I like the mixing of first round cards.
I could not disagree more.
I believe strongly, as a TD on the competition stand point, that my job is do everything I can to protect the integrity of that competition. Sometimes, you have to do things that don't make a lot of sense until they are explained.
For example, creeks should always be marked OB at the top of the creek, not playing water line. A player shouldn't have to take their meter on the side of the hill after throwing OB.
Another example is a water line that doesn't have a drop off should be marked because if the water level rises for things like rain, the exact same spot is in bounds / out of bounds for every group. Both situations result in people saying "I'm dry and in bounds" or "He's wet and out of bounds" but it protects inconsistent rulings of the same lie, which should never happen.
As a TD, I call this controlling the uncontrollables. I believe that if a TD can control things to a degree that he can't control, he / she is showing to be a very good and knowledgeable TD. Simply put, mixed divisions is not an example of controlling the uncontrollable.
A TD can't control if there will be a storm that passes through during an event, but she / he can control then when it does, players who are competing against each other are, in general, on the same part of the course. If a course is half open and half wooded, the players in the woods will have an advantage when the storm is blowing in (less wind) and when it's raining, the players in the open have an advantage (slippery discs / footing, less punishment for slipped drives without trees).
It's completely unfair for a player to compete directly with someone who is facing opposite conditions as them during the exact same round. You can't control certain aspects of this and there are tons of what if this or what if that, but a TD should control as much of this scenario as possible. This is a reason I'm against tee times, but that's another discussion.
I will never support this rule and hope that TD's choose not to do it.