September 30, 2022 by Charlie Eisenhood in News with 0 comments
UPDATE 11/1: The Disc Golf Pro Tour has announced the inclusion of four additional Silver events along with some slight schedule adjustments. Those changes are reflected in the list below. The graphic above shows the originally released schedule.
With just a few weeks to go in the 2022 season, the Disc Golf Pro Tour has announced the 2023 season schedule. Here is next year’s professional disc golf schedule:
- *Exhibition* All-Star Weekend – February 17th-19th (Tucson, AZ)
- Las Vegas Challenge – February 23rd-26th (Las Vegas, NV)
- Waco Annual Charity Open – March 10th-12th (Waco, TX)
- The Open at Austin – March 17th-19th (Austin, TX)
- [Silver] Texas State Championships – March 24th-26th (Houston, TX)
- Music City Open – April 7th-9th (Nashville, TN)
- [Silver] Blue Ridge Championship at North Cove – April 14th-16th (Marion, NC)
- [MAJOR] Champions Cup – April 20th-23rd (Appling, GA)
- Jonesboro Open – April 28th-30th (Jonesboro, AR)
- OTB Open – May 12th-14th (Stockton, CA)
- [Silver] Beaver State Fling – May 19th-21st (Estacada, OR)
- [Silver] The Cascade Challenge at Kayak Point – May 26th-28th (Stanwood, WA)
- [+] Portland Open – June 1st-4th (Portland, OR)
- [Silver] Zoo Town Open – June 9th-11th (Missoula, MT)
- Dynamic Discs Open – June 16th-18th (Emporia, KS)
- Des Moines Challenge – June 23rd-25th (Indianola, IA)
- The Preserve Championship – June 30-July 2nd (Clearwater, MN)
- [Silver] KC Wide Open – July 7th-9th (Kansas City, MO)
- PCS Sula Open – July 13th-15th (Vestnes, Norway)
- [MAJOR] European Open – July 20th-23rd (Nokia, Finland)
- [Silver] Mid America Open – July 28th-30th (Columbia, MO)
- [+] Ledgestone Open – August 3rd-6th (Peoria, IL)
- Idlewild Open – August 11th-13th (Burlington, KY)
- [Playoff] Discraft’s Great Lakes Open – August 17th-20th (Milford, MI)
- [Silver] Rochester Flying Disc Open – August 25th-27th (Rochester, NY)
- [MAJOR] PDGA Professional World Championships – August 30th-September 3rd (Jeffersonville, VT)
- [Silver] Discmania Open – September 8th-10th (Prince Edward Island, Canada)
- [Playoff] MVP Open at Maple Hill – September 14th-17th
- [MAJOR] United States Women’s Disc Golf Championships – September 21st-24th (Burlington, NC)
- [MAJOR] United States Disc Golf Championship – October 5th-8th (Rock Hill, SC)
- [Playoff] Disc Golf Pro Tour Championship – October 12th-15th (Charlotte, NC)
Broadly, the schedule is similar to the 2022 schedule, with the tour beginning in the Southwest at the Las Vegas Challenge and traveling through Texas towards the Southeast for the first major of the season at the PDGA Champions Cup. Then, the tour heads back West through Arkansas at the Jonesboro Open towards California and the OTB Open before heading up the Pacific Coast towards Oregon. After stops in the Midwest, the tour heads overseas to Europe in July before coming back for Ledgestone and Idlewild and the late season playoff events and Majors.
“We’ve got another exciting end of the season lined up with the PDGA Pro World Championships at Smugglers’ Notch Resort happening in concert with the 2023 playoff events,” said DGPT CEO Jeff Spring in a statement. “With PDGA Pro Majors maintaining heavyweight status on the 2023 points scale, the last three months of next year’s season will provide ample opportunities for movement around the cut line for the Tour Championship.”
Tournament Changes
There are a number of tournaments that are being added, elevated, downgraded, or removed from the tour. Here’s a look at the changes:
NEW
The Open at Austin: A new event for the Texas swing that coincides with South by Southwest, the huge music, tech, and film festival in Austin every year. The TDs and leadership of The Open at Belton are moving the event to Austin and giving it a new name.
Blue Ridge Championships at North Cove: A new Silver event that is held on the well-regarded North Cove disc golf course that will play host to the College Championships just a week prior to the DGPT stop.
Discmania Open: A brand new tournament with $40,000 added cash joining as a Silver event on the fabulous courses on Prince Edward Island in Canada.
Rochester Flying Disc Open: The longest running PDGA event in the world will be celebrating its 50th anniversary by joining the DGPT as a Silver event. Don’t be surprised if it goes back to its original name, the American Flying Disc Open.
ELEVATED TO ELITE STATUS
Music City Open: The long-standing Nashville event used to be a PDGA National Tour event but debuted on the DGPT in 2022 as a Silver Series tournament. It will rejoin the Elite ranks in 2023.
PCS Sula Open: The first DGPT event in Europe will move from Silver to Elite after a strong debut in 2022.
DOWNGRADED TO SILVER STATUS
Texas State Championship: The migrating tournament had been a common stop on the DGPT Elite Series but was dropped this year as The Open at Austin took its place. Texas States will be in Houston this year as a Silver event.
REMOVED FROM TOUR
No Elite Series events from 2022 were fully removed from the tour. The Texas State Championship was downgraded to Silver but remains a part of the DGPT. A number of Silver Series tournaments from 2022, however, will not return (although the DGPT says that some additional Silver Series events are likely to be added). Here are the tournaments that won’t be back (for now):
The Open at Belton: The Open at Belton doesn’t have quite the ring as The Open at Austin, does it? Bigger markets are important for the tour. This isn’t really being removed from tour as much as it is getting moved.
Open at Tallahassee: No Florida tournaments are on tour in 2023, although November 2022’s New World Championship in Jacksonville does count towards the 2023 standings as a part of the wraparound tour.
Masters Cup: The legendary tournament at Delaveaga could be left off the professional tour for the first time since the start of the National Tour in 2003.
Mid America Open: Harmony Bends is a beautiful course, but it’s flood prone. Perhaps that’s why it won’t return in 2023. (The Mid America Open was announced to be returning to the Tour after the initial schedule release).
Butler County Disc Golf Classic: The most recent Silver Series event only got a year on the tour.
Elite+ Events, More Points at Silver Events
The DGPT is debuting a new designation for specific events that they are calling Elite+, which they say will apply to tournaments that “feature bigger purses, additional media focus, and elevated spectator experiences.” Like the Playoff events, they will also be four-round tournaments. In 2023, the Ledgestone Open and Portland Open will be designated as Elite+ events.
“Basically, we’re looking at a number of different variables where we can look at events that are already successful and get extra traction with them for national media attention,” said DGPT Communications Manager Charles McCracken. Whether that means there will be tournament coverage from bigger media outlets like ESPN or simply an effort to get articles written about the tournaments is unclear. McCracken said that Ledgestone and Portland were good fits because the former already has the biggest purse among DGPT Elite events and the latter is in one of the best disc golf markets in the country. Elite+ and Playoff events should be expected to have among the highest purses on tour.
Silver Series events are being rebranded to simply Silver events. They will count for more than 25% of an Elite tournament’s points in 2023, though the specifics of the points earning structure for next year has not been announced. It is also possible that more Silver events will be counted towards a player’s point total (in 2022, just the top three Silver events for each player counted towards their total).
More information about the 2023 tour is expected to be released in the coming weeks.
