So you’ve been playing disc golf tournaments for a couple of years and have had some success – maybe you have even started consistently winning AM1 tournaments. The thought begins to creep into your mind – should I try my hand in a professional division? Moving up amateur divisions is a small decision; you can always drop back down, but as they always say, once you go pro, there is nowhere else you can go(well, sorta).

Differences Between Amateur and Professional

When you are an amateur and you sign up for a tournament, for the most part, you can expect to receive a player’s pack that includes things like tournament-stamped discs, shirts, or towels. Conversely, professionals typically don’t receive these items for signing up for an event.
Amateurs that place well enough in their division(typically top 40%) receive merchandise credit to buy discs from a vendor. Professionals receive cold, hard cash(or nowadays get paid via PayPal) for placing high enough in their division.

Benefits of Turning Professional

If you have been playing tournaments for a while, I almost guarantee you have a surplus of discs, and getting merchandise credit isn’t fun anymore. You might try to flip some discs from your payout to pay for more tournaments, but it is much easier to just be able to accept cash for playing well. Not to mention, if you sign up for B-Tiers and above, there will always be added cash to the tournament, sweetening the pot even more. You can place well at one tournament with added cash and pay for three more tournaments!
*Disclaimer for the above section – unless you are consistently placing in the top 20% of AM1 tournaments and almost have an expectation of that, you probably stay in an amateur division, even if you feel like any of the above apply to you.

Negatives of Turning Professional

As mentioned before, jumping divisions in the amateur fields is easy, minus any PDGA restrictions. But once you accept cash at a PDGA tournament, you are officially a professional disc golf and can’t play in amateur divisions…sorta. As long as your rating is below 970, you can continue to play in AM1 in any tournament apart from amateur majors. So no US AMs or AM World Championships, but you can still play prestigious amateur events like Ledgestone or DGLO.
This may seem obvious, but – it gets much harder to win at the professional level, even at a C-Tier. Every region has weekend warriors that kick butt at every tournament and, even on bad weeks, will still give everyone a run for their money.

So What Should You Do?

If you want to pursue disc golf as a profession and get a sponsorship – you should wait on taking cash, as an excellent finish at an amateur major can be a springboard for your career. But if you are getting almost bored of merchandise and feel like you could compete at the professional level – go for it! You can always sign up for a professional tournament to see how you stack up, and if you are eligible for cash but want to keep your amateur status, you can take it in the form of merchandise credit.
There isn’t a magical rating or age that you should jump to the professional division. Hopefully, this helps you understand the differences and decide what division you sign up for in your next tournament!