The ten biggest stories in West Penn Golf in 2025
By Josh Rowntree, Director of Communications • December 17, 2025
2025 was a banner year for golf in Western Pennsylvania.
As the game continued its rapid growth, our region became the sport’s epicenter during June, hosting the 125th U.S. Open.
But West Penn Golf’s year featured incredible moments throughout. These are the top ten local stories (plus some honorable mentions) the game offered up in 2025.
Honorable Mentions:
• Darin Kowalski beats Jon Pratkanis in a thrilling playoff for West Penn Mid-Am title.
• Local radio personality Chris Mueller wins WPGA Net Championship.
• Connor Schmidt claims third WPGA major title with West Penn Open triumph.
• The WPGA takes home the Palmer Cup for a third straight season.
• High school classmates take C.R. Miller and WPGA Girls Match Play Invitationals on same day.
10. Nathan Smith captains the U.S. to a Walker Cup victory
One of the most accomplished amateur golfers in Western Pennsylvania and United States history, Nathan Smith captained the U.S. in the Walker Cup in August.
Smith and the American group defeated the team from the United Kingdom and Ireland in the event at Cypress Point Club in Pebble Beach in August.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without the players that have come before me that I've learned so much off of, or the West Penn Golf events where I can learn,” Smith told the WPGA in advance of the Walker Cup. “To be a small part of the tradition in Western Pennsylvania is an incredible honor.”
Smith won the WPGA Amateur Championship four straight years from 2007 to 2010 and the West Penn Open in 2008. He claimed the WPGA Mid-Amateur four times, the WPGA Spring Stroke Play nine times and had several other victories as both a junior and adult amateur player in WPGA championships.
9. Launch of Team Pennsylvania
Filling a much needed void, the WPGA — in association with the USGA, the United States National Development Program, the Golf Association of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania State Golf Association, the PGA of America Tri-State Section and Philadelphia Section — announced the forming of Team Pennsylvania in February.
The team of 12 junior male and 12 junior female golfers from throughout the state will receive coaching and support through the USNDP and the affiliated associations to better their games as they approach adulthood. Selection to the team was based on a points list structure, with four spots open to selection by the team’s committee.
In November, Team Pennsylvania’s roster was unveiled. The top two male and top two female golfers hail from the WPGA’s footprint, with Carson Kittsley and Michael Quallich, as well as Madison Koshko and Alyssa Zhang, earning the top two spots.
Kittsley and Quallich, due to their positioning, received exemptions into this summer’s Sunnehanna Amateur Championship.
8. Big numbers, much attention for U.S. Open Qualifying
With the 125th U.S. Open being played at Oakmont Country Club this summer, focus and attention on the Local Qualifying for the championship was at an all-time high.
On May 13, the WPGA administered the Local Qualifying round at Quicksilver Golf Club, with a deep and talented field competing for spots in the next stage.
The WPGA saw massive engagement numbers on social media and its website before, during and after the qualifying round, with a large local and national media presence turning out during the day.
A significant amount of the focus was on the play of J.T. Miller, a native of East Palestine, Ohio who plays for the New York Rangers of the NHL.
The qualifying spots were claimed by Mark Goetz, Timothy Peters, Randy Dietz, Nick Turowski and Patrick Kelly.
7. Wild weather heavily interrupted play in 2025
The first three months of golf’s active season were wet and frustrating for golfers, course superintendents and many more.
Western Pennsylvania saw a rash of extreme storms in April, May and June that knocked out power, flooded golf courses and downed trees throughout the region.
The WPGA spoke with two local experts on golf course maintenance in September, who detailed the ‘exceptional’ weather challenges that golf courses faced in 2025.
Despite the game’s growth in popularity from 2024 to 2025, the number of rounds played (based on scores posted to the GHIN app) decreased from a year ago due to the weather challenges.
Additionally, several WPGA competitions and even the final round of the 125th U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club were interrupted by lightning and heavy rains through mid-June.
Finally, the region saw the wet weather go away in late June and July. Rounds increased greatly — surpassing monthly totals in July and August from 2024. However, a lack of rain in August, including a 13-day stretch with no precipitation at all — brought a different set of challenges to golf course staffs.
6. David Fuhrer II wins 125th West Penn Amateur with dramatic finish
The Fuhrer name was already twice etched onto the W.C Fownes Trophy, given to the winner of the WPGA Amateur Championship.
This past June, David Fuhrer II made sure that his family’s history of amateur excellence continued in the 125th playing of the West Penn Am.
Fuhrer II did so in dramatic fashion, fending off Carson Kittsley and Darin Kowalski by making a birdie putt on his 54th and final hole of the competition, securing his first WPGA major championship victory.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Fuhrer II, the George Mason sophomore, after his round. “My uncle, Frank Furher, won this a couple times. My family has always been deeply tied to golf, and it’s awesome that I can continue that legacy.”
Kittsley nearly made history of his own, as the fellow Oakmont Country Club member finished a stroke off the top spot. A win would have made the 16-year-old the youngest winner in the history of the West Penn Am.
Kowalski, who finished tied for second with Kittsley, went on to win the WPGA Mid-Amateur Championship and was named the 2025 WPGA Player of the Year.
5. Kittsley, Morgan, Quallich lead deep pack of junior golf talent
Winning a WPIAL or a PIAA state title is a difficult task. Doing both, and in consecutive years, is another story entirely.
Such was the case for Carson Kittsley and Mya Morgan this year. The duo — two of West Penn Golf’s best — each claimed their second straight WPIAL district championship in early October, doing so in commanding fashion with runaway wins over their Class 3A fields.
A couple of weeks later, the two took home more gold, winning the PIAA Class 3A individual golf championships at Penn State’s Blue and White Courses.
