Ledgestone TD Nate Heinold is happy to announce the release of the 2023 Ledgestone course schedule here. The 2023 schedule continues with the same theme of 2020 through 2022, with all AM players playing three courses. The event staff did a large survey after the 2021 and 2022 events to gauge feedback on the course schedule and other topics, and that helped determine the schedule for 2023. This is the 3rd announcement in our series of the Twelve Days of Ledgestone promotion.
With the day 3 announcement, Ledgestone is doing a 10% off sale on the entire store. This sale will only run today, December 14th exclusively at the Ledgestone retail website. This discount will be above and beyond any other discounts offered. “We wanted to add some extra value with our 12 Days of Ledgestone promotion this year, and that is why we are offering these daily, exclusive discounts,” said Heinold.
One new course will be added to the course schedule for 2023, while one course will not return, which will keep the event at 14 courses. Three Sisters Park in Chillicothe will be added to the course schedule for 2023. Three Sisters has new baskets and is currently in the process of having concrete teepads installed. Three Sisters Park will replace Camp Kearney for the 2023 event.
MPO and FPO players will be playing the same courses they played in 2022, with FPO playing two rounds at Sunset and two rounds at Northwood Black Shorts, while MPO will take on Eureka Temp for two rounds and Northwood Black for two rounds. The event is working closely with the DGPT and Verizon to evaluate the possibility of live coverage for the front 9 of the Northwood Black course.
MA1 players will once again get a chance to crack the Eureka Temp course, which they were able to play for the first time in 2020. On top of playing the showcase MPO course for one of their rounds, they will once again also get to compete at Wildlife Prairie Park and Sunset Hills, which is the showcase FPO course. The full field of MA1 will be 320 players.
MA2 will play an identical schedule to 2021/2022, with Northwood Blue, Kennel Lake and Eureka Permanent being used. MA2 will once again include two pools of players with a maximum of 360 spots being available. MA3 will have three pools with the capacity for 540 players, and will be the only division to compete at their courses: Bradley, McNaughton and Westwood. That schedule is identical to the one they used in 2021 and 2022. McNaughton (aka McNasty) has long been a local favorite course, with Ken Climo calling it one of his top five courses in the country, while Westwood is a tight, wooded course that traverses up and down several hills. Bradley is a classic Peoria course that has been around since the 80’s and was designed in the mid 2000’s. MA4 will play the same schedule they played in 2022 and will tackle ICC, Washington and Maxwell.
Based on survey feedback, we made slight changes to the course schedules for several divisions, including MA40, FA1, FA2, MJ18, MJ15, MA50 and a few other divisions. MA40 will play Three Sisters, Wildlife and Kennel Lake, while MA50 will play Northwood Blue, Three Sisters and ICC. FA1 and FA2 will play Maxwell Park, Three Sisters and ICC. Maxwell is undergoing additional work and changes this winter and those changes will be complete in the spring of 2023. The additional wooded holes on skunk island will be completed in time for next year’s event, and additional cleanup of the skunk island holes is in the works. The temporary holes near the beginning of the course will no longer be used and will be available as warmup holes. The largest change to the course schedule will see MJ18 and MJ15 split from the rest of the junior divisions into their own course schedule. For the first time, MJ18 will get to tackle the Lake Eureka Temporary course and will play the same layout that the MPO players get to play. MJ18 will also play Maxwell Park and Northwood Black Shorts. MJ15 will get to play Northwood Blue, Maxwell and Three Sisters.
Creating a course schedule is no easy task. Many hours are devoted to the process of deciding who plays what course, how many players go into each pool, what days the pools play the courses, etc. This year’s tournament will also host a disc golf record 2300+ players, which makes the process even more daunting. “The course scheduling process is actually quite complicated. Not only do we need to think about how many players should be in a specific pool of players, we then need to figure out who those players should be grouped with on a specific course on a specific day to make sure the course flow is good,” said Heinold. Careful attention is paid to what courses are suitable for which divisions, but at the end of the day it’s about numbers. While some players may not get to play their favorite course, all AMs (and age based pros) will play different courses each day. The selection of courses has been made to try to give as much variety as possible, while remaining appropriate to divisional skill levels. While the tournament tries to ensure that divisions play similar courses each year, that doesn’t always work. The tournament takes in constant feedback about the courses that various divisions play, and will continue to do that in the future.
The 13th Annual Discraft Ledgestone Insurance Open will take place August 3rd to August 6th in Central Illinois. Registration will take place exclusively at Disc Golf Scene and will open 1/1/23. Registration for AM players and age protected professionals will take place here.
