Here is the link to the article I mentioned in last night’s video. Keith shares some of the research and work that customer Walt has done towards understanding participation in PGA events, and also provides an alternative strategy to accomplish this goal.
In my mind, you have to suit your own desired level of realism and desire to implement whatever complexity derives. As one of my tour’s supporters has said, the fictional realm of the Pro National Golf set allows one much freedom to execute or ignore whatever conventions have been developed in real life.
To give a short recap of my plans when we get to a Season 3, which incorporate some of the findings from the above article:
- Tournaments are divided into 3 Categories:
- A Tier – Majors, playoffs, invitationals
- B Tier – Medium prestige/purse tournaments
- C Tier – Standard tournaments
- Players are divided into brackets that change week-to-week:
- 1-50
- 51-100
- 101-175
- 176-250
- PGA Tour participation hovers between 45% and 60%
- For TGT Season 2, current participation average in Money Rankings 1-125 is 80%
- For Season 3 (and the remaining Season 2 to observe the results):
- A Tier will be primarily merit-based inclusion, i.e. top ranked players get priority
- Top 50 likely 100% participation rate (barring injury)
- 51-100 ~ 80%
- 101-175 ~ 45%
- 176-250 ~ 10%
- B Tier
- Top 50 ~ 60% participation rate
- 51-100 ~ 80%
- 101-175 ~ 70%
- 176-250 ~ 45%
- C Tier
- Top 50 ~ 15% participation rate
- 51-100 ~ 30%
- 101-175 ~ 80%
- 176-250 ~ 95%
- A Tier will be primarily merit-based inclusion, i.e. top ranked players get priority
The primary goal is to increase the realism to further emulate the current state of the pro circuit. While golf does experience its periods of one-golfer domination, my desire is for it to feel organic. The last dominant golfer in the vein of Dustin Emerick is Tiger Woods. His highest win conversion came in 2006, where he won 8 tournaments in 15 starts (note he started ~35% of the total tournaments on the PGA that year. Comparing to Emerick, you see 9 wins in 16 starts. Even in Tiger’s highest win year, he took 9 wins in 20 events.
This indicates to me that an adjustment is necessary. Obviously playing out several seasons within the same construct would be the most conclusive & complete way to analyze the previous participation model. Even if we are to assume that Emerick’s card is inherently better than the best Woods card, it still seems unlikely this performance level would be replicated in the real world, as Emerick’s current participation (80%) is well beyond that of any Woods year – with still the UK Champ and Playoffs ahead.
Tenacious Sports 