The following chart illustrates that:

1. Statistically, I play higher-rated disc golf when I compete in the Advanced Division rather than in the Intermediate Division.
2. I finished the 2005 strong, playing well above my Player Rating for most rounds.
3. I’m a dork for using an Excel spreadsheet to track, chart, and analyise my PDGA Player’s Rating.

I’ve played in 17 PDGA-sanctioned events so far in 2005. Of those 17 events, I have played 7 of them in the Men’s Amateur 2 (MA2, or Intermediate) division, and the other 10 events in Men’s Amateur 1 (MA1, or Advanced, which is the top Amatuer division in disc golf).

For each round of disc golf that you play in a sanctioned event, you receive a Player’s Rating for that round. Your Players Rating determines the divisions that you are eligible to play (along with age and gender for some protected divisions).

There’s a theory in the disc golf community (and I’m sure it’s the same in most sports), that to improve your game, you should play with better players.

In disc golf, “better” is a quantifiable term that is represented by your Professional Disc Golf Association Player Rating (the PDGA is the official sanctioning body for disc golf).

My current player rating is 899 (1000 is considered an elite pro, with Barry Schultz being the world’s top rated player at 1037).

This geeky chart shows my rated-rounds played during 2005. It looks like the theory holds some validity…at least in my case. Only 28% of my MA2 rounds were above my 899 avg., while 76% of my MA1 rounds were above that avg.

I anticipate my rating going up to 904 with the next Ratings update (Decemeber 20), which would still allow me to play down in the Intermediate division (914 is the max. rating allowed to play MA2) — however, I plan to continue to play in MA1 (where I cashed for the first time at last week’s Texas 10 Pro/Adv Charity Tour Finals in Live Oak, TX), and hopefully continue to improve me game.