PEORIA, Ill. — The 2022 Ledgestone Open is underway, taking over more than a dozen disc golf courses around central Illinois and bringing elite players from all over the world.

Tournament founder Nate Heinold — the Ledgestone tournament director and now president of the Professional Disc Golf Association board of directors — has grown this event into a week-long celebration of the sport via competition on the courses, big prize money, public meet-and-greets of players, skills clinics, live music, food and more.

It’s part tournament, part festival, hitting the map as host of the sport’s World Championships in 2019, and presenting the largest purse in the history of the sport — $130,000 — in 2021.

The 2022 version will include thousands of players with a wide range of ages and skill levels. But the Men’s Pro Open (148 players) and Women’s Pro Open (53 players) will offer Peoria disc fans a look at the best players in the game.

Nate Heinold of Ledgestone Insurance is building a new office with an attached warehouse to store the disc golf equipment for the Ledgestone Insurance Open, an annual disc golf tournament held at several area courses that attracts hundreds of disc golfers from around the country.

The 2022 Ledgestone Open

The Pro Open field is stacked as always. Among the players are the top three in the Professional Disc Golf Association’s United States Tour rankings: No. 1 Richard Wysocki ($42,135 earnings in 2022), No. 2 Paul McBeth No. 2 ($42,951), No. 3 Calvin Heimburg. McBeth has 139 career wins and earnings of $644,000, while Heimburg has 53 career wins with earnings of $226,900 and Wysocki has 122 career wins with earnings of $549,000.

Wysocki and Heimburg finished in a first-place tie in 2021 at Ledgestone in a championship round halted by severe weather.

McBeth is a five-time World Champion, including the 2019 version hosted in central Illinois at the Ledgestone.

Parnu, Estonia native Kristin Tattar is in the Women’s Pro Open field, and comes in with the No. 2 ranking on the U.S. Tour. She is returning from an elbow injury and a bout with COVID.

She follows No. 1 Paige Pierce, who has 150 career wins and $351,714 career earnings. The Ledgestone defending champion dominated the field for an 11-stroke victory in 2021.

Catrina Allen is back, and is a five-time Ledgestone champion.

Bring your passport

The 2022 Ledgestone includes players scattered from the Pro Open and down through the lesser tiers from Austria, Czechia,…