Each year the Ledgestone team surveys all of the players in the A Tier side of the event to determine what improvements need to be made for the following year’s event. This year’s survey saw almost 1000 participants. The below list of improvements come directly from survey feedback. “It is our goal to constantly improve Ledgestone each and every year. Being transparent about the improvements we are planning for the event will continue to push forward our goal of being a great experience for our players,” said Nate Heinold, Ledgestone TD. The below list includes the improvements that are currently planned with some brief commentary:
- Player Pack Discs with event date: While not every disc will have the date, the event team will make sure at least one of the discs in the player packs have the 2025 event date.
- Increased coolers and water on the courses: The Ledgestone team has invested in additional coolers for the event to ensure there is adequate drinking water on the courses. More investments will be made to make sure we stock water more often on the courses.
- AM Checkout: We are adding a second AM check-in line and moving to a digital check-in list to ensure that check-in times do not exceed 30 minutes for our 2025 event.
- Event App Upgrades: Based on several requests, we will be adding the course schedule to the event app for the 2025 event.
- Trophy Upgrades: The event team will be using a new supplier for trophies and will be investing additional resources into trophy quality, with additional plans to give out trophies to more players deeper into the field.
- Flymart Enhancements: The event team has reduced the costs to participate in the event Flymart, with the goal of adding new and additional vendors to the Ledgestone Flymarts, which take place on Friday and Saturday night.
- Parking Signs: In order to avoid confusion, we are investing into additional signage for our non-DGPT courses to ensure that players know exactly where to park at all of our non-DGPT courses.
- Next Tee Signs: To ensure routing on the courses that is more clear, we are investing into additional next hole signs for several of our courses.
- Player Transport/ Pool Issues: One of the most common complaints we receive each year at Ledgestone involve transportation issues with players not being grouped in the same pool with travel companions. For the 2025 event, we are allowing players to request to be in the same pool assignments with players they are traveling to the event with as long as they are playing in a division that has multiple pools, such as MA1, MA2, MA3 and MA4.
- Player Pack Options: Based on feedback, we have added additional player pack options. This year, players will have the choice between a basket, Zuca cart or GRIPeq bag, with two additional upgrade options.
- Additional Apparel: Many of our popular apparel items sold out early in 2024, and in particular, we had many items sell out in sizes L and XL early on Thursday. We will prioritize ordering additional apparel items for 2025.
- Benches: The Ledgestone team is building over 25 custom benches that will be spread between several courses in the area to ensure additional seating options on the course during the event.
- 10M Circles: Ledgestone is investigating a permanent option for marking 10M circles so all players will have the ability throughout the event to clearly identify if they are in the circle or not. During the 2024 event, rain early in the week washed away the circles that had been painted, which has allowed the Ledgestone team the opportunity to find a permanent solution.
The 15th Annual Discraft Ledgestone Open will take place August 14th to August 17th in Central Illinois. Registration will take place exclusively at Disc Golf Scene. Registration for AM players and age protected professionals is available here.
