The New Tournament Normal

[ru4por]

Well, the first Ann Arbor Area Disc (A3) tournament of the season is in the books. The current team/board has been around now for a couple years. We have gotten pretty good at running and planning tournaments, but this was a different animal. Many of the past planning and processes were to be tossed out and new inventive ways adopted. I thought I would post how we went about the new tournament process and some of the wins we found.

As the first sanctioned tournament, out of the gate, in our area, we had a lot to consider. The State, PDGA and park system all had regulation, guidelines and recommendations we had to follow. We also felt it important to set an example to the park system and the area disc golf, to provide a safe and efficient road map for future tournament play in the area.

We had our big A Tier, from April, cancelled. We had already purchased shirts, tournament stamp discs, hats,disc inventory and bags/baskets for the season raffles. Ouch....credit card debt, the last thing we had even thought about in Jan/Feb. Fortunately, we had not put dates on the tournament stamped merch, allowing us to use it elsewhere. We renamed Saturday's tournament to make use of the stamped merch. We offloaded the hats as part of the club membership pack. The tournament was a B Tier Pro/AM event, with State Championship berths on the line. Specific info can see seen here. https://www.discgolfscene.com/tournaments/Summer_Solstice_2020

We limited registration to 100 players (compliant with the State of Michigan gathering rules). This cause considerable disappointment with area players, most chomping at the bit to play. Many asking for us to circumvent the guidelines in various ways)

No cashless pre-reg.

Extensive sign up questionnaire, on Disc Golf Scene. Shirt size, disc choices, basket raffle, ace pool, 50/50 CTP, all to be paid in advance via PayPal. I don't believe we ended up taking ANY cash on tournament day. Despite a few waitlist additions and several folks wanting late CTP, ace pool and raffle entries. Disc Golf Scene is a fantastic tool for tournaments.

 

[ru4por]

We prepackaged player packs, according to DGS choices. Sanitized and put into plastic bags with players names, alphabetized them and packed them in boxes for tournament day. We posted a players meeting document and video and CTP info the day before the tournament and email to all players.

We had a drive thru player pack pick up. A flagman directing traffic to a check in person. He took names and checked players in, from the passenger side, wearing a mask. Shouted player last names to the drive thru tents. Drive thru player pack tents maned with a few club members, masked and wearing gloves to hand player pack through the passenger window with three bottles of water. Reminders to hydrate (it was going to be HOT) and social distance were dispensed.

Closer to tee time, electronic cards were set via PDGA. Announcement was made that cards, tee numbers were up and available. All scoring was to be done electronically, though a few paper cards were on hand. One was turned in all tournament. This did not go without issues. T Mobile was getting spotty service for everyone. If already logged in, we found everyone had to log, all the way off and back on to get hole assignments.

Shotgun start. We debated long and hard about shotgun vs tee time start. Ultimately, we felt that we were taking on enough new processes to handle tee times efficiently. I think we made the right call. The fear of congregation was unfounded.

Scoring went well. Live updating and you could follow the entire tournament, hole by hole. T Mobile continued to cause issues, but the app was still able to be used, it just failed to update, until users hit a spot where they got service. I think usually, one person on the card had a phone with a different carrier. Electronic scoring forces one person to keep score the entire round. This was a complaint heard. Some people don't want to score more than their fair share. E-scoring was a dream for the TD. Cards were automatically set by PDGA number for the first round and sorted by score for the second round. Many players who had finished were able to sit and watch scores of those still on the course.

First place trophies were handed out on site. ALL other payouts, pro/AM/CTP/Ace Pool were all done electronic. A3 had to build and set up a store on our website. We did this several weeks ago, simply to help move some inventory and get any influx of $$. We sent out an email with a code to AM placers. Ordering was easy. I did hear some complaints. Some really like to pick the color and weight, not options on the current site. But, sending up players to gather and paw through plastic was a bad idea. No inventory simply let us have no real tournament central to gather at. Pros were simply given electronic cash through PayPal.

Player pack pick up became the tournament TD station and info booth. Small canopy tent and a couple tables. Left it in the gravel parking lot to discourage folks from gathering. Plenty of hand sanitizer available....Thank you Ann Arbor Distillery for your generous donation of several gallons for tournament and league play. Masks and gloves made available as well.

Overall, I could not have been more happy with the event or the fantastic support of the A3 board and club members that helped. It really ran like clockwork and I think a model to be emulated everywhere. An exciting MPO finish was the capper to great day, with Tim Barham cashing a BIG putt on the final hole to top Andrew Marwede. Thanks for reading a very long post. Feel free to ask any questions or provide any feedback.

 

[ru4por]

A couple club hyperlinks. The store is a public store, feel free to take look. We do have a few very nice collared dry fit shirts and a few nice hats on there as well.


https://www.a3disc.net/

https://www.facebook.com/A3Disc/?ref=bookmarks

 

[runningoz]

I hope virtual scoring becomes the norm from here on. Just that small change would make my day so much better when running a tournament.

 

[ru4por]

I hope virtual scoring becomes the norm from here on. Just that small change would make my day so much better when running a tournament.

Staggering improvement. From check in, to setting up cards, to scoring. All were vastly, easier and quicker. :thmbup::thmbup:

We had one group of novice players, using the event as more of a "social" event, than serious competition. They were dreadfully slow. The TD was able to see the large hole open up in the course and the groups piling up, waiting on the slow group. We could send out a club member to move the slow group along, because we knew right where they were

 

[BogeyNoMore]

All I can say is...

Wow! Sounds like a ton of planning, forethought, and just plain work, went into this. No doubt you'll figure out what worked and what didn't, and try to smooth out the rough spots going forward, but kudos to you and your A3 colleagues for thinking ahead. :clap: :clap::clap:

Hopefully your post is read by other TD's and clubs and they can adopt some of those measures, or maybe even improve on what A3 did.

*tips cap*

 

[Casey 1988]

I hope virtual scoring becomes the norm from here on. Just that small change would make my day so much better when running a tournament.

Not where I live, AT&T, Version, plus crap Walmart brand, and some other one people use Version or AT&T though can't get a signal at 99% the area of the Powerhouse Ally Disc Golf course only at the main entrance and drive up to that for the State Park with the course. Those few are the only brands that get a signal where I live, maybe Sprint too as that is part of AT&T network. But I think using Virtual scoring to do a add in of the scores in my area for TD during Break will work. At least one doing the tournament has a laptop that will connect to Wi-Fi from the front gate pf State Park so he just goes there during the 1/2 part of tournament break. At the in town course, they play almost 90% of the course can get a signal and only the 75+ division will not have anybody with a Smart Phone or even a flip cell that can get a internet signal as well, with majority over 85 not willing at all to use even a basic calls and text only Cell phone.

Now for me I have a flip phone with Internet So it probably would not work and I would be willing to keep Score myself for the group as we do not have Cell Service in 90% of the Disc golf Part of Powerhouse Ally in Oahe Downsream Rec Area/State Park. I would call out my score to the person doing the Score and for those to know I am not Cheating.

 

[handsoffmt]

ru4por - thanks for the info! Very helpful as we plan our tournaments this summer. Did you use UDisc for scorecards, or is there a PDGA direct app?

 

[ru4por]

ru4por - thanks for the info! Very helpful as we plan our tournaments this summer. Did you use UDisc for scorecards, or is there a PDGA direct app?

We were logging into PDGA and using their scoring app. Once the cards were set by the TD, the player would log on and all players on the card were ready for scoring.

 

[ToddL]

Electronic scoring forces one person to keep score the entire round. This was a complaint heard. Some people don't want to score more than their fair share.

This is incorrect. Players can log out and have another player log in and it will pick up at the same point.
https://www.pdga.com/help/tournament-management/official-hole-scoring

 

[ru4por]

This is incorrect. Players can log out and have another player log in and it will pick up at the same point.
https://www.pdga.com/help/tournament-management/official-hole-scoring

Thanks, you are correct, Todd. I was speaking for the several players that complained. Each of their cards had two players, unable to keep electronic scores. (Either no phone or T Mobile, which was not working well). My statement was poorly worded.

The app also allows more than one person to score at the same time. Some players were keeping their own scores, on their phones.

 

[Rastnav]

The app also allows more than one person to score at the same time. Some players were keeping their own scores, on their phones.

I'm not sure what the app supports, but I would think that the most "fair and efficient" thing to do would be to have contestants paired on a card, each entering their own score and the paired players score, thus not burdening one person with keeping everyone's scores and also having built in redundancy/error checking on the scoring. The app and the TD would then need some mechanism for finding and resolving discrepancies.

Of course that also requires everyone to have and use their phone on every hole. I'll guess that some people wouldn't be happy about that either.

But, that's just me coming from a programming/design background. Not sure if that fits the culture of your tourneys or DG tourneys in general. Just a thought.

 

[ru4por]

I'm not sure what the app supports, but I would think that the most "fair and efficient" thing to do would be to have contestants paired on a card, each entering their own score and the paired players score, thus not burdening one person with keeping everyone's scores and also having built in redundancy/error checking on the scoring. The app and the TD would then need some mechanism for finding and resolving discrepancies.

