After months and months of hard work, the 2016 PDGA Major, NT, and A-Tier schedule is now officially published.  Tournament Directors for 2016 PDGA B-Tiers and C-Tiers may now seek date approval from their PDGA State Coordinators, and once approved, they may also submit a PDGA Event Sanctioning Agreement.

2016 Tour Standards

The 2016 PDGA Tour Standards are now published as well. Two important changes for the 2016 PDGA Tour are the new Junior Divisions and a new withdrawal and refund policy which replaces the current policy found in section 1.3 Withdraws and Refunds of the PDGA Competition Manual.  The new policy is designed to protect both Tournament Directors as well as registrants.

2016 Junior Divisions

We are excited to announce that the Junior divisions have been restructured to better align with junior developmental ages with changes to the age requirements for existing divisions along with the creation of four additional divisions. The divisions listed below will take effect for all PDGA-sanctioned events that begin on or after January 1st, 2016.

2016 Withdraw and Refund Policy

The following Withdraw and Refund Policy is in effect for all events that take place on or after January 1st, 2016.

1. Players MUST email or phone their withdrawals to the Tournament Director only at the contact information posted for the tournament. Discussions with persons other than the Tournament Director, including other tournament staff, shall not be considered official.

2. Players who have paid to be on an event’s waitlist that do not get into the event, or request to withdraw from the waitlist prior to the event, will receive a 100% cash refund.

3. Players who officially request to withdraw from an event prior to 30 days of the start of the event will receive a 100% cash refund minus up to a 10% handling fee.

4. Players who officially request to withdraw from an event at 15 to 30 days from the start of the event will receive a 100% cash refund minus up to a 10% handling fee ONLY if their spot in the tournament is filled through either the waitlist or a walkup entry (if offered). If the player’s spot is NOT filled, the TD has the choice to provide EITHER a 50% cash refund OR just the player’s pack the player would have received if they had attended (minus up to 10% of the player pack value to cover handling and shipping.) In the case of a player in a Pro division for an event without a Pro player pack worth at least 25% of the Entry Fee, the TD will provide the 50% cash refund.

5. Players who officially request to withdraw from an event at 14 or less days from the start of the event will receive a 100% cash refund minus up to a 10% handling fee ONLY if their spot in the tournament is filled through either the waitlist or a walkup entry (if offered.) If the player’s spot is NOT filled, the TD has the choice to provide EITHER a 25% cash refund OR just the player’s pack they would have received if they had attended (minus up to 10% of the player pack value to cover handling and shipping.) In the case of a player in a Pro division for an event without a Pro player pack worth at least 25% of the Entry Fee, the TD will provide the 25% cash refund.

6. Players who do NOT officially request to withdraw from a registered spot playing in the event and don’t play (aka a no-show), forfeit their entry fee and do NOT receive a refund or players pack. (This does NOT apply to a waitlist player, see 1.3.B above.)

7. Tournament Directors for Major, National Tour, and A-Tier events may petition the Tour Manager to change the timeline for items C, D, and E. If granted, the policy will need to be clearly published with all registration materials.

Note: It is highly recommended that high-capacity events do NOT include personalized items within their player packs due to the complexity this creates for withdrawals/refunds. Personalized items should only be offered as merchandise for purchase during registration for a separate non-refundable fee that is not part of the tournament entry fee.

2016 Majors, Nation Tours, and A-Tiers

Please keep in mind that PDGA events meeting all sanctioning requirements by November 15, 2015 may also be included in the winter issue of DiscGolfer Magazine.