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Ledgestone Open Sights Set for 1000 Players, $100k Pro Purse

Ledgestone Open Sights Set for 1000 Players, $100k Pro Purse

Tuesday, March 7, 2017 - 15:09

Photo from the final round of the 2016 LIO at Lake Eureka courtesy of the Disc Golf Pro Tour.

Registration has begun for the 2017 Ledgestone Insurance Open presented by Discraft, billed as the most lucrative tournament in disc golf due to its hefty payouts for amateur and professional divisions alike. The Ledgestone Insurance Open, often referred to as simply “Ledgestone”, promises to be even bigger and better than ever before, with the tournament staff releasing several exciting announcements over the past few weeks.

In addition to removing the stroke and distance format from the famous Lake Eureka Course, the tournament has announced an exciting change in the course schedule as well. All four Open division rounds will take place at Lake Eureka, and the Open Women’s division will play two rounds each at Sunset Hills and Northwood Park.Reducing the number of courses that the professional divisions have to play is a trend we are starting to see happening more and more. Fewer courses to play means fewer courses to practice, and typically makes for a more exciting competition overall at the professional level.

The tournament is also proud to announce that this year’s amateur payout will include a whopping $80,000 in prizes and merchandise, in addition to the already impressive player’s pack. “Hearing that kind of number is staggering. Some people say that our tournament rewards the amateur players too much and discourages them from moving up. What I tell them is to just look at the professional payout,” says tournament director Nate Heinold, pointing out that the professional purse will once again have $50,000 of added cash, making for a total pro purse of nearly $100,000.

*Note: All of the figures above assume a full field of players, currently projected at 1000+.

View the 2017 Ledgestone Insurance Open projected payouts »

Massive Charitable Contributions

In the last two years alone, the Ledgestone has donated an incredible $50,000 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, $30,000 of which came from last year’s event that included the infamous St. Jude Dunk Tank. Both St. Jude and the dunk tank will be back once again this year, with St. Jude being the event’s primary charity. 

Last year the crowd gathered around the dunk tank and had chances to dunk touring pro and now current US Champion Jeremy Koling as well as Nate Heinold himself. The biggest contributor to the past fundraising came from Discraft, who donated 18 powder-coated baskets that are used at the event and then raffled off to raise funds for St Jude after the event's completion.

lis-open-2016-st-jude-check.jpg

St. Jude receving a check for $30,000 at the 2016 Ledgestone Insurance Open.

Other activities available for the week include a Discraft mini course, glow golf, an ice cream social, players party, two PDGA X-C Tiers, and more. New to this year’s schedule is “Disc Golf Night at the Ballpark”, a Peoria Chiefs minor league baseball game where special disc-themed activities will be taking place throughout the night.  

Registration Info

Registration recently opened for hole sponsors and professional players, exclusively on The Disc Golf Scene. See below for details. 

Registration Date Division Rating Requirements
Register Now Open
Open Women
970 & above
900 & above
Register Now All Other Pro Divisions N/A
March 8th, 6:00pm CST All Amateur Divisions N/A
April 1st, 6:00pm CST Open
Open Women
969 & below
900 & below

Anyone who wishes to sponsor a hole during the registration process (+$75) will earn a free limited edition disc and the first 400 amateur players to register will also receive a limited edition Discraft Jawbreaker Nuke. Discraft will also be releasing 150 Midnight Buzzzes and 150 Smoked Buzzzes to be sold through the registration process as well.

The Ledgestone will once again be a part of the Disc Golf Pro Tour (DGPT) and will bring the DGPT Festival back to Sunset Hills. Steve Dodge, Director of the Disc Golf Pro Tour, has been excited to work with this tournament since day one. “The Ledgestone is one of the cornerstone events on the Pro Tour. Its charitable giving, amazingly scenic and challenging courses, and insane payout creates an amazing event, especially to watch. It is one of the stops that we look forward to each year - and it's only our second year!” 

The tournament greatly benefits from the presence of the Disc Golf Pro Tour and will feature a large media presence, with video production companies such as Central Coast Disc Golf in attendance as well as SmashboxxTV, UDisc for scoring and statistics, and print media. “We’re proud to partner with the Disc Golf Pro Tour and we are excited to move forward with Steve Dodge and the vision he has,” said Heinold. 

Do not miss the 2017 Ledgestone Insurance Open presented by Discraft, taking place from August 3rd through August 6th across nine different central-Illinois disc golf courses! More information can be found at www.lisopen.com

 

Comments

Come on, why is first place not receiving at least $10-15,000? We need to start pushing these huge payouts towards the top 10th percentile. We aren't building the sport towards the professionals as much as we need to and tournaments like this need to show those outsiders that you can make a lot of money at the professional level.

Submitted by FUZZHEAD on

About 5 months away and I am already stoked!!
This will be my first Ledgstone Open.
I did one other tourney in Peoria around 93 or 94.
I just got started doing PDGA tourney's last year, after about 20 years not playing much.
I love disc golf and helps me stay active, as I am getting older.