Of course that also requires everyone to have and use their phone on every hole. I'll guess that some people wouldn't be happy about that either.

But, that's just me coming from a programming/design background. Not sure if that fits the culture of your tourneys or DG tourneys in general. Just a thought.

The PDGA has rules around scorekeeping. The issue with e scoring is always going to be dependability. Battery life, poor cell phone reception are the two big issues. I personally do not own a cellular device and have no interest in carrying one on a disc golf course.

For the record, all players should be keeping their own score, independent of the official score.

 

[Rastnav]

The PDGA has rules around scorekeeping.
...
For the record, all players should be keeping their own score, independent of the official score.

Are the rules similar to those in ball golf? Any official round has to be recorded by and signed by the player themself? I was assuming the electronic scoring was a PDGA approved modification for COVID? Just curious.

My idea was based around preserving the requirement that everyone keep their own score, while allowing it to also be electronic and touchless , and have some built in safety for things like cell phone failure.

Did you have to distribute players to make sure someone had a phone in each group? That would have been a little bit of a pain, I'm thinking.

 

[DavidSauls]

We've got a tournament to run in late October, and are glad others are pioneering procedures in advance so we can learn from your lessons.

We're also assuming, at the moment, that we'll still be able to have tournaments in October.

App scorekeeping won't work for us---ours is a team-play event with various play formats, such as match play---so we're kicking around alternatives.

 

[ru4por]

We've got a tournament to run in late October, and are glad others are pioneering procedures in advance so we can learn from your lessons.

We're also assuming, at the moment, that we'll still be able to have tournaments in October.

App scorekeeping won't work for us---ours is a team-play event with various play formats, such as match play---so we're kicking around alternatives.

I am assuming that many places won't have much, if any, cell phone coverage. So, the e scoring certainly won't work all the time anyway. We use paper cards in our leagues. One person keeps score. We collect the cards with gloves and I leave them sit in the garage for a few days before handling them and entering. I would think you could use gloves and a mask.

 

[ru4por]

Are the rules similar to those in ball golf? Any official round has to be recorded by and signed by the player themself? I was assuming the electronic scoring was a PDGA approved modification for COVID? Just curious.

My idea was based around preserving the requirement that everyone keep their own score, while allowing it to also be electronic and touchless , and have some built in safety for things like cell phone failure.

Did you have to distribute players to make sure someone had a phone in each group? That would have been a little bit of a pain, I'm thinking.

No disrespect intended, but my mom used to tell me, the best way to learn, is to look it up. I don't want to give you any misinformation.

https://www.pdga.com/rules

 

[JRW III]

The PDGA Digital Scorecard has been a great innovation done by the PDGA. I first used it for my tournament in September 2019. Had some bugs to be worked out but I saw the potential. I used it for my next tournament in March 2020 (last weekend before the COVID 19 shutdown) and all of the bugs had been worked out. It makes life so much easier for the TD.

 

[DavidSauls]

I am assuming that many places won't have much, if any, cell phone coverage. So, the e scoring certainly won't work all the time anyway. We use paper cards in our leagues. One person keeps score. We collect the cards with gloves and I leave them sit in the garage for a few days before handling them and entering. I would think you could use gloves and a mask.

One thing we're considering is not checking the scorecards---just have the groups report their scores. It's a low-stakes tournament, anyway. I can be receiving scores on my porch, and they can stand below and tell me what they got. (2 of the rounds are match play and we don't check those scores, anyway---the cards come in marked with a winner, and that's all we need to know).

Not ideal, but these aren't ideal circumstances.

Though we don't do players packs, I like the idea of a drive-through distribution of them.

 

[ru4por]

Are the rules similar to those in ball golf? Any official round has to be recorded by and signed by the player themself? I was assuming the electronic scoring was a PDGA approved modification for COVID? Just curious.

My idea was based around preserving the requirement that everyone keep their own score, while allowing it to also be electronic and touchless , and have some built in safety for things like cell phone failure.

Did you have to distribute players to make sure someone had a phone in each group? That would have been a little bit of a pain, I'm thinking.

PDGA has had a scoring app for a while, not a new COVID thing.

We did not distribute player based on tech. I think everyone in the world has a phone, except me. We did have and announced paper cards if a card needed one. Many took one as a back up.

We were actually very lucky to have Peter Crist playing as well. So, he was able to assist in any PDGA scoring app questions. :thmbup::thmbup: