Ledgestone Disc Golf is happy to announce several details as it relates to the 2024 Discraft Great Lakes Open. The DGLO announcement is the 4th in our series of announcements on the Twelve Days of Ledgestone. Today’s announcement will include details on this year’s DGLO course schedule, details on this year’s DGPT added cash, information on the addition of a new course for DGLO and the announcement of Ledgestone’s continued partnership with Gerrit J Verburg.
With the day 4 announcement, Ledgestone is doing a 25% off sale on the DGLO collection at the Ledgestone retail website. This sale will only run today, December 12th 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.
For the 2024 event, the event team is adding a new course to the AM schedule: Independence Lake East. This will mean that the AM event will be hosted at three locations, each of which will feature two courses. The addition of this course will help satisfy MA1 demand for the event, as DGLO will now have 320 MA1 spots available at the event spread over two pools. The event conducted a survey after the 2022 and 2023 events to gauge how competitors felt about the event and the course schedule. The feedback from the survey indicated that competitors were generally happy with the schedule of courses but wanted to see some variety from year to year. In order to satisfy the desire for repeat players to play unique courses each year, the event made the decision to add the new course while providing changes to the course schedule for most divisions. “Each year we do our best to listen to feedback from the players. We pride ourselves on listening to criticism and doing everything we can to make our events better,” said Heinold. In October the event announced several improvement for the 2024 event. One of those improvements was the planned addition of 5 Flex C Tier events for the 2024 event, which was heavily requested by players from the event survey.
On the professional side, the event is planning to add additional added cash to continue to push the payout forward and to help highlight the event status as an Elite+ event. In addition, the event is exploring continuing to work with Bert Kreischer with more details expected next spring. “We are excited to host DGLO as an Elite+ event for 2024. Our plan is to add a minimum of $60,000 to the FPO/MPO purse, which will make it the largest DGLO payout in the history of the event,” said Heinold. MPO and FPO will continue to play the Kensington Toboggan layout for the event. While no major changes are planned for the course, minor tweaks will be made on a few holes. The DGPT event will be contested over 4 rounds of competition. The move from a playoff event to an Elite+ event will allow more local opportunities for players to compete in the event and will allow the event to move back to a larger field size.
DGLO and Ledgestone are also happy to once again be working with Gerrit J. Verburg Co as a silver sponsor at both events. Gerrit J Verburg came on as a sponsor for both events in 2023 for the first time. Gerrit J Verburg has been in business since 1979 and is headquartered in Fenton, MI. They produce licorice, candy, chocolate and confectionary products. “Nate and his team at Ledgestone have been great to work with. As a first-time sponsor of the Ledgestone and DGLO events, our company felt they exceeded expectations in representing our company and product. With the recent substantial growth in the sport of disc golf, we found significant appeal in the value proposition offered by Ledgestone’s 2024 event sponsorship packages,” said Jason Aric Jones, CFO & COO of Gerrit J. Verburg Co.
The 42nd Annual Discraft Great Lakes Open will take place September 5th to the 8th in and around Wixom, Michigan. Registration will take place exclusively at Disc Golf Scene and will open in early 2024. Spectator passes will go on sale early in 2024. Demand is expected to be very high for players who participate in the event. Registration for AM players and age protected professionals will take place here.