The 2020 Discraft Ledgestone Insurance Open is pleased to announce the payout for the 10th anniversary event. The payout has been posted online and can be found on the projected payout page. The tournament will once again boast a Pro payout north of $100,000 on the professional side assuming a full field of players. On the Amateur side the tournament will feature a staggering and record payout of nearly $87,000 of merchandise money. The higher payout on the Amateur side is driven by a larger potential field compared to past iterations of the event.
Starting with the MPO division, the winner is projected to earn $5,500. While this number is smaller than in some past years of the event, the payout will go to 45% deep and will be a flatter payout. The top 19 players will all earn at least $1000 and everyone in the top 50 will earn at least $500. Last cash will earn $415. “While it’s sexy to have a huge first place payout, it’s not practical and doesn’t help the majority of touring players. Based on our research and discussions with players, they prefer a flatter payout that isn’t so top heavy. We want to reward more players and keep people on tour,” stated Nate Heinold, Ledgestone TD. Additionally on the FPO side, the tournament will pay out 60% of the field. First prize will be $1600, but 29 of the 48 projected players in the FPO field will be paid. “We are very early in our sport’s growth stages; we need to be giving as many women as possible the chance to stay on tour. Sometimes these women depend on payouts from an event to have the money to make it to the next event. We want to make sure to do our part to help them out,” said Heinold.
The age protected professional players will see stellar payouts as well. “Pro Master Worlds has conflicted with Ledgestone the last few years, so that has cut down our participation in those divisions. These divisions will still receive very generous payouts and a nice proportion of the added cash,” continued Heinold. Heinold is also working on a few large national sponsors, and if one of those would come to fruition the total added cash for the field could be increased by $10,000 or more. The payout that the event is posting today is the minimum payout that players can expect assuming a full field of players.
Moving on to the AM side, MA1 will see a custom pay table (as was the case in 2019) that is more top heavy. “We want our MA1 players to get a taste of what it’s like to play at the professional level. This year they are playing the same courses that MPO plays for the event, and their payout is a little more top heavy compared to other AM divisions,” said Heinold. Case in point, the winner of MA1 will see a whopping $1100 for winning that division. “I think $1100 could buy you enough discs for a LONG time,” laughed Heinold. MA2 and MA3 will see flatter payouts, with MA3 being slightly higher because of that division having more players.
MA40 will see a nice payout with first prize being $520 in that field of 48 players. MA50 will see a similar payout with 40 players (and first prize being $495), while the rest of the age protected amateur divisions will see solid payouts as well. Moving on to the female amateur divisions, the ladies will see deeper and flatter payouts compared to the men. “This is our way of trying to grow the female side of the sport; paying more women will hopefully keep them coming back,” said Heinold. And finally, the projected junior payouts are also listed on the site. As usual, the AM payout will be done by Discraft but will include more than just discs. Players can expect the ability to purchase bags, baskets, apparel, etc, on top of a multitude of options of discs. Players that cannot stick around for the in-person payout will be given the ability to redeem their merchandise money directly through Discraft.
Early registration will open on 1/1/2020 and more details can be found on the respective Disc Golf Scene pages for each event (there is a separate event page for the DGPT event and the AM & Age Protected Professional Divisions). The 10th Annual Discraft Ledgestone Insurance Open will take place August 13th through 16th in Central Illinois. Registration will take place exclusively at Disc Golf Scene. Registration for AM players and age protected professionals will take place here and registration for the DGPT event will take place here. Don’t miss what is expected to be a record breaking year for the Ledgestone event!