15-09-2017, 12:10 AM
Thanks for explaining Gary. Okay, I can understand a bit better now what you were aiming for, although it seems pretty clear from the responses so far that some changes are needed to make the Masters qualifying tournaments more appealing.
In these qualifying events, I strongly believe that the top-rated section should have, at the very least, equal prizes to the other sections. I would find it hard to play on principle if I knew that novices were going to be winning bigger prizes than players in the Open.
Obviously, to cover the cost of the extra prizes you would need to raise entry fees somewhere along the way, and/or reduce the prizes at the finale. To go some way towards balancing the overall budget, you could offer players finishing in the top third (or whatever cut-off point you see fit) a reduction in entry fee (maybe 50%, but whatever you think is best) to the final event at Largs, rather than free entry as you'd planned before. A 50% reduction would still give people a nice incentive to come and play, while also bringing in some revenue which will reduce the impact on prizes and entry fees.
I hope that's of some use, at least as a starting point for you to play around with the figures and see what might work.
In these qualifying events, I strongly believe that the top-rated section should have, at the very least, equal prizes to the other sections. I would find it hard to play on principle if I knew that novices were going to be winning bigger prizes than players in the Open.
Obviously, to cover the cost of the extra prizes you would need to raise entry fees somewhere along the way, and/or reduce the prizes at the finale. To go some way towards balancing the overall budget, you could offer players finishing in the top third (or whatever cut-off point you see fit) a reduction in entry fee (maybe 50%, but whatever you think is best) to the final event at Largs, rather than free entry as you'd planned before. A 50% reduction would still give people a nice incentive to come and play, while also bringing in some revenue which will reduce the impact on prizes and entry fees.
I hope that's of some use, at least as a starting point for you to play around with the figures and see what might work.