[Olorin]

Is there a place that has the ratings for a particular course?

Use this link to the PDGA (http://www.pdga.com/tournament/course_ratings_by_course.php) to get course SSA ratings. A course has to have had a PDGA tournament to have an SSA.

Keep in mind that SSA is not a number set in stone. It changes with each tournament round, and especially with different layouts. Weather also affects it, so you can only use this as an estimate. Or you could calculate an average of rounds where all layouts were the same.

[Olorin]

For an example of how SSA can vary for the same course check out Cedarock (http://www.pdga.com/tournament/course_ratings_by_course.php?RatingCourseID=173) in Burlington NC.

[Olorin]

However, that hasn't stopped me from trying to implement a handicapping system that, at least on the local level, starts everyone off as equally as possible

Here's a link to Disc Golf United (http://www.discgolfunited.com/) who will give you a handicap for $20/year.

I already have a handicap... my drive. (couldn't resist) ;)

[Donovan]

First off, I just wanted to say thanks to Olorin & timg. You will see why in a second.

To get your unoffical rating for a course, here is what I did:

I went to the PDGA site, Course Statistics (http://www.pdga.com/tournament/course_ratings_by_course.php), and put in my state. I found 2 SSA ratings for the course I wanted to see my rating for. I averaged those and got a new SSA rating.

I then got Olorin's
Rating Calculator (http://www.dgcoursereview.com/stuff/...Calculator.zip) and listed that course in the "Courses" tab using that averaged rating.

Next, I went into my "My Dashboard", here on dgcoursereview.com and opened up my "Scorebook". I went to the 'Course Stats' section and popped in that course and got my average round score. I then entered that in Olorin's calculator in the "Rounds and Ratings" tab. (If you wanted to see how each round stacks up, just enter each round in that tab from you past rounds. Entering the best and worst rounds, will give you an idea of how the rating can fluctuate.)

AND :cool: I got a rating! That was actually easier than I thought it would be.

If your course does not have an offical SSA rating, the "SSA Estimator" tab in the calculator can help. Using that the SSA was only different from my averaged one by .5, which is pretty close.)

Anyway, this was actually fun to do. ;)

Thanks again for the site and file AND for sharing all your hard work!

[ERicJ]

Here's a link to Disc Golf United (http://www.discgolfunited.com/) who will give you a handicap for $20/year.I've looked at the DGU site before and haven't been impressed. It doesn't have enough data or players. Also, thought it was $10/yr. But even at that price I don't see it taking off. I would be interested to hear from someone who has actually used it for a while to see how accurate they think its handicapping system is.

[Olorin]

First off, I just wanted to say thanks to Olorin & timg. You will see why in a second.

Donovan,

You're more than welcome! I'm so glad that it was helpful. I'm happy to share. That's what DG Resources is all about.

DISClaimer: I didn't make the rating calculator; someone else did. It may have been Chuck Kennedy or Rodney G. I just got it and saved it, sometime long ago.

[ERicJ]

...AND :cool: I got a rating!So... what was it?

[Ty9339]

AAAHHHHHHHHHH finally found a place to figure this out. it has been a mind boggler since i started getting really into frolf thanks for the help guys

[Donovan]

So... what was it?

Let's say it was fun and depressing to find all this out. ;)

822 at Arcadia Park No.2, Fort Worth, TX USA
920 at Bear Creek, Grapevine, TX, USA

[Olorin]

Donvan,

A 100 point difference! That's pretty dramatic. If it was me, I'd get the rating for each round and average them all together to get an idea of my rating.

[Donovan]

Donvan,

A 100 point difference! That's pretty dramatic. If it was me, I'd get the rating for each round and average them all together to get an idea of my rating.

I was looking at what the rating would be at a particular course...I haven't actually put all my rounds in at once to see how it would come out for the overall rating yet.

[ERicJ]

A 100 point difference! That's pretty dramatic. If it was me, I'd get the rating for each round and average them all together to get an idea of my rating.If he's checking ratings for just one round then 100 points isn't that unheard of. I've done my ratings on five/six courses for the Handicapping Minis that I run and they swing around a bit. People can shoot better rounds at courses that are more suited to their type of game.

953 Imperial Park (18-hole w/ Alts)
921 Erickson/Payne Home DGC
912 First Colony Aquatic (18-hole w/ Alts)
879 QVCC-the LINKS (Red tees)
878 QVCC-the LINKS (Blue tees)
873 Missouri City (18-hole w/ Alts)
===
903 average on Southwest Houston area courses

My PDGA rating is currently 849, but I'm carrying some "ratings baggage" from tournaments played when I was first starting out and not playing as well as I am now.

"Home course advantage" also comes in to play as you're more likely to shoot well (higher ratings) on a course with which you're familiar than a course you've never played before. Given all that I'd say my own realistic rating should be about 860-870 right now.