The Ledgestone Insurance Open is happy to announce that this year's event will be hosting a hole-in-one contest at Sunset Hills on Thursday of tournament week. Tournament Director Nate Heinold has been trying for over a year to get this locked down and has finally gotten all of the details worked out. The idea is simple; there will be a hole at Sunset Hills designated as the hole-in-one contest hole on Thursday and players will have the chance to pay $5 for one throw. If they get a hole-in-one, they get $10,000!
The contest will be outside of the competition and so players will not partake in the contest during their tournament rounds. It will only take place on Thursday afternoon at AM check-in. The hole and distance is not being released yet, but according to Heinold it will be in almost every player's wheelhouse. "We certainly didn't want to make it too easy, but its a hole where players will have a chance to get an ace. On this specific hole I have thrown my Discraft Stalker under the basket before."
Players will have one chance to try to ace the hole with the disc of their choice. The event will be filmed, both with the hopes of getting on Sportscenter in the event of an ace and for proving that the ace did happen to the insurance company backing the contest. "We have kept detailed statistics over the last few years with regards to the likelihood of getting an ace. There have been 13 aces at the Ledgestone Insurance Open over the last two years," said Heinold. This hole-in-one contest will be separate from the tournament's ace fund, which will eclipse $4,000 this year. The tournament ace fund charge is $5 and players pay for that separately. If a player hits an ace during the tournament and they paid into the ace fund, they split what's in the ace fund with other players who get an ace.
The sponsor of the contest will be Mangold Ford out of Eureka, Illinois, who also is sponsoring the Lake Eureka Course. "The owner came out to the tournament last year and was blown away. He said he wanted to sponsor the tournament next year and so I worked with Mangold and the insurance company backing the contest to come up with the best contest possible," said Heinold. 300 people will get the chance to try for the ace and it will be first come, first served. Don't miss out on your chance to win $10,000...cold hard cash!