Looking over a schedule of upcoming tournaments, maybe (huge maybe) thinking of signing up for my 1st one. Noticed not many offer a Novice division but also looking at past results I see several players rated over 800 playing in the Novice division. Some of them have a better rating than players in the Rec division. This makes me not want to sign up; what's the motivation for an 800+ player playing Novice? Getting crushed by 25 to 30 shots per round is not my idea of fun. Seems like it would just be a totally humiliating experience for me.
"Novice" is, perhaps, somewhat poorly named as a tournament division. This division is also officially named "MA4" (Mixed Amateur 4), and it might be better referenced in that way. That is the name of the tier you would see on your PDGA member profile if you chose to register with the PDGA and play a tournament at that level. It is not actually restricted to people who have only been playing for a little while. The only restriction is that you have a player rating under 850.
In any case, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to expect yourself to compete with someone with a rating of 849, and I would encourage you not to think of it that way. I played in my first tournament, a single round event, after playing for roughly a year, and I played a 767 rated round. There was no MA4 division and I was playing in MA3. The only person I bested in score was, I think, 9 years old.
This year I played in a singles league, again in MA3, and my only goal was to get my rating over 800. It was nice to technically finish in second place in the division overall, but that had more to do with showing up more weeks than most other people.
I was most happy that I got my rating to 815 and shot an 884 round the last week of league, which was on a course that suited my length off the tee. In earlier weeks, on much longer blue and white level layouts, I shot 772 and 775. At this point I've been playing regularly for almost 3 years, and you can see I am still eligible to play in MA4.
It's worth noting that the ratings of people who participated in MA3 were all over the place. Everywhere from 737 to 878. MA4 also had quite a mix, from someone without a rating who shot a 567 to a player with several years of tournament experience, having played in dozens in 2021 and 2022, who has an 838 rating.
Point being, don't get hung up on the divisions or their names. Just set personal goals. Everyone will understand, and no one is likely to give you anything other than comradery and support when you roll up to that first tee and say you are nervous to play in your first sanctioned round.
