2026 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball — Desert Mountain Club
Half of last year’s championship side is back. The other half is gone. And the runners-up — one of whom is the reigning U.S. Mid-Amateur champion — are returning to finish the job.
The 11th U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship arrives at Desert Mountain Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, May 16-20, with 128 sides converging on Jack Nicklaus’ Sonoran Desert masterpiece for two rounds of stroke-play qualifying followed by match play to determine a champion. It is the first USGA championship contested at Desert Mountain in 27 years — since Carol Semple Thompson won the 1999 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur on the property — and the first time the men’s four-ball has been staged on a desert course since the championship’s founding in 2015.
Defending co-champion Tyler Mawhinney, 18, of Fleming Island, Florida, is back in the field with a new partner: Luke Colton, 18, of Frisco, Texas, his future Vanderbilt teammate. Mawhinney’s 2025 partner Will Hartman, who was 18 at Plainfield Country Club last May, is conspicuously absent. With one half of the defending tandem missing, the door swings open. And the most credentialed pair walking through it is the duo Mawhinney and Hartman beat 3-and-1 in last year’s final: Evan Beck of Virginia Beach — the 2024 U.S. Mid-Amateur champion — and Dan Walters of Winston-Salem.
Desert Mountain: Two Nicklaus Tracks, One Championship
Cochise (host) and Outlaw (co-host) by the numbers
Desert Mountain is home to six 18-hole layouts designed by Jack Nicklaus — plus a seventh par-3 course — making it one of the most concentrated Nicklaus portfolios anywhere in the world. Cochise, the 1988 original, will host the final two rounds of stroke play and all match play. Outlaw, opened in 2003, is the co-host for the first round of stroke play. Both will be set up at championship length, with desert washes, elevated greens, and Sonoran flora framing every shot.
| Course | Yardage | Par | Rating | Slope | Opened |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cochise (host) | 7,042 | 71 | 73.5 | 146 | 1988 |
| Outlaw (co-host, R1) | 7,090 | 72 | 74.7 | 149 | 2003 |
Cochise — Hole-by-Hole
| Hole | Yds | Par | Hole | Yds | Par |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 413 | 4 | 10 | 423 | 4 |
| 2 | 188 | 3 | 11 | 170 | 3 |
| 3 | 475 | 4 | 12 | 523 | 5 |
| 4 | 544 | 5 | 13 | 142 | 3 |
| 5 | 448 | 4 | 14 | 450 | 4 |
| 6 | 341 | 4 | 15 | 562 | 5 |
| 7 | 215 | 3 | 16 | 415 | 4 |
| 8 | 571 | 5 | 17 | 225 | 3 |
| 9 | 433 | 4 | 18 | 504 | 4 |
| OUT | 3,628 | 36 | IN | 3,414 | 35 |
| TOTAL | 7,042 yards | Par 71 | |||
Schedule of Play
| Day | Format | Course |
|---|---|---|
| Sat. May 16 | Stroke play, R1 (18 holes) | Cochise & Outlaw |
| Sun. May 17 | Stroke play, R2 (18 holes) | Cochise & Outlaw |
| Mon. May 18 | Round of 32 (match play) | Cochise |
| Tue. May 19 | Round of 16 / Quarterfinals | Cochise |
| Wed. May 20 | Semifinals / Championship Match | Cochise |
The match-play cut comes after Sunday’s second stroke-play round, with 32 sides advancing to bracket play. The championship match Wednesday is contested over 18 holes — a wrinkle that distinguishes the four-ball from the U.S. Amateur’s 36-hole final.
The Field: 16 Exempt Sides
Past champions, recent finalists, and WAGR top-400 sides claim direct entry
The 128-side field at Desert Mountain was built from 16 exempt entries plus 112 sides who advanced through 18-hole qualifiers at 52 sites between August and December 2025. The exempt list is a who’s-who of recent four-ball history — six past-champion pairs, three sides of 2025 quarterfinalists, both 2024 semifinalist tandems, and the 2025 runners-up.
| Side | Hometown | Exemption |
|---|---|---|
| Nathan Smith / Todd White | Pittsburgh, Pa. / Spartanburg, S.C. | 2015 champions |
| Benjamin Baxter / Andrew Buchanan | Dallas / Highland Park, Texas | 2016 champions |
| Chad Wilfong / Davis Womble | Charlotte / Winston-Salem, N.C. | 2022 champions; 2025 QF |
| Brian Blanchard / Sam Engel | Scottsdale / Scottsdale, Ariz. | 2024 champions (hometown) |
| Drew Kittleson / Drew Stoltz | Scottsdale / Scottsdale, Ariz. | 2023 runners-up (hometown) |
| Evan Beck / Dan Walters | Virginia Beach, Va. / Winston-Salem, N.C. | 2025 runners-up |
| Will Davenport / Mike Smith | Boynton Beach / Ponte Vedra, Fla. | 2024 semifinalists |
| Trey Diehl / Mac Scott | Orlando, Fla. / Birmingham, Ala. | 2024 semifinalists |
| Carson Looney / Hunter Powell | Bethesda / Gaithersburg, Md. | 2025 semifinalists |
| Chip Brooke / Marc Dull | Altamonte Springs / Lakeland, Fla. | 2025 quarterfinalists |
| Kush Arora / Edan Cui | Pleasanton / Atherton, Calif. | 2025 quarterfinalists |
| Zach Foushee / Robbie Ziegler | Lake Oswego / Tualatin, Ore. | 2025 quarterfinalists; ’24 medalists |
| Luke Colton / Tyler Mawhinney | Frisco, Texas / Fleming Island, Fla. | WAGR top-400 (both) |
| Jonathan Bale / Tomi Bowen | Wales / Wales | WAGR top-400 (both) |
| Andrew Bailey / Garrett Rank | Cleveland, Ohio / Canada | WAGR top-400 (both) |
| Taylor Schmidt / Ty Travis | Meridian / Eagle, Idaho | USGA special exemption |
Contenders to Watch
Mawhinney won this title last May with Will Hartman, then watched Hartman matriculate to Vanderbilt this past fall while he prepares to join the same Commodores roster in 2026. His new partner, Colton, was the No. 1 junior in the Class of 2025 and is also Vandy-bound. Both players are inside the WAGR top 400, both played for the U.S. National Junior Team, and both have the firepower to overpower Cochise’s par-5s. The question is chemistry — this is their first USGA championship as a partnership.
Beck doesn’t need an introduction in this room: he won the 2024 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Kinloch and added a runner-up at the 2025 Four-Ball when he and Walters reached the final at Plainfield before falling 3-and-1 to the teenage tandem. At 34, Beck is one of the most accomplished mid-amateurs in the country — a Walker Cup-caliber player when fully tuned. Walters, a Wake Forest alum, brings the bomber profile that pairs neatly with Beck’s precision iron play. They are the credentialed adults in a field skewing teenage.
The reigning Philadelphia Cricket Club champions (2024) live ten minutes from the host venue. Blanchard and Engel are fixtures on the Arizona competitive scene — both Mid-Am eligible, both with deep desert pedigree, and both intimately familiar with how Sonoran agronomy plays in mid-May. The hometown hospitality cuts both ways: the easiest week of travel any team in the field will have, and the heaviest weight of expectation.
★ Wildcard Storylines
Desert Mountain’s USGA Return, 27 Years On
The last time the USGA held a championship at Desert Mountain, Bill Clinton was midway through his second term. Carol Semple Thompson won the 1999 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur on the Renegade course — one of seven Nicklaus layouts on the property — and the trophy presentation that May was the last meaningful USGA moment in these foothills until this week.
Desert Mountain hasn’t been hibernating. The property hosted the Senior PGA Tour’s Tradition from 1989 through 2001 — a tournament Jack Nicklaus himself won four times — and the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2016. The Southwestern Amateur has called Desert Mountain home since 2013, and the Desert Mountain Collegiate is now a fixture on the spring college schedule. The institutional muscle memory for high-level tournament golf is deep here.
What is new: the Cochise course, which will host the bulk of championship play, has never staged a USGA event before. Outlaw, opened in 2003, is similarly unbloodied at this level. Both will be presented at full championship length, with green speeds and pin placements set by USGA officials who have spent the spring fine-tuning conditions for what is, in effect, the largest desert match-play event the USGA has run in over a decade.
