Amateur Championship

Started in the WPGA’s founding year of 1899 and played all but two years since, the WPGA Amateur Championship is one of the oldest amateur golf competitions in the country.

Winners include seven USGA champions – Eben Byers, Sewickley, (U.S. Amateur), William C. Fownes, Oakmont, (U.S. Amateur), Carl Kauffmann, Pittsburgh (U.S. Amateur Public Links), Sean Knapp, Oakmont (USGA State Team, U.S. Senior Amateur), Jim Masserio, Pittsburgh (U.S. Junior Amateur), Arnold Palmer, Latrobe (U.S. Amateur, U.S. Open, U.S. Senior Open), and Nathan Smith, Allison Park (U.S. Mid-Amateur, U.S. Amateur Four-Ball, USGA State Team). Jim Simons of Butler, who won the 1978 Memorial & 1982 Bing Crosby at Pebble Beach, is also a past champion.

With nine titles, Knapp owns the record for the most victories in the WPGA Amateur Championship, known colloquially as the ‘West Penn Am.’ Knapp has won the event in five different decades, including six consecutive triumphs from 1998-2003.

Following Knapp, the most frequent winners are William C. Fownes (8), Jack Benson (6), Eben Byers (6), and Arnold Palmer (5).

Including Knapp, four players have won the competition four consecutive years, including Arnold Palmer (1949-1952), Bob Reilly (1960-1963), and Nathan Smith (2007-2010). William C. Fownes (1909-1911), and John Birmingham (1966-1968), have claimed the WPGA Amateur Championship three straight years.

Three players have won the WPGA Amateur Championship as a junior. William Miller is the most recent, having claimed the title in 2006 at 17 years old. Miller shot a final round score of 62 at Fox Chapel Golf Club, setting the course record. Both he and Arnold Palmer won the competition at 17 years of age, with Palmer winning the first of his five titles in 1947. Fred Brand Jr. also claimed the West Penn Am as a junior in 1927.

The first WPGA Amateur Championship was contested at Pittsburgh Golf Club in 1899 and won by George A. Ormiston.

 Since 1995, the Amateur has used preliminary qualifying rounds and 54-holes at the championship site over two days.

The 3rd hole at The Kahkwa Club, host of the 2026 WPGA Amateur Championship