Two California 18-year-olds — an Alameda kid headed to Pepperdine and a San Jose kid bound for the University of the Pacific — fired a 9-under 63 on Desert Mountain’s Outlaw course Sunday to earn medalist honors at the 2026 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, finishing one stroke shy of the championship’s 36-hole scoring record.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Kailer Stone of Alameda and Liam Eyer of San Jose backed up their Saturday 64 on Cochise with Sunday’s 63 on Outlaw to post a 36-hole total of 16-under 127 — just off the record 126 shared by four previous sides in championship history. Stone, a U.S. National Development Program Grant athlete, closed his round with three straight birdies on Outlaw’s 16th, 17th, and 18th holes, including a 9-iron from 143 yards stuffed to five feet on the 477-yard closer into a stiff wind. Eyer, playing in his first USGA championship, added birdies on Nos. 4, 6, and 8.

Two strokes back at 14-under 129, in a share of second place, are Saturday’s first-round co-leaders Drew Kittleson, 37, and Drew Stoltz, 41, of Scottsdale, and Atlanta’s Jack Larkin Jr. and Zach Healy, both 30 and Georgia alumni, who flirted with the 18-hole championship record before settling for an 8-under 63 at Cochise on Sunday. Three more sides — Davenport/Smith, Abercrombie/Emberson, and Dougherty/Gill — share T4 at 13-under 130.

The 36-hole stroke-play portion of the 11th U.S. Amateur Four-Ball is in the books. Match play begins Monday at host Cochise course, with the Round of 32 teeing off at 9 a.m. MST. An 8-for-3 playoff to determine the final match-play spots will commence at 7 a.m. off the 10th tee.

Stroke play at the 2026 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Desert Mountain Club, where Kailer Stone and Liam Eyer earned medalist honors at 16-under. PHOTO · EAKIN HOWARD / USGA

After 36 Holes: Stroke-Play Leaderboard

Top 14 sides after Round 2 · Match-play cut at 6-under 137

★ = Arizona-based side · Defending champs Colton/Mawhinney also advanced at T15 (-9 / 134) · Full results at USGA.org →

Four Stories Heading into Match Play

Match Play: What to Watch Monday

Sides advancing of note

• Defending champion Tyler Mawhinney and new partner Luke Colton finished at -9 (134), advancing T15 after a Sunday 66 on Outlaw. Mawhinney is the only player in the field who can become the first back-to-back winner in championship history.
• 2025 runners-up Evan Beck and Dan Walters bounced their R1 67 with a 65 on Outlaw Sunday — T9 at -11. Beck’s 2024 U.S. Mid-Amateur credentials cast a long shadow over the bracket.
• 2022 champions Chad Wilfong and Davis Womble shot 65 on Cochise Sunday to advance at -9, the same total as defending champ Mawhinney/Colton. Two of the field’s six past-champion sides will play match-play golf this week.
• The youngest and oldest sides in the field both made the bracket. Hong Kong 16-year-olds William Lisle and Darren Zhou advanced at -7 (136); Arizonans Bryan Hoops (57) and Jeremy Defalco (53) at -12 (131), keeping the historic senior-side run alive. No senior pair has ever reached a U.S. Amateur Four-Ball final.
• 2024 semifinalists Trey Diehl and Mac Scott advanced T12 at -10 after a 65 at Cochise Sunday. Diehl/Scott join Davenport/Smith (the other 2024 semifinalist tandem) in the bracket.
• The Arizona contingent. Of the 16 Arizonans in the field, nine advanced — seven from Scottsdale. Kittleson/Stoltz (Scottsdale), Defalco/Hoops (Tucson/Scottsdale), Massa /Massa (Cave Creek/Dallas), Blanchard/Engel (Scottsdale), and Desert Mountain members Charlie Allen/Mikey Russello (both Scottsdale) all carry the hometown flag into match play.

Notable misses

• Nathan Smith / Todd White — 2015 inaugural champions, missed by one
• Benjamin Baxter / Andrew Buchanan — 2016 champions
• Chip Brooke / Marc Dull — 2018 runners-up; Dull made history last May as the first solo player to win a four-ball match
• Carson Looney / Hunter Powell — 2025 semifinalists
• Zach Foushee / Robbie Ziegler — 2025 quarterfinalists, 2024 medalists; Foushee was a best man at a wedding Saturday
• Will Wears / Christopher Baloga — Wears is Arnold Palmer’s grandson

Pre-Tournament Favorites: 36-Hole Status

The Stakes: What Brought Everyone to the Desert

The 11th U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship marks the first USGA event contested at Desert Mountain since 1999 — when Carol Semple Thompson won the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur on the Renegade course. All match play this week will be contested at the par-71 Cochise course, the only other Desert Mountain layout to have hosted a USGA championship.

The 2026 winners receive a gold medal, a 10-year exemption back into the championship, and exemptions for each member of the winning side into the 2026 U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club — one of the hardest tickets in the amateur game — plus U.S. Junior Amateur, Mid-Amateur, and Senior Amateur exemptions if age-eligible.

Desert Mountain: Two Nicklaus Tracks, One Championship

Championship Schedule

How Four-Ball Match Play Works

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 stroke play does not — and rewards the side whose two players have complementary tendencies.

Stoltz called Saturday a “good ham-and-egg day.” Healy used the same phrase Sunday. The language fit the format. The teams who win this championship aren’t always the two best individual players in the bracket. They’re the two best partners.

A Decade of U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Champions