It was tough this year. We had to proportionately ramp down the division sizes from Charlotte about 200 players from 705 to 504. We used percentages and historical entries to set the initial caps. But most divisions are going to be stressed with players not getting in either before open registration or by the time the event happens.
Weren't Charlotte's caps based on historical attendance at previous events that weren't capped, and that accommodated lots of uninvited MA1s? Does it make sense to ramp down the caps from numbers that were set based on having extra spots in MA1?
Look at FM1, for example. FM1 is capped at 8 spots. It filled in 4 days. The players registered now are not the highest rated FM1 players in the world.
There are now at least 4 FM1 on the waiting list, including the best FM1 players in the world. If those ladies don't get to play, this championship title needs to come with an asterisk on it.
But one might respond that giving FM1 nearly 2% of the field is generous in view of the fact that there FM1 players only represent about 1.5% of the amateur PDGA membership.
That's one way to look at at it, but another way to look at it is that many of those MA1 and MM1 players have wives and daughters that want to play too. So what happens? There is a whole lot more demand for the womens and juniors spots than one might think just crunching the numbers and looking at the % demographics of the PDGA membership. So those limited spots fill quickly, but not with the best players. Those spots fill with wives and daughters of whichever MA1 and MM1 and MG1 players registered in the first few days.
This is just my opinion, but I think that if the PDGA wants to limit spots, and also wants to preserve the integrity of the contest and the championship title, then either the caps should be set AFTER the invite period has expired, or else the criteria for women, at least, to receive invites needs to be raised, and based at least in part on rating.