New for 2023

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A great addition to the WI Tour is The Spring Fling Women’s Open hosted by Lakeshore Ladies, directed by Lindsey Krause is exciting for several reasons. It is the first WI Tour tournament for protected divisions. Lindsey asked to get on the tour, and it was an easy yes. The tour group changed the “all divisions” rule last year to supporting select division tournaments. The group discusses where the tour is every off season, using suggestions from players in the discussion. This tournament is based out of Rollin Ridge and could include Cato Falls. This event is well sponsored and poised for growth. 

 

The Spring Fling Women’s Open tournament does share Saturday with Zobel Open where Td Mike Harrington will happily plan women’s divisions for Sunday. There are two other shared weekends in ’23. Prairie Open and Skyline Classic share the same weekend in April. Skyline and Prairie are half hour - 45 minutes apart. These two tour stops will mirror days so players can enter both events. Justin Trails Open and Mad City Open share a weekend in September with the mirror days as well. Justin Trails and MCO are an hour and half apart. I did play both last year and really enjoyed it. I was not as wiped out as I thought with Big Brother on Saturday followed by MCO Sunday. 

 

Another addition is having both Standing Rocks Open and Great Glacial Washout on the WI Tour. The difference between the two is Standing Rocks Open will be three separate weekends using the East and West courses at Standing Rocks Park. This could be a huge roster.  Great Glacial will use those two Standing Rocks courses plus Yulga on one weekend. The justification of two tour stops in the same town, is the central location of Stevens Points. Giving many more reachable roster spots to the tour. 

Another change is in players fees. The Developmental Fund will be changed from $2 to $1. By the way The Developmental Fund donated support of $5057 to projects from 2022 player fees. This stretches donations to $73,816 since 2000, including 120 projects. 

 

The tour is recommending Td’s look at a rating-based tier entry system to slow down entry, as well as saving spots for small divisions based on their events roster history. We will not mandate entry systems used. Then we will look at how entries go this year and figure out how it worked!

 

This years Finale will be hosted by Riverside Disc Golf at Riverside and Sandy Knoll courses in West Bend. We have not completely talked about how the Finale will work, but it has been a very neat event for many years. There are players that wish the Finale to be, yet another same old B Tier singles. Like every other tournament during the season. Players should speak up about the format. If you have enjoyed the skins with some sort of other round, you best let us know you wish to keep that format or it may end up a B Tier. I have heard nothing but thank you with the latest format that includes skins, but others tell me  about players telling them they want B Tier. I could care less about format as long as players attend, and players have been attending very well unless the travel is far away. 

 

Good luck and have a great season. 

Brad Wendt