EXPORT — The second major championship of the 2026 WPGA season is set for Monday at Westmoreland Country Club.
The 106th WPGA Junior Championship brings together the top junior amateur players for the prestigious championship, which has been claimed by some of the top players in the region’s golf history.
A 36-hole stroke play competition, the Junior Championship has become a marquee event for junior players in Western Pennsylvania.
This will be the sixth time that the WPGA Junior Championship will be held at Westmoreland Country Club.
The last, held in 2019, was won by current PGA TOUR professional Neal Shipley. Jon Pratkanis won the Junior title at Westmoreland in 2002, with Bennett Smith claiming the crown a year prior. James Holding III won at Westmoreland in 1951 and Vincent L. Bradford won the 4th Junior Championship at Westmoreland in 1924.
“We are excited to return to Westmoreland Country Club for our second major of the season,” said Terry Teasdale, executive director of the WPGA. “The Junior Championship has a long history of jumpstarting careers in the game of some of the region’s top players.”
That list of past winners is exceptional and deep.
Two players who started their careers by winning a West Penn Junior, Sam Parks Jr. (1926) and Arnold Palmer (1947 & 1948), went on to win U.S. Open Championships.
Jim Simons, who claimed victory at the 1966 WPGA Junior, nearly won the U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club five years later at the age of 21. He led the event after 54 holes before tying for fifth to end the championship.
Frank Fuhrer III won the 1976 WPGA Junior and went on to win the prestigious 1981 Western Amateur and was a member of the 1981 Walker Cup team. Fuhrer III also won the WPGA Amateur Championship in 1978 and 1979, as well as the WPGA Open Championship in 1986.
One player has won the competition three times, as William Miller captured his third-straight title in 2005 with a victory at Hannastown Golf Club.
Play will begin Monday at 7:30 a.m. from the first and 10th tees.
In the first group off of the first tee will be three members of Team Pennsylvania, including Michael Quallich, Bailey Donahue and Carson Kittsley, who became the youngest winner of the WPGA Amateur Championship earlier this month with a victory at The Kahkwa Club.
Jack Sacriponte, another member of team Pennsylvania, will tee off from the 10th tee at 7:30 a.m.
Ty Hartman who, along with Quallich and Kittsley, was a member of the 2025 WPGA Williamson Cup team, tees off on the 10th tee at 8:10 a.m. Reigning WPIAL Class 2A champion Jonah Schollaert will tee off at 9 a.m.
For any media inquiries, please contact WPGA Director of Communications Josh Rowntree.
