How are first and second round pairings determined on the PGA tour? I
am only interested in regular PGA tour events, not major tournaments.
I am looking for answers like "players are divided into groups based
on their attributes and then pairings are drawn from the groups." I
am also interested in how much discretion individual tournament
directors have over the pairings. Do they have to randomly select
players into groups? |
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
06 Apr 2006 13:14 PDT
Is this the sort of detail you're looking for:
==========
How are pairings decided?
In PGA TOUR cosponsored and coordinated tournaments, groupings are
drawn in threesomes for the first two rounds based on categories that
include:
Category 1:
PGA TOUR members currently in a tournament winners category.
Non-members, who if they were members, would be in a tournament
winners category.
PGA TOUR Life Members (member for 15 years and won 20 events).
Top 25 on Official PGA TOUR Career Money List through the end of the
preceding year.
Category 1A:
Tournament winners who no longer qualify for category 1 and who played
in 5 or more PGA TOUR events or 10 or more combined PGA TOUR and
Nationwide Tour events in the prior year.
Former winners of THE PLAYERS Championship, Masters Tournament, U.S.
Open, British Open and PGA Championship who no longer qualify for
category 1.
Category 2:
PGA TOUR members who play out of the Top 125 and Top 125 Non-members categories.
Players with 50 or more career cuts and who played in 5 or more PGA
TOUR events or 10 or more combined PGA TOUR and Nationwide Tour events
in the prior year.
Players within the top 50 on the current Official World Golf Ranking list.
Category 3: All others.
Following the cut, groupings are drawn in twosomes unless otherwise
determined by the tournament director because of weather conditions or
lack of daylight. The pairings after the cut (low 70 and ties) are
determined on the basis of tournament standings at the conclusion of
the preceding rounds, with higher scores starting first. Ties will be
decided by the order of starting the round last played, with later
starting times assigned to the earlier starter in the previous rounds.
==========
If this doesn't answer your question, please let me know what sort of
additional information you need to make for a complete answer.
Thanks,
pafalafa-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
notowidigdo-ga
on
06 Apr 2006 16:32 PDT
This is a partial answer to the question, but I would also like to
know the level of discretion of the individual tournament directors.
Given that the groupings are drawn from the categories below (which
answers the first question), are the groups generally randomly
assigned or do the directors exercise discretion to make their own
pairings? Any information related to this will constitute a complete
answer. Thanks.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
06 Apr 2006 18:36 PDT
I've seen a few newspaper stories that vaguely suggest that the
director has a lot of discretion in the pairings, but the articles
were all pretty old, and I think the pairings are more rules-driven
these days.
The only other official PGA pronouncement on the matter that I could
find was this one:
Question: How are pairings determined in the first round of a PGA TOUR event?
The players are grouped by category. Tournament winners in the last
three years would form Category 1, and they usually occupy the fourth
time in the middle of a segment. Category 1A and 2 play together.
Category 1A is composed of players who have won tournaments -- but not
in the last 3 calendar years. Category 2 is composed of players who
finished in the top 125 on the money list but have not won or a player
that has been successful in his career but not won a tournament. They
are grouped around the Category 1s. The last times in a segment are
Category 3 players, who are from q-school or other open qualifiers and
some sponsor exemptions. Those are the last times in the segment.
I haven't been able to find anything more than this. Perhaps another
researcher will be willing to give it a shot and (hopefully) have
better luck.
paf
|
Clarification of Question by
notowidigdo-ga
on
06 Apr 2006 19:18 PDT
Thanks for the effort (I will have more PGA Tour questions in the
future, I promise). I have a sense that the pairings are more
rules-driven, as well. I just want any recent article that confirms
that this is the case, and (best case) confirms that within the
categories the pairings are formed randomly.
|
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