Registration is open for the 2026 Farmers National Bank Greatest Golfer playing Aug. 7-9 — the 17th year of 54-hole championship golf for amateurs in 13 divisions.
Over the history of Greatest, 2,000+ golfers have competed in more than 10,000 rounds of tournament golf at the best golf courses in the Youngstown area.
The early bird rate is the same as last year — $189 per player. That covers 2 days of golf, cart, range, lunch and gifts. Rates go up June 22. Click here to find the registration page.
Our 17th summer comes with significant changes as we work to improve The Greatest Golfer.
In short: We’re capping the field. We’re all at Mill Creek on Friday with more prizes at play. We’re speeding up play at the Sunday Championship.
Here’s the what and the why:
• It is now a limited-field event — Greatest is now 300 golfers only. We have averaged 330-350 players the last few years. But it stretched our team and our community. We want to pull the event back to the special community it started out as with 300 golfers starting together at Mill Creek Golf Course — the venerable Donald Ross 36-hole track.
• Friday, we’re all at Mill Creek. As we grew the last few years, we added a second course on Friday to grow to 350 players. The feedback from those golfers each year is they missed the energy and community that is Mill Creek Day 1.
• We are making Friday more special with more prizes and more offerings for all the players. Being in one place allows us to make it more special for all players.
• The Sunday championships at The Lake Club get tougher. We built the Sunday finals to share our Lake Club home with as many Greatest Golfers and their supporters as possible. As Greatest has grown, Sunday has become more popular with spectators and caddies and performances. It’s extended Sunday to 5+ hour rounds. We need to reign it in to max the magic. We will now advance 84 players to Sunday — just under one-third of the overall field. On average, it will mean 25% of each division — slightly smaller than years past. It’s just as awesome to “Make the Lake.” Players will just have to work a little harder to make the cut.
• Blessed with new investors. Keeping Greatest a vibrant community vehicle for ages 12 to 80 has appealed to Valley leaders. They like your energy and ours. We have been blessed since our start with tremendous backers like The Lake Club, Farmers National Bank, Miller Lite, HBK, Phantom Fireworks, Joe Dickey Electric, Morgan Stanley, #1 Cochran and many more,
This year, we’re giddy to add Banner Supply — celebrating 100 years in Youngstown, Eastwood Mall, Mahoning Valley Scrappers, Window World, Clewell’s Landing, J&M Decor, Bury Financial Group, Mark’s Pro Painting, The Brilex Group and Fairway Ford.
The Valley golf community — players, courses and corporate sponsors — have made Greatest an amateur golf phenomenon in the MIdwest.
No golf event is as big and broad.
A golfer wondered a few years ago: Does a bigger Greatest mean a better Greatest? Our team wants to put on a special event to match the special affinity the community has for Greatest.
Thanks for playing and partnering with us in this mission.