Welcome to the 2023 Annual Putt Pirates Cup!

FRIENDS AND FAMILY EVENT, please contact us directly if you are interested and we will see what we can do for getting you added. No guarantees.

Every year the Putt Pirates League likes to come together for one amazing tournament with each other. This tournament is a great place for the Putt Pirates to demonstrate their skills, learn how to play in a tournament, or even just see our friends. So we invite you to come play in our tournament on July 15th and 16th!

Below we listed details about the event, but let us go over some of them...

This is a 3 ROUND TOURNAMENT. We will be playing at 3 separate courses between the 2 days. All divisions will be playing at the same course each round. The order of these courses have not been decided yet, so when we refer to locations during our itinerary, just know that we will assign the locations closer to the event. Luckily, all the courses are in the DSM area, so this shouldn't affect any travel plans for people coming into town.

There are a few more divisions this year than the past. We also updated them to match the PDGA divisions exactly. This reinforces our goal to offer a tournament that is an example of what a sanctioned PDGA tournament event would feel like. This year's divisions are: FA3, MA3, MA2, MA1, MA40, NCOM. If you don't know which division you belong in, DO NOT PANIC. Please contact us and we can help you find where you belong. Like last year, we are offering a division that will NOT play for a trophy or prizes. If you are still nervous about your skills, or maybe you can't make the whole event, we encourage you to select this option as you will save money too!

Registration fees are going to go towards a few things... Like every year, this tournament does NOT pay money to its winners. We will provide a trophy for EACH division (except NCOM) this year and registration costs will go to funding those. Also, any excess registration money will be going back to the players via raffle prizes. Last year we had some skill based prizes but it skewed too heavily to the players who already were winning most prizes. We decided a raffle system would better resemble our goals with this tournament. If you are registered as NCOM, you will not be able to participate in the raffle. Lastly, registration money will go towards various supplies. Like the past years, it will probably be super hot. We will be providing snacks and water at each location for EVERYONE.

So, how will this raffle work? We are going to have prepared prizes. How many prizes will be derived from the extra money made through registration or any donations before the event. If you registered in any division other than MRCH or NCOM, you will receive 10 tickets. These 10 tickets can be placed in any of the prepared raffles. At the players party on July 15th, we will draw the winners for each prize. We may have some Round 1 and/or Round 2 CTP's that may reward a player a few more tickets.

So where should we be and when? Please refer to the details provided below. Like stated above, we still are not clear on what order we must play the courses. That will be updated most likely a month before the event.

Lastly, there will be some fun, extracurricular activities! On July 14th (Friday) there will be a BYOP (bring your own partner) Best Disc Glow Round at Grandview. This will start at 8 PM. Like mentioned above, there will be a player's party! Like last year, we will be attempting to rent out a room in "The Keg Stand". There we will be drawing the raffle prizes, eating, drinking, and doing a Putt Competition. Lastly, after the 3rd round, please stick around this year for the awards ceremony!

That is all for now, registration will open on May 15th at 7:00 PM. If you want merch, you HAVE to sign up before June 15th. After that, the merch options will disappear as we need a month to get you your merch! Registration closes a couple days before the event on July 15th. Thank you!


COURSES

- Ewing Park, Des Moines IA
- Grandview Park, Des Moines IA
- Walnut Ridge Recreation Area, Johnston IA

Please note, these courses are in no specific order. We must wait a little longer to know what other events are being hosted at each course before we can decide the order.


SCHEDULE

Friday, July 14th

8:00 PM
BYOP Best Disc Glow Round @ Grandview Park

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Saturday, July 15th

8:00 AM - 9:00 AM
Round 1 Check-in

9:00 AM
Round 1 Player Meeting

9:15 AM
Round 1 Tee-off

12:00 PM - 1:45 PM
Lunch

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Round 2 Check-in

2:00 PM
Round 2 Player Meeting

2:15 PM
Round 2 Tee-off

7:00 PM and Later
Player Party @ The Keg Stand

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Sunday, July 16th

9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Round 3 Check-in

10:00 AM
Round 3 Player Meeting

10:15 AM
Round 3 Tee-off

1:00 PM ish
Awards Ceremony @ 3rd Course

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DIVISION REGISTRATION GUIDE
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It can be hard to know which division to sign up for. Let us help! To better understand this, we need to break down the abbreviations...


Professional (P) vs Amateurs (A)

In disc golf there are two types of players, professionals (P) and amateurs (A). Anyone can sign up as either when registering with the PDGA. Professionals play for money, amateurs play for prizes or nothing. This is an Amateur only tournament, we will not pay any players money,


Mixed (M) vs Female (F)

The PDGA offers two different classes of divisions, Mixed (M) and Female (F). Mixed is inclusive to anybody while Female is for those who identify as such. Unlike the PDGA, we will be allowing any participant to participate with whatever division they identify with. As stated before, this is a laid back tournament with our friends. If there ends up actually being a problem with this, please take it to the TD.


1, 2, or 3?

Given you know whether you wish to compete in M or F, you then must pick a "skill level". The lower the number, the higher the skill. For example, 1 is the highest skilled division, while 3 is the lowest skilled division. In the PDGA, these differences in skill are measured using a PDGA Rank Number. If you are already registered with the PDGA you may have a PDGA Rank Number and we will have a simple guide below for you to follow if that is the case.

40?

This year the Putt Pirates will be offering the MA40 division! This division is only for Mixed (M) players that are 40 years or older. We support our older Putt Pirates and would love to get more! So we thought it would be awesome to create a division this year for them.


PDGA Rank Number?

If you have a PDGA Rank Number already, simply follow these rules to find where you should sign up:

MA3 - Your rank must be < 900 to be eligible
MA2 - Your rank must be < 935 to be eligible
MA1 - You can be any rank
FA3 - (Your rank must be < 775 to be eligible) We will only have one F division this year, so ignore the rank this year, all F players sign up as FA3
MA40 - Any rank, must be 40 years of age or older


I don't have a PDGA # and I still don't know where to go?

That is okay! We will provide vague descriptions for each skill level for you to look at. We cannot stress enough, if you DO NOT have a PDGA Rank Number, there is no wrong answer for you when you sign up. If you end up signing up for something too hard, you will learn for next year. If you played better than your whole division, then we will take note and you will be bumped up for next year! There is no wrong answer. If you still don't feel comfortable picking, feel free to contact us and talk through the registration process with us. We would love to help!

MA1 - Advanced, these are people who play all the time and consider themselves fairly talented/accomplished
MA2 - Intermediate, these are people who play frequently and are very familiar with the sport, and have a consistent quality of play.
MA3 - Recreational, these are people who may not play at all, or at least not frequently. Or maybe they play frequently but are still trying to become more consistent in their quality of play.

Extra resources on divisions: https://www.pdga.com/divisions

Putt Pirates is responsible for all refunds/cancellations.