mark ellis  › Club Kensington Resurrection Winter 2010 Dubs League   December 3, 2010 at 5:45am

While Pro/Am teams are definitely fairer, part of what you want to accomplish in a format is to continue to attract good players and even top Pros. Pros like the chance to draw a good partner and win solid prizes, which the current format allows and is part of the reason that attendance is so good. Maintaining a successful format is an important goal and justifies the huge effort put in by Jeff and Dave and others. I'm not sure how much a Pro/Am format might discourage some Pros from attending, if at all.

Many lower level players don't have the chance to see and learn from and play with Pros except in popular leagues. In order to become good it is valuable, if not essential, to be exposed to Pros because it drastically speeds up the improvement curve.

The fairest way to make teams is rank every player and put the very best player with the weakest player, etc. But this will drive away many of the Pros.