The open fields for big events filling up by ams is the exact reason for this rule. Pros have been complaining about it for years. Why should ams who pay less in pdga dues be able to register in pro events and accept prizes filling up a spot for a pro on the waitlist? Will the pro division shrink? Maybe. Will ams try to move up now? We shall see.
I can't see that $25 in PDGA dues is an unsolvable issue and can keep current structure. It isn't. Because if it were, PDGA could create an Am Silver option (same cost of dues as pro) and move on, giving Am Silvers (only) the option to play in pro events and accept merch in lieu.
And I can't see that "taking a spot on waitlist away from a pro" is an unsolvable issue either. TDs already use tiered registration for many events and all they'd have to do is tier the registration so that the Am Silver can't register until there had been significant time up front for pros wanting to register.
And no pro, other than Discette and a couple others, have addressed the pro wanting to get a higher prize money amount than he actually won. If it's that big of an issue, then let the Am's "winnings" be kept by the hard-working TD for his efforts than passing it down to the next participant-in-line. I'd personally much rather do that in my case.
Not sure how you think the am purse helps pay the pro purse. Pros are paying way more than 100 dollars to play the ledgestone with a less attractive players package. Ams players pack is even with cost to play pretty much. Regarding costs of travel and such, pros suffer the same fate except they get a lower package and could miss out on cashing period.
Locally my people don't, but it is not uncommon for the markup between Am merch and actual cost to be used to subsidized the added cash to the pro divisions. That markup in big tournaments is VERY significant.
Great idea! You cannot register for this NT tournament unless you pay the difference in am and pro pdga dues and you take certified test. If they do this when you register it saves the TD's alot of headache.
As I've said on other threads, there is a HUGE difference between the non-member and a long time dues paying Am member of the PDGA. Huge. As I said above Am Silver solves it and we can keep current constraints.
Summary: Here's what I believe now. Discg, at least Discette said what it really was. The complaining pros
just don't want Ams playing with them. Period. All the other stuff stated was fluff and glitter, clouded around the real and primary reason. If those others were really the reasons, then all of us who are proposing possible solutions to those other reasons would be listened to, and those possible solutions discussed. But we're not.
My grandfather, God rest his soul, taught me this lesson more that 50 years ago when I was a little boy. I saw a neighbor, one who I thought was a good friend of Daddy's just flat-out abuse him verbally when asked him for help with something. I asked him, "Daddy, why did he talk at you like that? You just asked him for some help." And he replied, in his southern drawl of a black man who had grown up in the 1930s, "Boy, some people's idea is 'if I don't want my neighbor to borrow my wheelbarrow, any excuse will do.' "
But not at 25%-50% of entry fee rates!
If the "pros" get paid out in net cash in (their share of the pay in minus 'expenses' - which should be equally spread out over each and every player there) and, for argument's sake, the expenses per person are $8 (sanctioning fees, insurance, porto-, etc.), a reasonable "trophy only" entry fee would be that or a tiny amount more.
For me personally, I'd want to be paying 1/3 or less of what the "I-do-get-a-chance-to-get-compensated-for-good-play" players are paying.