Ledgestone Considering Minimum 950 MPO Rating for 2021 Event

Ledgestone Considering Minimum 950 MPO Rating for 2021 Event

Disc Golfers at the 2020 Ledgestone Insurance Open

The Ledgestone tournament is announcing today that they are exploring the feasibility of a minimum PDGA player rating in the MPO division of 950 starting with the 2021 event. Starting in 2020, the tournament had a minimum MPO rating of 900 to go along with the rest of the Elite Series events, based on language that was passed by the PDGA Majors/NT Committee and then adopted by the PDGA Board of Directors in 2019. Nate Heinold, as the Chair of that Committee, had pushed for a higher number but compromised with the 900 figure. However, as the sport continues to grow, and as Ledgestone continues to try to push the event forward to make the event more professional, Heinold thinks it could be time.

“At the time, our desire was to weed out people who had no realistic chance of cashing in an Elite Series event. When we looked at this issue in 2019, our research indicated that someone rated below 935 had almost no chance of cashing at an Elite Series event. With the explosive growth of disc golf and the ever growing number of touring players, the next logical step to 935 may need to be skipped over,” said Heinold. Heinold went on to explain that with tournaments filling up at record paces, the desire to make sure the top events have room for the best players, and the desire to continue to increase the professionalism of the tour, 950 could be the next logical step. Additionally, and specifically to Ledgestone, the MPO courses present a challenge. “The bottom line is that Eureka Temp and Northwood are two of the most challenging courses in the world. With the kind of field sizes we have, it is challenging to fit that many players into one day of competition, and lower rated players naturally tend to have higher scores, which increase round times,” said Heinold. By cutting out some of the lower rated players, Heinold says round times will decrease, especially at Northwood, which will make things easier on the players and the staff. At this time the tournament is only considering this and is welcoming feedback through the next week. If you would like to provide feedback, please head on over to the Ledgestone Insurance Open facebook page and comment on the thread where this article is posted.

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