Tired of people not renewing PDGA membership!

[New013]

I'm tired of people getting tired of things.

If you can do something about it then why worry about it? If you can't do anything about it then why worry about it?

[DavidSauls]

Originally Posted by dudiablo

ratings are 'over rated' in my opinion. Unless you play in rated tournaments at unfamiliar courses your rating will be ballooned. You can get a local guy who only plays courses in their home town, so their rating would appear higher than if they were to travel and play courses that they don't know the 'local lines.'

Ratings are also based on how many people you beat in a given round. So someone could absolutely dominate at a long 'links' type course, but really struggle in a tight technical course. Are you suggesting that they play in different divisions based on the course, and not not go by their rating?

I don't think ratings vary greatly between home-course players and traveling players. They might for a player who's game fits his home course, such as a long thrower who only plays his long open home course. But by-and-large, I look at results among players who play lots of courses, and they don't shoot much higher ratings on their own courses than when on the road.

Ratings are not based on how many people you beat in a given round.

Whether they're "over-rated" depends on who's rating the ratings. I find them the best system for dividing players into divisions by skill that I've seen, and certainly a vast improvement over the system that preceded them.

[joshmo65]

Originally Posted by DavidSauls

I don't think ratings vary greatly between home-course players and traveling players. They might for a player who's game fits his home course, such as a long thrower who only plays his long open home course. But by-and-large, I look at results among players who play lots of courses, and they don't shoot much higher ratings on their own courses than when on the road.

I felt the same way as you, but then I looked at my rounds for the last year and came up with some actual numbers. I am currently rated 933 and have played 32 rated rounds in the last year. I have played 14 rounds at my "home" courses and 18 rounds at courses I have only played once or twice.

Average: 933.9 (home), 923.0 (away)
Standard Deviation: 32.79 (home), 36.82 (away)

Since May, I have a total of 21 rounds, 7 home and 14 away:
Average: 947.9 (home), 931.4 (away)
Standard Deviation: 23.2 (home), 32.03 (away)

5 of my 8 highest rated rounds were at home (but my highest by far (by 18 points) was away) and 5 of my 6 worst rounds were away. I guess being away does lower your rating.

[DavidSauls]

Last time I did this for myself my rating was actually higher on the road. But I base my judgement on tournaments I attend, noting whether the home players dominated or whether the hottest rounds were by home players or visitors.

But your home-course advantage is fairly small---not enough to say a player who only plays tournaments at home will have enough of a higher rating to discredit the ratings system, which was the point.

Actually, there are 3 categories to consider---home course players, visiting players playing blind, and visiting players who've played the course several times and are fairly familiar with it. I doubt this 3rd group shoots much worse than the home course players.

[dusty5150]

i just quickly went through this exercise.... I see consistently higher rated rounds when travelling.

A neat trend I noticed is that my average round rating increases each round. R1's(925) R2's(928) R3's(953) R4's(961).

[Cgkdisc]

Here's a table showing the average points difference in round ratings for PDGA members compared to their rating based on distance from home.

Diff. Miles from home
3.30 Under 20
0.50 20 - 50
-0.4 50 - 75
-0.7 75 - 100
-1.4 100 - 150
-1.2 150 - 200
-1.1 200 -300
-1.4 Over 300

[Dave242]

Interesting. You certainly can see how course familiarity makes a difference......but at 4.7 rating points, it is only about 1/2 a throw per round (1 per day, 2 per 4 round tournament).

That really is almost imperceptible. And, I would think since ratings change by a good percentage of that variation every ratings change for many people, the margin of error of that data cuts into the meaningfulness of it too a bit.

But, I suppose the average is made up by people whose differences of playing home vs away are larger than that and some that are the reverse of that.

[giles]

Funny. I always thought my game set up better for par 4 style DG over pitch and putt. Decently long off the tee, strong ability to get up and down but a weak putt outside 25' (When I played tournaments anything outside 40' was a layup). Then I shot my first 1000 rated round on a pitch and putt course 4,344' I'd only played once the day before the tournament.

[wake911]

Originally Posted by Cgkdisc

Here's a table showing the average points difference in round ratings for PDGA members compared to their rating based on distance from home.

Diff. Miles from home
3.30 Under 20
0.50 20 - 50
-0.4 50 - 75
-0.7 75 - 100
-1.4 100 - 150
-1.2 150 - 200
-1.1 200 -300
-1.4 Over 300

where is this data pulled from? (i'm a numbers nerd) It makes sense, and like other guy said, barely a perceptible difference in score.

[DavidSauls]

Mine is probably skewed because I'm usually running or helping run the tournament at "home". My 4th rounds in this cases have been abysmal.

I'd think the value of familiarity is diminishing. After the 2nd time around, how much more do you gain? After the 20th?