Discraft is happy to announce today that Ledgestone TD Nate Heinold will be taking over as the Tournament Director of the Discraft Great Lakes Open in 2021 on an initial three year deal. “I am super happy to be able to work more closely with Discraft and the Michigan Disc Golf Organization (MDGO) to further enhance one of the best events in the country. I love the Toboggan course and have been fortunate enough to play DGLO twice, and am really excited to get to work on making this event even better,” said Heinold. "Discraft has had the pleasure of working both with MDGO and Ledgestone for many years. Seeing these two amazing groups come together for DGLO is going to be monumental and great for not only Michigan disc golf but really the entire sport,” said Bob Julio, Discraft’s Team Manager and head of Disc Golf Sales.
“I am sure some people will assume that I will want to line the Toboggan course with rope and a bunch of OB, but actually my goal will be to make the course as natural as possible without any OB, mandos, etc. I am hoping to work with the team at Discraft to make a few tweaks to make the course even better, without artificial OB,” said Heinold. Heinold also will be planning a furious campaign to get concrete tee pads in the ground before next year’s event. “That’s actually the top priority, and if nothing else happens besides that, I will consider the first year a success,” continued Heinold. He plans on meeting with park officials before the end of the year to come up with a plan.
On the AM side, Heinold is planning on moving the event to a three day, tee time based event, with players playing one round a day at the Black Locust courses. Heinold is planning for a huge player’s pack with an additional AM payout. Assuming COVID is no longer an issue by late next summer, the event’s team will also look at doing a few fun side events to try to bring the pro players together with the amateur players. “One of the benefits of Elite Series events is the ability for amateur players to come together with professional players, and we hope we are far enough past COVID next summer to be able to have some social events,” said Heinold. The event is also releasing a special Wasp Tooled Buzzz SS with a special DGLO stamp to support the event. More information on that and where that disc will be distributed will be released in the coming months.
“Some could naturally say that an outsider is coming in to take over a prized Michigan event, but I don’t look at it that way at all. Discraft is choosing to invest in this event through the Ledgestone team, and we will be able to use all of our efficiencies, marketing contacts, industry relationships, etc to make the event better,” finished Heinold. Nate will be hiring back all of the current DGLO staff who want to continue to work the event, and will bring in a few of his typical Ledgestone staffers to assist. With the Black Locust courses moving to tee times with one round per day, the event will be able to satisfy more amateur players as well. “We are extremely pleased to have Nate Heinold leading the MDGO team for this year’s Discraft Great Lakes Open. Nate will be working closely with our Michigan group to elevate this event to even greater heights in 2021. The amazing tournament team that made 2020 such a success will still be in place and with the addition of Nate and his team, it will help to make DGLO a highlight of the DGPT tour,” said John “Nacho” Norkowski. John will head up the local organizing group as the Ledgestone and MDGO teams collaborate for the first time together.
Registration for the DGPT event will take place at dgscene.com/dglodgpt while registration will take place here for the AM side. The 2021 Discraft Great Lakes Open will take place at Kensington Metropark July 23rd to July 25th. The DGPT event will take place at the world famous Toboggan course, while AM players will compete on the Black Locust courses at the Metropark.
This announcement is the 3rd in our series of announcements titled the Twelve Days of Ledgestone.
