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Why are tournaments Thurs to Sat?

Understable

Par Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2015
Messages
121
Why do larger events run Thurs-Fri-Sat instead of Fri to Sun?

I understand it gives travelling players time to get home on Sunday but they still have to take an extra day on the front end so no real gain. So what is the reasoning?
 
I've always guessed that the USDGC, being in the south, decided to end the tournament on Saturday because it allowed more spectators to come for the Final round. I don't know if its true, nor the reasoning behind that (church, football, NASCAR, pick your favorite southern Sunday tradition).

Other tournament that ended on Saturday in 2019:
Waco
Glass Blown Open
Tyyni
Worlds

Portland Open ended on a Monday (Memorial Day) last year. I like that a lot.
 
Seems like Worlds has always ended early.

My guess on the USDGC goes for Worlds, too. It's already a week-long commitment for the players, so there's no need to cram as much of it into the weekend and minimize days off. Plus, in the days before anyone was actually out touring, an event drawing players from around the country and the world, had more call for a travel day.

Just my guess, though.
 
I've always guessed that the USDGC, being in the south, decided to end the tournament on Saturday because it allowed more spectators to come for the Final round. I don't know if its true, nor the reasoning behind that (church, football, NASCAR, pick your favorite southern Sunday tradition).

It's a good theory, but football in the South is on Saturdays.
 
Idk if Ledgestone is still this way but I know they would end early because because of religious reasons. Kinda sad
 
Most of the players who play in these tournaments don't tour for a living.

My understanding is that Sunday is often given to the players in these regional and national tournaments as a travel day to get back to their normal life.

Most of the local tournaments around here still play on Sunday, because the travel is only a few hours at most.
 
2019:
Memorial Thu-Sun
TX States Fri-Sun
Jonesboro Original Fri-Sun
Masters Cup Fri-Sun
USWDGC Fri-Sun
SFO Fri-Sun
US Masters Thu-Sun
US Ams Fri-Sun
Beaver State Fri-Sun
Portland Fri-Sun
European Open Thu-Sun
DGLO Fri-Sun
Idlewild Fri-Sun
Ledgestone Thu-Sun
MVP Fri-Sun
GMC Thu-Sun
Delaware Fri-Sun
Music City Fri-Sun
DGPT Championships Fri-Sun

Waco Thu-Sat
GBO Wed-Sat
Pro Worlds Tue-Sat
Junior Worlds Wed-Sat
Am Worlds Tue-Sat
Masters Worlds Tue-Sat
USDGC Wed-Sat

Worlds events are weeklong events anyway, especially if you count the ancillary activities beforehand, and they are specifically targeted at drawing a geographically diverse set of competitors, so leaving Sunday as a travel day makes sense. For general pro-level events, this isn't as big of a concern.
 
I figured some of it was due to weather ending tournaments early over the past couple of years. Having an open Sunday gives you a fall back day if it needs to push for whatever reason. Also does help for the non-full time touring pros to travel back to reality before the work week starts again.
 
I've always guessed that the USDGC, being in the south, decided to end the tournament on Saturday because it allowed more spectators to come for the Final round. I don't know if its true, nor the reasoning behind that (church, football, NASCAR, pick your favorite southern Sunday tradition).


USDGC was moved to this model because so many people that didn't tour 100% year round played the event. This allowed them a chance to travel on sunday and return to work on Monday.
 
I figured some of it was due to weather ending tournaments early over the past couple of years. Having an open Sunday gives you a fall back day if it needs to push for whatever reason. Also does help for the non-full time touring pros to travel back to reality before the work week starts again.

That's something that's very hard to enact. Even if you kept Sunday free as a potential make-up day, you can't expect all the competitors to leave Sunday as an open date and push their travel to Monday. If the tournament is scheduled to end on Saturday, then the players (or the non-touring pros, at least) will schedule their travel for Sunday. If the tournament has one round get rained out, you can't expect the players to change their travel plans. It might be possible to pull that off if you have a small, controlled field of competitors (DGPT Championships, perhaps), but it's not a viable solution to large tournaments.
 
I figured some of it was due to weather ending tournaments early over the past couple of years. Having an open Sunday gives you a fall back day if it needs to push for whatever reason. Also does help for the non-full time touring pros to travel back to reality before the work week starts again.


Bold is incorrect: The PDGA Mid Event Suspension and Cancellation Guidelines specifically prohibit extending the event.


Cancellations with no time for Recovery

A TD may be faced with a necessary cancellation with no time left to be able to further the completion of the event. In these cases, it may be necessary to vacate a partially completed round and in the case of pooled events, possibly vacate previously completed rounds to ensure all competitors within a division have completed the same total layout. Under no circumstances should players be expected, or asked, to return on a day following the last day of the regular scheduled rounds to finish the event.


Full document here: https://www.pdga.com/files/pdga_mid-event_suspension_and_cancellation_guidelines_-_final.pdf
 
Thanks for the info.

Would a tournament ever PLAN to do that though? Todd you mention not expecting players to leave the day open, but lets assume the professional side takes off on a path towards other pro sports, that doesn't seem crazy to expect, especially for a high profile event.

Super future conjecture time: If we assume we get to the point where the majority of the players are full time pros, it shouldn't matter to them that they travel on a Monday vs. a Sunday, aside from having 1 less day of rest between events, and I think if you can expect that, nobody would argue that we'd rather have a completed tournament by using the make-up day instead of cutting it short. Obviously would all be planned/communicated in advance of signing up, but I would think it's beneficial to have that backup plan, especially in severe weather prone areas/times of year.

Of course, professional DG isn't there yet, and there aren't fields of 90% full time touring pros, so it's all a moot point for now.

Haven't tournaments gone out early the day following an early-called round due to weather to finish it up before "beginning" their final round? That's not extending it past the "last day of the regular schedule rounds", but is an unexpected change of pace / extra strain on players. If a pro was given the choice 1) Play 2 rounds on Saturday, or 2) Play an additional make-up round Sunday, which do you think most people would pick (assume travel plans weren't a concern because they'd planned on it already)?
 
Thanks for the info.

Would a tournament ever PLAN to do that though? Todd you mention not expecting players to leave the day open, but lets assume the professional side takes off on a path towards other pro sports, that doesn't seem crazy to expect, especially for a high profile event.

...

Maybe at some point, but like you say, we're not there yet. If it were ever implemented, it would have to be on a very selective basis strictly for a limited field.
 

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