A Decade of U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Champions
| Year | Champions | Venue | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Nathan Smith / Todd White | The Olympic Club (Lake) | 7&5 |
| 2016 | Benjamin Baxter / Andrew Buchanan | Winged Foot G.C. (East) | 3&2 |
| 2017 | Ben Wong / Frankie Capan | Pinehurst No. 2 | 2&1 |
| 2018 | Garrett Barber / Cole Hammer | Jupiter Hills (Hills) | 4&3 |
| 2019 | Todd Mitchell / Scott Harvey | Bandon Dunes (Old Macdonald) | 2&1 |
| 2020 | Cancelled (COVID-19) | ||
| 2021 | Kiko Coelho / Leopoldo Herrera III | Chambers Bay | 19 holes |
| 2022 | Chad Wilfong / Davis Womble | Country Club of Birmingham (West) | 19 holes |
| 2023 | Aaron Du / Sampson Zheng | Kiawah Island Club (Cassique) | 2&1 |
| 2024 | Brian Blanchard / Sam Engel | Philadelphia Cricket Club (Wissahickon) | 2 up |
| 2025 | Will Hartman / Tyler Mawhinney | Plainfield Country Club | 3&1 |
The 2025 entry total of 2,482 sides was the second-highest in championship history; the record was set in 2024 with 2,638 sides. The lowest-recorded final-round qualifying score was 126, shared between the 2016 medalists (Brandon Matthews / Patrick Ross), 2023 medalists (Aaron Du / Sampson Zheng), and 2024 medalists (Zach Foushee / Robbie Ziegler).
How Four-Ball Match Play Works (and Why It Rewards Risk)
Each side plays its own ball. The lower of the two scores on each hole counts. That structural detail changes everything: a player can swing freely on a risk-reward par-4 because his partner is in play with a safer line. A bogey by one player is irrelevant if the other makes par. The format incentivizes aggression in a way that traditional stroke play does not.
At Desert Mountain, that asymmetry has specific consequences. Cochise’s short par-4 sixth (341 yards) and the reachable par-5 12th (523) and 15th (562) become birdie opportunities sides simply cannot afford to halve. Outlaw’s short par-4 14th (338) and the gettable par-5 16th (532) play the same role. Conversely, the long par-3s — Cochise’s 17th at 225 yards, Outlaw’s 4th at 219 — are bogey traps where one side simply needs a four to halve.
Look for sides whose two players have complementary tendencies: one bomber, one positional player; one streaky putter, one steady. The teams who win this championship aren’t always the two best individual players in the bracket. They’re the two best partners.
What’s on the Line
The 2026 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball champions receive a gold medal, custody of the trophy for one year, and a 10-year exemption back into the championship. More significantly: each member of the winning side earns automatic entry into the 2026 U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pennsylvania — one of the hardest tickets in the amateur game — plus exemptions into the U.S. Junior Amateur, U.S. Mid-Amateur, and U.S. Senior Amateur, if age-eligible. Names get etched onto the 2026 USGA Champions’ plaque in the Hall of Champions at USGA headquarters in Liberty Corner, New Jersey.
Daily Reporting from Desert Mountain
This section updates daily May 16-20 with round wraps, key matchups, photo galleries, and bracket developments. Bookmark this page.
Future U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Sites
| 2027 | Erin Hills | Erin, Wis. (May 22-26) |
| 2028 | Chambers Bay | University Place, Wash. (May 20-24) |
| 2029 | Metedeconk National G.C. | Jackson, N.J. (May 19-23) |
| 2030 | The Ridgewood C.C. | Paramus, N.J. (May 18-22) |
| 2037 | Bandon Dunes Golf Resort | Bandon, Ore. (TBD) |
Desert Mountain has a way of producing scoring extremes. The thin air, the firm desert lies, the elevation change between Cochise’s tee complexes and green sites — all of it conspires to widen the gap between sides who attack correctly and sides who don’t. Expect a stroke-play medalist score in the mid-130s, a low side under 130 if the conditions stay benign, and a final match Wednesday that swings on a single par-5 birdie. AmateurGolf.com’s daily reporting begins Saturday.
