Ledgestone Disc Golf is happy to announce the release of the 2024 Ledgestone events schedule and a final list of the improvements planned for the 2024 event. The 2024 events schedule includes a lot of returning events and some new and exciting events. “Planning an events schedule for a tournament the size of Ledgestone is just downright challenging. Factors that need to be considered include venue size, how many people we think will show up to an event, if we need to provide food at the event and many other factors. We also have to consider how the weather will affect our events. The last few years we have dealt with wildlife smoke issues, torrential rain storms and thunderstorms,” said Nate Heinold, Ledgestone TD. The Events schedule is the 6th in our series of announcements on the Twelve Days of Ledgestone. After extensive survey and staff feedback, the event is also announcing several improvements and changes that are being implemented for the 2024 event.
With the day 6 announcement, Ledgestone is offering a free can topper mini with any disc purchase today only at the Ledgestone retail website. This special will only run today, December 14th exclusively at the Ledgestone retail website. Discraft’s can topper minis fit nicely over a regular can of soda and are fun “around the house” throwers.
One of the more popular events have been the Flex C Tiers run during the event week, and this year the event will be hosting a Ledgestone record 14 Flex events leading up to the event, with new events taking place at Brady Park, McNaughton Park and Youth Acres. Players have found these Flex events to be a fun way to compete in a sanctioned event while also warming up for the big show.
This year’s event will see a tournament pro shop at both Lake Eureka and Five Points (similar to last year), as well as our event flymarts. The tournament will have some special disc releases for sale during tournament week as well as special Ledgestone apparel. “2023 was our biggest year for special releases, and 2024 will blow last year out of the water,” said Heinold. Tuesday will see the Juniors Clinic at Washington Park, which will include free pizza for all juniors attending the event. Tuesday will also include a players clinic and player signing with Paul Ulibarri. Wednesday will see a host of activities including our press conference at Sunset Hills, a CTP contest with Andrew Presnell, a Discraft player’s clinic, our $10,000 hole-in-one contest, our Play with the Champs Exhibition, an ice cream social and several more activities. Wednesday will see the first day of our Ledgestone Dye Academy, which runs through Friday.
Thursday, as usual, will be the busiest day of Ledgestone week. MPO and FPO will start the tournament off at Eureka and Sunset, while AMS and all other players will check in at Five Points in Washington. 2024 will follow similar procedures to the 2023 check-in process, which will see divisions checking in at predetermined times, with an open check-in for anyone later in the evening. VIP check-in will also take place on Thursday, and Paige Pierce, Paige Shue, Missy Gannon and Paul McBeth will be doing a signing at Lake Eureka that evening. We will also have disc golf games, a putting competition, free ice cream, a band performance, our food vendors staying late and more at Lake Eureka on Thursday evening. The night will be capped off by Glo Disc Golf at Washington Park.
Friday will see the start of AM competition and the second round of competition for the MPO and FPO divisions. The Flymart will return to the Comfort Inn in Morton, which hosted the outdoor flymart for the last 4 years. The tournament will also have a player’s dinner that evening as well as the St Jude Dunk tank. Virtual poker night will also be returning for our 2024 event. This will take place Friday night and is only available for the first 150 people to register. This will start around 8PM and will go until there is a winner! The cost will be $30 to register and you can sign up through Ledgestone registration at Disc Golf Scene or a separate registration page through Disc Golf Scene. There will be prizes for the top 20 competitors and the game will be Texas Hold Em! Friday will also see the return of our newest event, the Ledgestone Escape Room. This Escape Room is run and designed by Escapetown Peoria and was a huge hit for our 2023 event. This disc golf themed Escape Room will be hosted Friday and Saturday.
Saturday will find MPO and FPO playing their third rounds, while all other players will compete in their 2nd round. There will be another Flymart that evening at the Comfort Inn in Morton as well as another crack at the St Jude dunk tank. A pizza party will take place that night as well as our Eagles Wings Chapel Service. Sunday is the final day of competition for all players and will see players getting their AM payout at Eureka and at Five Points in Washington with lots of goodies available (tons of discs, bags, baskets, apparel, etc). The St Jude first putt will take place Sunday at 2PM, and the awards and the raffle drawing will take place Sunday around 6PM.
Based on extensive survey and staff feedback, we announced several changes for the 2024 event. A list of those changes is summarized here:
- Westwood and Wildlife will see course tweaks to better prepare those properties for inclement weather.
- As previously announced, all AM divisions will see a different course schedule in 2024 with at least one of their courses being changed from 2023 to offer variety in the course schedule.
- The event is doubling down on our Flex events to ensure they offer the highest quality that is expected of Ledgestone.
- We will be making several new enhancements to our tournament app to ensure that it is providing the information that our players need.
- We are working on parking enhancements that will make it more clear for players on where to park at our various locations.
- We are making quality improvements to our Glo event to fix the mistakes we made in the event during our 2023 event.
“At Ledgestone we strive to listen to feedback and make improvements based on what our players want. We will continue to strive to do the best we can to deliver a world class experience,” said Heinold. The 14th Annual Discraft Ledgestone Open will take place August 1st to August 4th in Central Illinois. Registration will take place exclusively at Disc Golf Scene and will open 1/1/24. Registration for AM players and age protected professionals will take place here.