2024 Ledgestone Open Preview: Eureka!

No Northwood this year after the woods course hosted Champions Cup.

July 31, 2024 by Justin Westfall in Preview with 0 comments

Coming off the European Disc Golf Festival, the Disc Golf Pro Tour now heads over 4,500 miles back west to the United States for Discraft’s Ledgestone Open. As the third Elite+ event of the season, Ledgestone will feature four rounds with separate courses for MPO and FPO. Players traveling from Europe will have an incredibly short turnaround with the tournament beginning this Thursday, August 1st, in Peoria, Illinois.

The Ledgestone Open has been a premiere event since before the Disc Golf Pro Tour’s inception, making a splash on the 2015 PDGA National Tour with a record setting $117,453 purse. Since then, it has become a destination tournament for pros and amateur players alike, with over 2,200 competitors scheduled to play in this year’s event.

Traditionally played on three courses, this year’s event will only utilize Lake Eureka for the MPO field and Sunset Hills for the FPO field. While both divisions typically play two rounds on the densely wooded Northwood Black, the course hosted Champions Cup earlier this season and so will not be used for Ledgestone to avoid repetition.

Last year, Cole Redalen entered the final day with a four-stroke lead on five different players, including Ricky Wysocki and Calvin Heimburg. Wysocki came into the tournament as a three-time defending champion and though he played a good round was unable to gain any ground on Redalen. Heimburg, who was on the chase card due to a poor performance the previous day, was doing everything in his power to chase Redalen down, including hitting a beautiful 425 foot ace on hole 10.  The typically stoic Heimburg let out possibly the biggest celebration fans have seen from him and eventually ended his day at 13-under par. Redalen somehow managed to put up an even better performance, finishing his round 14-under par to win his first career Elite series event by five strokes. At 1096, it was the highest rated round of Redalen’s career.

In FPO, defending champion Missy Gannon came into the final round with a four-stroke lead on Ohn Scoggins and Ella Hansen.  Both Gannon and Scoggins shot the hot round at 4-under par, and Gannon was able to defend her title to claim her first win of the season.

Past Winners

Ledgestone Open Past Winners

Four Things We’ll Be Watching

1. Ricky Wysocki has been red-hot for the past two months, picking up three wins in his last five events and shooting the third highest rated round of all-time this past Friday in Tallinn. Wysocki won the Ledgestone title three years in a row from ’20-’22, and since 2017, he has averaged a 1059 event rating in Peoria. Wysocki will not be playing this week, however, after tweaking his shoulder during warm-ups before the final round on Sunday. His absence could help open the door for Paul McBeth, who is a four-time runner-up at this event, two-time champion, and 2019 World Championship winner in Peoria. McBeth nearly chased down Wysocki in Tallinn on Sunday and is still searching for his first win since the 2023 PCS Open. It’s a good thing he is familiar with this course. Having just three days to travel back from Europe, there likely will not be much time to get in practice rounds before the tournament starts on Thursday.

2. Back-to-back Ledgestone champion Missy Gannon is coming off a win at the EDGF, defeating Eveliina Salonen in a one-hole playoff. Gannon averaged a 980 event rating last week, which is the lowest of her career for an Elite Series win. While Gannon performs well on Sunset Hills, much of her advantage in this event has come on Northwood Black: she has been the best player in the division on that course over the past two years. Without the treacherous woods course to navigate, expect her to have some stiff competition on the more open golf layout. If Missy can pick up her 4th Elite series win of the season this weekend to go along with her Major win from earlier this year, she will match Kristin Tattar’s win total and could make a push for Player of the Year. As it stands right now, Tattar (who is not playing again until Worlds) is well ahead in average finish and average event rating, so Gannon would likely need to exceed Tattar’s win total if she wants a shot at that title.

3. The past month has been somewhat confounding for fans of Calvin Heimburg, who has not performed well since a last-minute decision to fly to Sweden for the Swedish Open, back to the U.S. for the Des Moines Challenge, and then right back to Europe for the European Open and EDGF. Heimburg is technically a past champion of this event: in 2021, he shared the trophy with Ricky Wysocki due to a canceled final round. While he typically finds success at Northwood, Lake Eureka also sets up well for his game. Heimburg shot 25-under par over the course of two rounds in last year’s event, the best of any player in the field. If jetlag and travel fatigue is a valid excuse for his recent subpar performances, don’t expect his game to suddenly turn around this week. With the World Championships just three weeks away though, Heimburg needs to get back on track sooner rather than later.

4. Now that the European swing has ended, both Ohn Scoggins and Holyn Handley will be returning to the tour. Scoggins finished as the runner-up at this event each of the past two seasons and was one of three players to shoot the hot round on Sunset Hills last year. Handley was another one of those players, and while she’s yet to crack the top 5 at Ledgestone, having four rounds on Sunset Hills should be a big advantage for her. Handley famously threw in an albatross on hole 6 in 2022 and should be very well rested having not played in three weeks. She also hasn’t missed the top 5 on tour since the Champions Cup, and the only question is if there might be some rust to shake off after the break.

Course Changes

While most FPO layouts on tour are modified versions of an MPO layout, Sunset Hills is a terrific course that is designed specifically for the division. Located on a traditional golf course, the track is relatively short compared to other courses on the DGPT schedule and very scorable for the average FPO touring pro. This year, there are just a handful of changes to the course and some OB lines that were adjusted. As a result, the new layout will play 130 feet longer and should score a little more difficult. Notably, the course was damaged by a tornado just a few weeks ago — some large trees fell and the course may look a bit different in spots.

The MPO track, Eureka Lake, is a park-style course that is very attackable in good conditions.  OB outlines the entire layout, and water comes into play on over half of the course. This year, there will be three alternate pin locations, with the ‘A’ pins being used in rounds 1 and 4 and the ‘B’ pins in rounds 2 and 3. All three of these holes should be familiar to fans, especially hole 9, better known as the bridge hole. The new ‘B’ pin will play on the back left side of the green. The OB line was also pushed back a bit to open up this new pin position. The next is hole 13, a par 5 where players must execute a water-carry tee shot and then throw a couple of hyzers out over the water to reach the pin. The new location sits an extra 120 feet back of the normal position. Lastly is hole 17, a 335 foot water-carry onto an island green. This year the island has been tightened up, and a second even skinnier island with the ‘B’ position has been placed next to it.

2024 MPO A: 9,690 Feet Par 63
2024 MPO B: 9,810 Feet Par 63
2023 MPO: 9,665 Feet Par 63

2024 FPO: 7,669 Feet Par 61
2023 FPO: 7,539 Feet Par 61

Extended Forecast

Thunderstorms could lead to weather delays in the opening two rounds, but sun and low winds on Saturday and Sunday should lead to some hot rounds to close out the tournament.

Thursday: Scattered thunderstorms in the morning with the potential for severe thunderstorms, highs in the mid 80s. Winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.

Friday: Scattered thunderstorms with highs in the mid 80s. Winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.

Saturday: Sunny with highs in the upper 80s. Winds 5 to 10 mph.

Sunday: Mostly sunny with highs near 90. Winds 5 to 10 mph.