Pdga Ratings Updates

Just wondering if anyone can shed some light on how much work goes into calculating unofficial pdga scores and ratings for tournaments by the TD? And then ditto for the pdga to get official ratings on the pdga site? I have no clue how much time and effort this takes but am curious. How long does everyone feel should be enough time for TDs and the pdga to get ratings posted?

[David Sauls]

TDs don't calculate unofficial ratings.

[Christian Lamb]

Hmmm... Intersting...who does?

[David Sauls]

TDs upload the scores to the PDGA website.  The website software automatically provides unofficial ratings.  This can be done as fast as hours after a round, even when the tournament is half-over, or as slow as it takes the TD to do it.  It usually takes me several days because I don't have internet access at home, and it takes me a few days to clear up the other debris of the event.

Then the TD submits his TD report electronically.  When received by the PDGA, the unofficial ratings disappear.  I'm not sure why.  Note that if the TD submits this report very quickly, unofficial ratings will only appear briefly.  TD has a few weeks to do this, except A-tiers and above.  If a TD doesn't upload scores but immediately submits TD report with scores, you'll never see unoffocial ratings.

At the end of the ratings period (6 or 8 weeks?), official ratings appear.  These are very close to the unofficials, but sometimes adjusted by the PDGA for reasons also not clear to me.  There also may be corrections the TD made in uploading scores; type in 360 round scores for a 2-day tournament, specifying different divisions playing different layouts or tees, and it's easy to screw one or two up.  At least for me.

 

*

 

So that's the process.  How quick?  Depends on the TD, and his situation.   Some people value ratings highly, some don't and don't place high priority on getting unofficial ratings up quickly.

[Christian Lamb]

Thanks for enlightening me on this topic. :)  I think I will offer to help w/ inputting scores at the next tourney.  It is always nice to have scores up w/ unofficial ratings after day one and right after the tournament.  Just adds a little excitement and intrigue I feel.  Also if official ratings aren't calculated right away it seems like you can continue to play at your previous rating for 2 to even 4 months depending on when the pdga updates player ratings.  

[Chuck Kennedy]

Official ratings updates have been coming faster. It's no more than 8 weeks and that's early in the year. It becomes 4-5 weeks in peak season. Here's the 2012 schedule:

March 20th, May 15th, July 3rd, August 14th, September 18th, October 16th, November 20th and December 18th with the 2012 yearend update on January 22nd, 2013.

[Christian Lamb]

Ok so say u play a tourney in jan and the official scores dont go up till sometime in march...which may be too late for them to be included in the pdga ratings update for march. Then u r waiting till may for your january tourney scores to be added to your rating.... thats pretty lame :-( Im hoping that scenario doesnt happen often...although if ratings for january tourneys are not calculated soon then it will happen for a lot of people

[Chuck Kennedy]

The delay would be due to the TD not the PDGA. All reports received from TDs by the PDGA office at least two weeks before the next ratings posting date get processed for official ratings.

[David Sauls]

Christian, I love the ratings but don't find them so important that being a few months stale matters.   Not a big deal if you're playing in a tournament, and an event a couple of months ago isn't included in your rating.   If you play much, one event's not going to have a huge effect on your rating---and it won't have any effect on the tournament you're playing, except for those rare individuals who would've been bumped up a division, or qualified to drop down a division. 

Of course, I may feel that way just because I'm one of the TDs dragging my feet on filing the TD report.

[Christian Lamb]

Lol.... very nice ;-)
A lot of the guys i play w have not been playing too long...myself included...so we r still making our way up the ranks. For us, one tourney of 4 rounds can make a big difference.

[Christian Lamb]

Well the next deadline for submissions for the next pdga ratings update is March 6th..... I don't see that any of the January tournament ratings have been made official.  Do you think that January tournaments will make it into the next rating update?  Are they just waiting till right before the update to make the rounds official?  Just trying to get a better idea of how all this works.  Thanks :)

[David Sauls]

I'm not clear about your question, but---the ratings aren't official, or official ratings aren't shown for events, until the ratings update is published.  If a TD for January tournament has filed the TD report, no ratings (official or unofficial) appear in tournament results until the ratings update is issued.  Not the deadline for submitting the report, but the actual update. 

[Chuck Kennedy]

Everything discussed here has already been answered in the Ratings FAQ section on the PDGA site. Check it out:  http://www.pdga.com/faq/ratings-0