you know your a bagger if?

I made this disscussion for a group of friends as a way to vent. LOL (JK) and to get a general concences to see how TD's stop people from doing it. like pro's droping down to advance because they know they can't win. that week

[Jamie]

In our club you move down and you lose your points. I finished in 4th last year in advanced and only played in 7 events. I moved up to Pro this year. The person that won Advanced last year stayed in advanced this year. He is a real nice guy but I still give him a hard time every month. The point of moving up is to play with a better group of guys that will ultimately make me better. The president of our club (MTDGA) is also the reigning state champion and when he does the awards he calls every bagger out. He'll say, "So and So wins Intermediate with a score of 61...Time to move up." Or he will out right call them a bagger when he hands them their winnings.

So here we go...You know your a bagger if you have winning plaques from the same division year after year.

[ben taylor]

i everyone that i play with says im a bagger becasue i play rec but right now my rating is around 850 but the thing is i still have won in rec division but when i do i will move up to int. but right now my rating is barley over novice

[Shizzler]

Yes, you are a bagger in my opinion. My rating is 874, and I play in Advanced Am in the PDGA, and Open in the local tourneys. Even though my rating has me rated for Int AM.

[ben taylor]

ok then im a bagger but come and play in a tournament in augusta and see how you fair with that kind of rating since only one pro at the unity summit at the idgc had a round rated lower than 900 and the last advanced player had a total rating of 907 for the tournament

[Chris Perkins]

ive been called that before too. although i have only won 1 turny as a rec. i moved up to int.
i havent one a turny as an int. i get plastered that i need to be an advanced player because
i won an ice bowl a year ago.

[Smokey]

I have a 895 and will play Pro this year. Mostly because I don't play many PDGA tournaments here in Montana. Baggers play in lower divisions because they want to win. They believe that if they can't win a division they don't belong in that division. I HATE BAGGERS!!!!! Seriously give others a chance.

[Rhett "in SoCal" Stroh]

You have an 895 rating and play pro??? Wow. And you claim to *HATE* baggers? Do you even know what a bagger is? I can tell you what it isn't: a bagger is *NOT* a 920 rated Intermediate player playing up in Advanced and beating an 895 rated Rec player!!! That's for sure!

Are there more 895 rated "pros" in Montana? I bet they love it when they go out of state, pay $100+ in pro entry fees, and then get stomped by 48 strokes for a 4 round tourney. What can you yell at the guy who beats you by 48 strokes in the Open division? Nothing, I guess.

What the heck is going on in Montana that Rec players are saying they are proud to play "pro"?

[Bruce Brakel]

That happens all the time in small market disc golf towns. St Louis used to be notorious for that in the 90s. Colorado was like that in the 90s too. I once drew a Colorado pro for a partner in pro-am doubles and I'm like, "This guy is a pro? Does he play in the wheelchair pro division?"

[Rhett "in SoCal" Stroh]

Sorry for going off like that. :) I stand by my statements, but I certainly could've said them nicer.

[Scott Kickbusch]

The funny part about the St. Louis example is that since the ratings have opened peoples eyes, the Amateur scene has developed and the ratio of Open to Am players is pretty good. Now that the 930ish rated guys are staying Am, the Gateway Pros whine endlessly about all the "baggers" in St. Louis who don't play up in Open to donate to them. So either we are small market idiots who don't know what it takes to be a real Open player, or we are baggers who are afraid of the big bad Open players. There is no winning on this issue.

[Bruce Brakel]

In a small market you're not an idiot for moving up if you don't travel much. If you have one 980 rated pro and a couple of 960 rated pros, the 940 rated guys can cash and the 920 rated guys can cash if the 900 rated guys play pro and everyone can feel good about themselves.

It has to be rough on the TD. Where are the ams to feather his bed?

In a big market where you have a dozen 980+ rated pros, good luck breaking into the pro cash until you're there too.

[Scott Kickbusch]

It is only rough to TD if you are scamming your AMs.

It becomes a slippery slope. People used to scream at me for this scenario: I'm running a local flight. It's 9:45 am and I've got 15 players signed up for Open. You look up and Dave McCormack is pulling into the parking lot. John Ruvalcaba is in the passenger seat. Suddenly four or five guys are in the pavilion who have changed their mind and want to play Masters.

I always let them change, and the players left in Open would scream at me for letting them "bag." Well, if it is an issue about where you can be competitive there is no problem. Adding the Daviar and Robo in the field DID eliminate guys from contention.

From a standpoint of how you spend your free time, I'm not big on assuming everyone plays for the same reason. People will throw out that you will never be as good as you can be if you duck competition. What about the guys who do this for fun? Who says that a guy who works hard all week has to come out on the weekend looking to be the best that they can be? This is their recreational free time, not the Army. If those guys just wanted to come out and play for fun and play in the division they had the best chance of competing in, why do I care?

Most guys are never going to tour. We have families and jobs and mortgage payments. In the grand scheme of life, being the best disc golfer that I can be is way on down the list. Being the best disc golfer that I can be isn't even in my top 10 reason of why I play disc golf. If somebody thinks they can call me names and suddenly motivate me to improve my game and reach my highest potential as a player, they are sadly mistaken.

The ratings have done a good job IMO of taking care of many of the good players playing down for prizes. The sandbagging problem we are left with is mostly perception. The PDGA version of disc golf is based on guys playing up. I'm not trying to be a professional disc golfer, so I'm not going to play up. Guys who have bit down hard on the PDGA dream think I'm a bagger. I'm not going to play up to make them happy, so there you go. Much ado about nothing.