Why Ratings are awful

[DonCasper]

How much better can you expect a player that has a 25 stroke handicap to play than one with a 22 stroke handicap to play (on an average course)? 3 strokes better, on average.

Just noticed my mistake. The 22 handicap is 3 strokes better than the 25 stroke handicap. So much for approachable. :wall:

 

[Dave242]

One more reason I need to start entering my rounds here.

But on a fundamental level I think changing the way ratings work is important for the growth of the sport. Not to throw out buzzwords, but I think having a value-less number score as your rating rather than having a value in strokes makes the sport less approachable.

Quick question: How much better can you expect a player that is 880 rated to play than one that is 860 rated to play (on an average course)? 20 better?

How much better can you expect a player that has a 25 stroke handicap to play than one with a 22 stroke handicap to play (on an average course)? 3 strokes better, on average. And if a course is harder or easier than average you can figure out how much that would affect them as well.

I think this is silly. Every sport has its own scoring and rating systems and the general public is smart enough to figure it out. They make sense of these very confusing/convoluted stats just fine:
Baseball batting averages, slugging percentage, RBI's, etc
QB ratings
Tennis scores
Bowling scoring
Football scoring
The BCS (well ok.....not even the BCS understands this)

10 ratings points per throw on an average course is a VERY easy concept. In fact it is MUCH better than BG since it is also easy to explain that a handicap throw is worth 5 ratings points on the toughest course in the world and 15 on the easiest. How do you explain handicapping on the toughest/easiest course in BG?

What you are essentially saying is that DG should do things just like BG does. There is indeed a level of merit to that since we both have "golf" in our names....but we are different sports with different scoring dynamics, so I think it is appropriate that there is a difference in how our stats look.

Or.....maybe you are implying that golfers are dumber than the general public.

 

[MikeK]

And you can get a Player Ratings right here from DGCR when you enter your rounds in the scorebook.If you have say 20 rounds recorded on 5+ courses, your DGCR Player Rating will be very close to what your PDGA Player Rating would be.

When you say "very close" I wonder if you think this artist is "very close" to the real thing?

 

[mashnut]

When you say "very close" I wonder if you think this artist is "very close" to the real thing?

Your dgcr rating is 16 points higher than your PDGA rating. 1.5 strokes is very close IMO, especially when you consider that many players shoot a little better in casual rounds than they do under pressure.

 

[Agricolae]

You know, another thing that's wrong with disc golf is that the darned things just don't fly very well when I hit them with my clubs. :\

 

[DonCasper]

You know, another thing that's wrong with disc golf is that the darned things just don't fly very well when I hit them with my clubs. :\

On the other hand my clubs fly very well when I throw them.

Source: my golf game

 

[Agricolae]

On the other hand my clubs fly very well when I throw them.

Source: my golf game

Hah! Well played, Don! :clap: