Eligibility

Though listed as one event on the site, rated disc golf tournaments with very few exceptions have two or more divisions. Though some events have qualifications to be eligible to participate, generally only the open pro division is available to all players. All other divisions are restricted to enter which can be based on age, amateur status, amateur ability, and or sex.

I even switched divisions at an event to balance the number of entries because a new player ended up getting an initial rating too high for the entered division.

This is done for fairness as it makes no sense for a top pro or a beginner to be facing me on even terms. My initial plan was to create a chart showing how I along with several unnamed players would would be eligible for the various divisions many tournaments have but I realize it would distract from the point of this entry.

There is a reason for female specific divisions let alone this May 8 which is women's player day and I really want my daughter to spend her 21st birthday at an event at KLM park in Hinsdale but I realize playing a tournament on the birthday is my plan for 2021. At least I am glad she has no desire to party and get drunk with her aunts and cousin.

I expressed disappointment that featured first round coverage at the 2019 US Disc Golf Championship had the top female player in the world. Though she could easily beat me, she was as close to the top male players as I was three months previously to the top MA50+ players at the Amateur World Championship.

One of the top female 50+ players in the world is from the Chicago area. The last three times her and I played at the same event I went 1-1-1 against her. Though I am at best an upper half 50 year old amateur, a female my age with my ability would have a great chance to become a world champion.

Anyway, some states are taking extreme measures to ensure that female school athletes are female. Though I agree with the desire to make sure ALL participants are eligible for any event they wish to enter, genital exams should not be the solution.

I remember two events with my daughter's grade school soccer. There was one game where I swore that the other team was a different age group which was confirmed when one of the parents from the other team stated the age and another where I had to literally go on the field and carry my daughter off since she was scared after a boy while goofing around bumped heads with her.

I would want to see the honor system be used but many have taken advantage of it or insisted that since they identify as a female them can compete as one. Somehow people from both sides need to find a logical and dignified solution.

The Rittenhouse Effect

Before people started dying of an illness many people still ignore, I theorized about what a person needs to do anything then applied it towards killing many others. Though I initially stated three things, I later adjusted to these four:

Desire 

Opportunity 

Equipment 

Ability 

I then theorized that equipment is the easiest thing to eliminate without changing society and stated that this has already been done in the cases where many were killed with a homemade bomb.

I recently realized there is a different way to eliminate the opportunity of killing many without creating a police state and that would be to arm everyone. As some pro gun people have stated, it would provide an immediate response as well as being a potential deterrent (which I have seen done at a house of worship) to those who want to kill many.

However, this would cause what I call "The Rittenhouse Effect". This is named after the 17 year old who brought an assault rifle to Kenosha, Wisconsin with the desire to deter protestors from attacking businesses.

I am fully aware that the protest started after a situation where the police were justified in their actions as opposed to killing a man while detaining him a month previously. That is a different post for another time.

What happened was that the kid reacted to something behind him by turning around and opening fire killing a person then when police ignored him and others tried to apprehend him, he fired in defense killing another.

In a fully open armed society this type of situation could become as commonplace as car accidents and the number that die from accidental shootings could total far more than the total from mass shootings.