Disc golf’s spotlight events to be guided by regional distribution and will feature nine total stops in 2011.  

Appling, Georgia--The Professional Disc Golf Association is pleased to announce its 2011 PDGA National Tour Elite Series schedule.  Moving into its ninth season, the PDGA National Tour has long had as its mission the spotlighting of disc golf’s best events, best courses, best players, and best host clubs.  With the nine event schedule that is planned for 2011, the PDGA feels that this valuable mission will continue to be fulfilled for our disc golf fans, players, and strategic partners.  

Over the course of the first eight years, the PDGA National Tour has adapted to meet the tremendous growth and quality of event management that disc golf has been fortunate to realize.  In 2011, the PDGA is adopting a modified model for the NT and will be calling it the National Tour Elite Series.  This new approach to the NT is grounded in the fact that there are now many quality events that are worthy of gaining the NT designation.  However, with the resources available to the association, as well as just the sheer number of sanctioned events, only a certain number can be awarded Elite Series status.  

To address the high quality of PDGA sanctioned events that are found throughout the nation, the 2011 NT Elite Series will be developed more on geographical location.  And while our schedulers and TDs have done everything in their power to create a contiguous schedule to cater to our touring pros, the primary objective of next year’s Elite Series is to seed each region of the United States with spotlight events, so that the great work being done, not just by our established event coordinators, but by the new young breed of TDs, can be rewarded as well.  

Towards that end, the 2011 NT Elite Series will have one event in each of the eight designated regions of the United States; four northern tier regions and four southern, as well as a series finale event where the series champions will be crowned.  The following map shows how the regions are drawn. The series finale for the 2011 Elite Series will be the Vibram Open.

With this regional grid to guide the selection process, the PDGA is pleased to announce the following schedule for the 2011 National Tour Elite Series.  

Each one of these events has enjoyed a strong line of communications between the PDGA and the event coordinators.  This model also allows the PDGA to rotate events in-and-out of the NT Elite series on a year-by-year basis, since there are clearly a large number of events that are worthy of gaining NT Elite Series status.  Additionally, by making sure that all eight regions of the country host an Elite Series event, the PDGA will be better able to strengthen relations to the far-reaches of the nation, where many of our sleeper events can now be recognized and celebrated.  

We look forward to another incredible year for the PDGA National Tour Elite Series and trust that our disc golf fans, sponsors, and players will enjoy gaining the spotlight that only a series such as this can provide.