drumin5216
Jul 03 2013, 12:19 PM
What is going on with all of the non-current or non-members playing in PDGA A-Tier events this year? I thought that was a requirement for that tier tournament. I think this sets a bad precedent to not enforce this rule.

drumin5216
Jul 03 2013, 12:38 PM
From the PDGA Competition Manual:
1.1 Player Eligibility
B. Current PDGA Membership is required to compete in any Major, Elite Series/National Tour, or Super Tour (A Tier) event.

krupicka
Jul 03 2013, 01:17 PM
Often times players renew a day or two before the event or at the event. They won't show up as current until the renewal is processed.

jconnell
Jul 03 2013, 01:36 PM
What is going on with all of the non-current or non-members playing in PDGA A-Tier events this year? I thought that was a requirement for that tier tournament. I think this sets a bad precedent to not enforce this rule.

Examples?

I think it's like krupicka says, there are plenty of cases of people joining or renewing a couple days before or even at events, so that they would not show as current on any pre-reg lists or unofficial results.

Now if there are events that are months old at this point that show non-members or inactive members having participated...that is a problem.

drumin5216
Jul 03 2013, 01:48 PM
Here's one with 24 non-current: http://www.pdga.com/tournament_results/100855

The older events (the ones that already have official results) don't show if a member is current or not. I have been seeing it all year long though at almost every event. There are many other examples besides the above one. Just go through and click on the other recent A-Tier events.

drumin5216
Jul 03 2013, 01:51 PM
http://www.pdga.com/tournament_results/99562
http://www.pdga.com/tournament_results/100316
http://www.pdga.com/tournament_results/99864
http://www.pdga.com/tournament_results/101108

more examples

jconnell
Jul 03 2013, 03:45 PM
So two examples that are less than two weeks old and three examples of events from last weekend. All of which are unofficial results, which means the PDGA either hasn't received or hasn't posted official results yet.

It's entirely possible that for all of those events, the players showing as non-current or non-members renewed or signed up at the event. And in those cases, until the event is officially submitted and processed, those renewals/sign-ups won't be processed either. And they'll continue to show up as non-current or non-members.

It's really not the problem you make it out to be.

drumin5216
Jul 03 2013, 04:29 PM
I hope that is the case, but here are some older tournaments with nonmembers. Maybe the TD just didn't put in the pdga number for these players, but it seems like a lot for that. I didn't go through every A Tier or higher for the year, but I would be willing to bet there are more examples.

http://www.pdga.com/tournament_results/100344 - Jerry Smith (MG1)
http://www.pdga.com/tournament_results/99721 - Michael Keckler (MPG)
http://www.pdga.com/tournament_results/102822 - Andrew Engleking (MA2), Zak Williams (MA3)
http://www.pdga.com/tournament_results/99564 - Levi Crace (MA1), Derek Wepling (MM1), Jeff Locke (MM1), Steve Locke (MG1), Phil Smith (MA2), Zack Brewer (MA2), Mathew Cradie (MA2), Chuck Harris (MA2), 7 more in MA3

PhattD
Jul 05 2013, 01:37 AM
Why don't you email the TD and ask? Seems like a simple way to resolve the question.

davidsauls
Jul 05 2013, 10:01 AM
Note that the Tennessee States, the last example cited, is an A/B-tier. Non-members playing Am would have been playing in a B-Tier, and thus eligible.

drumin5216
Jul 08 2013, 11:57 AM
Note that the Tennessee States, the last example cited, is an A/B-tier. Non-members playing Am would have been playing in a B-Tier, and thus eligible.

Good catch. I was trying to screen for those but was moving fast and missed that one.

drumin5216
Jul 08 2013, 12:04 PM
Why don't you email the TD and ask? Seems like a simple way to resolve the question.

I mentioned it to a TD for one of this past weekend's A-Tiers, and his response was, "You should apply to the PDGA to police that."

The TD's should not be allowing non-current/non-members to play in the A-Tiers that they run, but they are.

Some of these tournaments fill up, so what if there are PDGA members that weren't allowed to play because the tournament was full, but some of those spots were taken by non-current players? What about a player that cashed in open, but was ineligible to compete due to not being a current member? One of the benefits of joining the PDGA is being able to play in some of the top tournaments. If you can still play without joining, then that decreases the value of the membership.

jconnell
Jul 08 2013, 04:49 PM
I agree with you, the policing absolutely needs to be done at the TD level. It really isn't that hard for the TD of an A-tier to require that players prove their membership is current. Obviously the online tournament manager is the easiest tool for this, but maybe it isn't available on site on the day of the tournament. There's still plenty that can be done.

If players show up as non-current or non-members even though they claim to have renewed/joined, they have to produce a receipt (the PDGA store finishes the transaction with a confirmation page it encourages you to print, then sends you an email receipt as well) as proof in order to play. I've never run an A-tier, but I've required exactly that when players who don't show as current don't want to pay the $10 non-member fee at my B & C tiers.

If TDs can't take the time to do that, they really shouldn't be running A-tiers. Arguably maybe they shouldn't be running tournaments at all if they can't be bothered to keep track of that information. It's part of the job.