2026 Wisconsin.Golf Yearbook
This story is featured in the 2026 Wisconsin.Golf Yearbook, an annual WSGA publication featuring a detailed listing of Wisconsin golf courses as well as an in-depth review of the previous tournament season in Wisconsin and a preview of the year ahead. The magazine is distributed to WSGA members in February and March.
J.P. Hayes had just turned 21 when he held off Steve Stricker, Allen Christ and Steve Johnson by two strokes at West Bend Country Club to win the Wisconsin State Amateur Championship.
Hayes is now 60 and retired from the PGA Tour 14 years ago after playing in 418 events and winning twice. Stricker went on to win 12 times on the PGA Tour, 18 times (and counting) on PGA Tour Champions and captained the 2021 U.S. Ryder Cup team.
Four decades after Stricker’s three-putt bogey on the 70th hole opened the door for Hayes in 1986, the State Amateur finally is returning to West Bend CC, which hosted the championship just that one time and has never hosted a Wisconsin State Open.
Make no mistake, though: the private club boasts one of the finest courses and toughest tests in Wisconsin.
“There is no question,” said Randy Warobick, a 14-time club champion at West Bend CC and former Wisconsin State Golf Association president. “We don’t put weak courses in the (State Amateur) rotation.”
The front nine at West Bend was designed by the highly regarded Golden Age team of William Langford and Theodore Moreau and opened in 1930; the back nine opened in 1960, and the course has undergone a few alterations since.
Langford and Moreau, who were trained as engineers, are known for their memorable bunkering and dramatic green complexes — most notably on the Links Course at the Golf Courses of Lawsonia in Green Lake — and West Bend CC is representative of their best work.
West Bend Country Club will host the 2026 Wisconsin State Amateur Championship July 20-23.
“There are a lot more trees at West Bend than there are at Lawsonia, even though they have taken out a lot of them,” said Geoff Pirkl, director of rules and competitions for the WSGA. “The greens, especially on the front nine at West Bend, are relatively the same (as the greens at Lawsonia), but they’re two different golf courses, for sure.
“I would say that West Bend isn’t as linksy as the Links Course; it does have those features but they’re mixed in with parkland-type holes.”
West Bend CC measures just under 6,900 yards from the back tees and par is 72, though Pirkl said one or two of the par-5s could be turned into par-4s for the State Amateur. Those decisions will be made in consultation with the club.
“We’ll play it as far back as we can,” he said. “It depends on what the weather is going to be like that week. Is the course soft? Is it firm? Obviously, we tone it down the first two days just because we’ve got a lot of guys to get through the golf course (before the 36-hole cut). But we’ll be pushing it as far back as we can.”
Vince Sigl poses with the 2025 Wisconsin State Amateur Championship trophy.
WSGA photo / KRISJANIS KAUGARS
Last year, 17-year-old Vince Sigl became the youngest State Amateur champion in the stroke-play era when he beat University of Wisconsin golfer Charlie Erlandson on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff at The Lido. Sigl has committed to the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and will be a freshman this fall.
“Vince, with his age and the pressure and being at Lido and the guys who were trying to chase him down, you don’t see too many kids his age being able to hold on,” Pirkl said. “Kudos to him. He did really well.”
Players who won the State Amateur while in college in recent years include Harrison Ott (Vanderbilt, 2018), Hunter Eichhorn (Marquette, 2019), Thomas Longbella (Minnesota, 2020) and Piercen Hunt (Illinois, 2021). All have since turned professional.
But young players claiming the trophy certainly is not a hard-and-fast rule, because three of the last four winners were mid-amateurs: Tyler Obermueller (2022), Jack Schultz (2023) and Garrett Jones (2024).
Regardless of age or experience, the 156 players in the 2026 State Amateur field will have to deal with West Bend CC’s greens, which have considerable interior movement and promise to be lightning-fast for the championship. No one will win the title by holing a bunch of downhill putts.
“You’ve got to keep it under the hole,” Warobick said, as much a warning as advice. “That’s everything on that golf course. Keep it below the pin.”
“Definitely,” Pirkl agreed. “You’re going to want to have uphill putts with how fast those greens are going to be.”
Length is always an advantage, but Warobick said players who bomb it will need to be careful with shorter clubs in their hands.
“Obviously, it helps to hit it long, but if you have a sand wedge into some holes you’re going to have more spin and it’s harder to keep it in the right spot,” he said.
West Bend CC played host to the 2025 WSGA Senior Four-Ball, but the course set-up for the State Amateur will be quite a bit different.
“The plan is to get the rough up,” Pirkl said. “The guys hit the ball so far these days. It’s not the longest course in the world, so being able to play out of that thick rough is going to be important. I know the superintendent (Brian Bonlender) is going to start fertilizing it as soon as the grass starts growing.
“Brian will do a great job. He’s been looking forward to this for years now.”
Golfers who are not exempt from qualifying can play their way into the State Amateur field through one-day qualifying events. Twelve qualifiers will be held between June 19 and July 10.