When the Daily Contest was first revealed months ago, we made one guarantee. We promised to take the data when Golden Tee 2015 went live, assess it week-to-week and adjust it (if needed) accordingly.

On Thursday, such adjustments will go live (and we’ll get to those). First, let’s explore just how fantastic the participation has been early on.

After one week of Daily Contests, we are thrilled with the activity being exhibited day-to-day. More than $8,000 in prize money has been awarded to well over one thousand players, and less than 75 percent of the games have yet to be updated to 2015. That will change, and participation will only increase as more games are updated.

It is fantastic as is, although as promised, we are making a handful of tweaks to the contest in order to elevate it to another level. These changes will go live on October 2, and here is what will be implemented:

-Contests will now open at midnight central and close at 11:59 p.m. central. At that point, a new contest will open. Simply put, we want players to make a final push for the contest when bars are lively and open. We also want those looking to get ahead at the next day’s Daily Contest an opportunity to do so. To prepare for this change, Wednesday’s Daily Contest will end five hours early in order to make way for Thursday’s new time.

We’re very excited about this change and think it will only add to the suspense of the countdown.

-The second significant change will be with the payouts. The top prize in the Daily Contest will now start at $100 rather than $50. Second ($60) and third place ($50) have also received boosts, along with some of the other spots below. We believe this will add to the excitement and competitive nature of competing for the top spot, and we can’t wait to follow the action.

Please note, however, that the total winners will not change. The Top 300 will still walkaway with a cash prize each and every day. This is something critically important to the contest, and we hope we can down even further as it grows.

The updated payouts are as follows:

1st: $100

2nd: $60

3rd: $50

4th: $30

5th: $25

6th-10th: $17

11th-20th: $12

21th-30th: $8

31th-50th: $5

51th-75th: $4

76th-100th: $2

101th-300th: $1

As a reminder, these are starting payouts. As play increases, prizes will increase. The functionality of the contest has already been active and evident in only one week of results.

And when it comes to the contest in general, we will continue to analyze data, assess feedback and make the appropriate changes when necessary. When we do, we will be transparent with a) when these changes will go live and b) why they’re being made.

Enjoy the Daily Contest, bookmark the Daily Contest Leaderboard if you haven’t already and—if for some reason you have yet to play 2015 yet—track one down with Find a Game and give it a spin.