FOX CHAPEL — The top competition for Mid-Amateur golfers in the region, the 41st WPGA Mid-Amateur Championship, is set for Tuesday at historic Fox Chapel Golf Club.
The Mid-Amateur Championship is a two-round, 36-hole stroke play competition available for amateur players ages 25 and over.
Over the last four decades, the championship has become one of the fiercest competitions on the WPGA schedule each year, and is contested annually on a top course in the region.
A year ago, Darin Kowalski claimed the WPGA Mid-Amateur Championship, winning a three-hole playoff over Jon Pratkanis at Green Oaks Country Club. The win — Kowalski’s second in the event — propelled him to being named the 2025 WPGA Men’s Player of the Year.
Historically, one player has reigned supreme in the Mid-Amateur Championship. Sean Knapp has won a record eight WPGA Mid-Amateur titles, with victories in four different decades.
Nathan Smith – one of the nation’s strongest amateur players of all-time – has won four WPGA Mid-Amateur crowns. Smith has claimed four U.S. Mid-Amateur Championships, three Walker Cups and served as the captain of the United States’ Walker Cup team this week in Ireland, his second straight year in the role.
2024 champion Ian Bangor, as well as Arnold Cutrell and John Jones, registered wins in the WPGA Mid-Amateur Championship three times each, while Frank Fuhrer III, David Brown, Kowalski and Marshall Marraccini have all won the event twice.
The inaugural competition, held at Youghiogheny Country Club, was won by Fred Gibbons, who later became the WPGA’s president from 2004-2005.
2026 WPGA Jamison Cup individual champion Alec Stopperich will begin play at 8:30 a.m. from the first tee, while Kowalski will open play from the ninth tee at the same time. Stopperich recently earned Low Scorer honors at the U.S. Mid-Amateur qualifying round, held at Nemacolin’s Mystic Rock last month.
The WPGA conducted three qualifying rounds for the WPGA Mid-Amateur, establishing the 60-player field with qualified players and exempt participants.
This will be the third time that Fox Chapel Golf Club — one of the region’s most renowned courses — will host the Mid-Amateur Championship. Knapp won the Mid-Am at Fox Chapel in 1999, while Bangor took the title there in 2022.
For media inquiries, please contact WPGA Director of Communications Josh Rowntree.