Morgan was named the 2025 WPGA Junior Girls Player of the Year, her second straight. A senior, she committed to play at Central Michigan and will study engineering there starting in the fall.
Kittsley, meanwhile, will follow the path of his father, Brad, committing to Penn State this fall. Just a junior in high school, Kittsley will compete for a third straight title at both the WPIAL and state level next fall.
Just days after Kittsley committed to Penn State, Michael Quallich announced his plans to continue to playing at Notre Dame, following a successful line of Western Pennsylvanians who have competed in South Bend, Indiana.
The two standout junior boys players represented the WPGA at the 61st Williamson Cup in August, with each placing in the top ten.
They also both shined at the regional, state and even national level. Quallich won the 105th WPGA Junior Championship and performed very well in several other events, as did Kittsley, who qualified for and played in the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship.
Both players competed in the PGA Junior Championship in Indiana this past summer, as well.
The trio of Morgan, Kittsley and Quallich are just the tip of a growing junior golf iceberg in Western Pennsylvania, with numerous local players also committing to colleges and performing well in state and national competitions.
4. Rise of Women’s Golf in Region
2025 was a fantastic year for women’s and junior girls’ golf in Western Pennsylvania.
The WPGA welcomed two new championships for women to its competition schedule this season with the introduction of the WPGA Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship and the creation of the WPGA Women’s Inter-Club Finals.
Both competitions were well received, with Katie Miller-Gee claiming the Women’s Mid-Amateur and the team from Sewickley Heights taking home the title in the Inter-Club Finals.
Additionally, the WPGA Women’s Amateur Championship saw massive growth in participation, with 67 players competing at Fox Chapel Golf Club, a 47-player increase from a year prior. The 2nd WPGA Women’s Triple Play, held at Grove City Country Club, was once again a crowded field with over 80 competitors.
Beyond competitions, the WPGA saw a solid rise in female membership with around 400 new female players joining the Association. Around half of those players are junior girls.
3. Neal Shipley earns his PGA TOUR card
Neal Shipley was the biggest story in Western Pennsylvania golf in 2024. And his encore in 2025 was perhaps just as impressive.
A year after playing with Tiger Woods at the Masters and finishing with Low Amateur status at that event, as well as the 124th U.S. Open, Shipley surged on the professional scene with strong play on the Korn Ferry Tour.
The Pittsburgh Central Catholic graduate finished fourth on the Korn Ferry Tour points list in 2025, securing his PGA TOUR card for the 2026 season.
Shipley won twice this year, claiming victories in The Ascendant presented by Blue and the LECOM Suncoast Classic tournaments.
He added three more top 5 finishes and had eight top 10 finishes this season, as well. In all, the 24-year-old earned $646,595 as a professional, inked several prominent endorsement deals and sits 95th in the Official World Golf Rankings.
2. Vogt, O’Brien take on Oakmont, the world’s best
Many wondered if the top local story of the 125th U.S. Open would come if Neal Shipley was able to qualify and play in front of his hometown faithful.
Unfortunately, that wish would fall just short for Shipley during the qualifying stage. But a great local story still emerged.
Seneca Valley High School graduate Matt Vogt, a dentist currently living in Indianapolis, was able to secure a spot in the U.S. Open with an 8-under score at Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla, Washington.
The USGA scheduled Vogt to hit the first ball on Thursday morning at Oakmont Country Club in June, as he did so in front of hundreds of Western Pennsylvanian’s cheering on one of their own in the biggest golf event of the summer.
While Vogt failed to make the cut, his outlook for the week stayed positive, relishing in the unexpected opportunity for a full-time dentist to compete against the world’s best.
What made Vogt’s round more meaningful was who he chose to carry his bag for the week. One of his closest friends, Kevin O’Brien, delayed the start of a new job to caddy for Vogt during the week, as the two made a memory they’ll share forever.
The WPGA spoke with the two about their unique bond that came through the game of golf and through the losses of their fathers at young ages.
Despite the tough two rounds at Oakmont, Vogt and O’Brien – who won the WPGA’s Spring Stroke Play Championship in 2024 – had a happy finish to the year, qualifying for the 2026 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship in late November in Northern California.
The duo will team up in May to play for another national championship, doing so at Desert Mountain Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
1. Western Pennsylvania welcomes the world for the 125th U.S Open
For a week in mid-June, Western Pennsylvania became the global epicenter for golf, as Oakmont Country Club hosted the 125th U.S. Open.
Oakmont set a record, hosting its 10th U.S. Open in the competition’s history and, as expected, the course showed its teeth to the best players in the game.
Only one player finished the championship under-par — champion J.J. Spaun — who did so by sinking a 65-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole Sunday evening after a lengthy weather delay that left the grounds and spectators soaked.
Beyond Spaun’s victory, there were several stories that the WPGA highlighted surrounding the U.S. Open.
Western Pennsylvania was well represented in the ‘impactful’ USGA Pathways Program, which brought young people from underserved communities and backgrounds to Oakmont to assist with the week’s operations.
Regionally, the economic impact was felt by local courses and for the region as a whole.
The WPGA teamed up with the USGA and Oakmont Country Club to invest in to the local community with a $1 million community giveback program, which assisted multiple local courses, public parks and aided young people looking to make a career in the game of golf.
Ultimately, the U.S. Open brought massive benefits to the region and its community, as well as immense attention to West Penn Golf.
For any media inquiries, please contact WPGA Director of Communications Josh Rowntree.
About the WPGA
Founded in 1899, the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association is the steward of amateur golf in the region. Started by five Member Clubs, the association now has nearly 200 Member Clubs and nearly 37,000 members. The WPGA conducts 14 individual competitions and 10 team events, and administers the WPGA Scholarship Fund and Western Pennsylvania Golf Hall of Fame.