2026 Four-Ball Preview

Pennsylvania 4-Ball State Championship could be real fun!

Wide Open! Can’t describe it any other way. When the Pennsylvania Golf Association (PAGA) sends the first group off the tee at Moselem Springs Golf Club on Monday morning for both the men’s and women’s state four-ball championships, it should be no holds barred from there on out for the two days, June 1-2, 2026.   

 A lot of familiar names are in the field…young and ‘old’, new pairings and recent connections, individual and team success, this event has a lot to offer. Throw on top of that a very challenging layout on one of the state’s best courses and, well, it could get really good.

Teams will play 18 holes on each of the two days to decide the state four-ball champions in each division. On the men’s side, only Glenmaura National Golf Club’s duo of Eric Williams and Jim Gardas along with Evan Eichenlaub (Saucon Valley Country Club) and Thomas Young (Saucon Valley) have even held The Mayor’s Trophy before. In the women’s competition one team will lift the trophy for the first time.

Thomas Young has had the most recent success winning in 2025 with Winston Blank. Young will pair this year with former runner-up, Jake Haberstumpf (Saucon Valley). Eichenlaub had success winning back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024 with Anthony Cordaro. This season he will pair with another clubmate, Caleb Walsh, in the event attempting to take the trophy back to Saucon Valley for the fourth consecutive season. Williams and Gardas, who have enjoyed much success over the years with multiple top ten finishes, won the title in 2008, and have played in all but two of the championships since 2004.

Several other formidable men’s duos could make for one of the most competitive races in years. Kevin O’Brien and Matt Christian Matt (Cedarbrook Country Club), who tied for second in 2025. Former Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP) Joseph Patterson Cup winner Logan Paczewski and Nick Werner, who recent qualified at the first level to move on in pursuit of a spot in this year’s U.S. Open, along with brothers Eli and Cael Ropietski all from Huntsville Golf Club should be among the leaders. And another LedgeRock team of Brock Kovach and Zack Dilcher should also be in the hunt. Additionally, Roberto Nieves and R.J. Wren of LuLu Country Club will be another of the many other strong teams in the field. Kovach won the PAGA season-opening George Dressler Memorial, while Dilcher was the 2023 state Mid-Amateur champion. Nieves just won the GAP Mid-Amateur title last week at Jeffersonville Golf Club.

For the women, youth prevailed a year ago easily but some of the more ‘experienced’ teams turned in solid performances. The 2025 championship was a rout as Bryn Krosse (Regents’ Glen Country Club) and Rhianna Gooneratne (The 1912 Club) won by 15 shots! Krosse set the Country Club of York course record for women shooting a 63 on her own ball on the second day to fuel the runaway. Good news, at least for the rest of the field, that team will not return to defend its title. Third-place finishers Brooke Graham (Manada Golf Club) and Emilee Barkley (Moselem Springs Golf Club) are the highest returning finisher.

Emily Rensch (Chambersburg Country Club) and Kyla Quimby (Berkshire Country Club) finished two spots behind Graham and Barkley and along with Ali Boyle (Westmoreland Country Club) and Adalena Robb (Greensburg Country Club) should contend.

Several veteran teams with a massive amount of past success at all levels on the women’s side should make their presence known throughout the two days including the Honeybrook Golf Club pair of Barbara Millichip and Lisa Day. And a pair of teams, Noreen Mohler (Northampton Country Club and Jackie Beck (Lehigh Country Club) and Liz Haines (Merion Golf Club) and Barbara Pagana (Huntsville Golf Club) have the experience and could find a way to make it interesting.