Sun, Oct 4, 2026 · Event Recap
Doubles and Players Champions Crowned!
Jeff Matvienko and Carlos Triana survive a mountain-sized challenge from Jae Kim and Jon Schiavo to capture the 2026 Weekenders Doubles Championship. Eighteen holes weren't enough to settle the 2026 Weekenders Players Championship. Joe Kepic made sure the extra holes produced a champion.
Jeff Matvienko and Carlos Triana survive a mountain-sized challenge from Jae Kim and Jon Schiavo to capture the 2026 Weekenders Doubles Championship.
There are easier places to settle a golf championship than Berkshire Valley. Then again, nobody promised the Weekenders Doubles Championship would be easy.
Perched along the ridge of Green Pond Mountain in Oak Ridge, New Jersey, Berkshire Valley is 600 acres of spectacular views, demanding golf shots, and the occasional reminder that gravity is undefeated. The par-71 Roger Rulewich design stretches approximately 6,800 yards from the back tees, with opening holes carved into the mountainside before descending into a landscape of water hazards, bunkers, and difficult greens.
Golfers regularly praise the course's dramatic elevation changes and challenging layout. For Jeff Matvienko and Carlos Triana, it provided a fitting stage for a championship showdown.
Standing in their way were Jae Kim and Jon Schiavo, a formidable pairing with every intention of spoiling the celebration.
Four golfers. Two teams. One championship.
From the opening tee, the match carried the unmistakable tension of postseason golf. Every putt seemed a little longer. Every missed fairway carried a little more consequence. And every time one team appeared ready to seize control, the other refused to disappear.
Berkshire Valley has a remarkable ability to make even a routine golf shot feel like a negotiation with the landscape. Its elevated fairways reward precision, while the lower portions of the course introduce a different collection of hazards. The views are magnificent, although admiring them becomes considerably less enjoyable when your ball is heading toward the wrong side of a mountain.
Matvienko and Triana embraced the challenge.
Matvienko brought a steady presence, while Triana supplied the competitive energy that makes doubles golf such a compelling format. Together, they demonstrated what separates a championship partnership from two golfers who happen to share a tee time: trust, resilience, and the ability to respond when the pressure arrives.
Kim and Schiavo made certain nothing came easily.
But when the championship was finally decided, it was Jeff Matvienko and Carlos Triana standing as the 2026 Weekenders Doubles Champions.
The victory adds their names to the club's championship history and gives the partnership something considerably more permanent than another Sunday golf story.
For Kim and Schiavo, the runner-up finish marks an impressive postseason campaign. For Matvienko and Triana, it is the reward for navigating the match-play gauntlet and delivering when the title was on the line.
And Berkshire Valley?
The mountain remains undefeated in its ongoing effort to make ordinary golfers question their club selection.
Congratulations to Jeff Matvienko and Carlos Triana, your 2026 Weekenders Doubles Champions!
Eighteen holes weren't enough to settle the 2026 Weekenders Players Championship. Joe Kepic made sure the extra holes produced a champion.
Some championships are won comfortably. Others are earned through eighteen holes of relentless competition.
And then there are the ones that refuse to end.
The 2026 Weekenders Players Championship at Mercer Oaks East belonged firmly in that last category, where regulation golf simply wasn't enough and the championship required the sport's most unforgiving tiebreaker.
Sudden death.
One bad swing. One missed putt. One moment of brilliance. That is all it takes to separate a champion from everyone else.
For Joe Kepic, the moment arrived when it mattered most.
Mercer Oaks East, located in West Windsor, New Jersey, provided a formidable setting. Opened in 2003, the par-72 course stretches more than 7,100 yards from its championship tees and features a links-inspired layout with sweeping fairways, more than 80 bunkers, and undulating greens.
Unlike its tree-lined sister course to the west, Mercer Oaks East offers a more exposed, windswept challenge. Golfers have to navigate strategic bunkering, uneven putting surfaces, and the sort of trouble that can transform a promising round into a lengthy discussion about what went wrong.
It is a course that rewards commitment and punishes hesitation.
And with a major championship at stake, hesitation is expensive.
Throughout the tournament, the competition refused to produce a clear winner. The pressure of championship golf hung over every approach and every putt, with players battling both the course and the weight of the occasion.
When regulation ended, the scoreboard still couldn't separate the contenders.
The Players Championship was heading to extra holes.
There is something uniquely cruel about sudden-death golf. After spending an entire round fighting to stay alive, competitors are effectively told to start over, except now the first mistake might be their last.
The atmosphere changes. Conversations become shorter. Putts become heavier. Even the walk between shots seems to take longer.
Kepic had already endured the test of Mercer Oaks East. Now came the test of nerve.
With the championship hanging in the balance, Kepic emerged from the extra-hole showdown victorious, capturing the 2026 Weekenders Players Championship and another place in club history.
There would be no comfortable victory lap, no early celebration, and certainly no shortage of stories afterward.
This was a championship that demanded more than eighteen holes, and Kepic answered the call.
For a club with a competitive history dating to 1972, the Players Championship remains one of the season's most coveted prizes. Winning it requires skill, patience, and occasionally the willingness to play golf long after everyone else thought the day was finished.
Joe Kepic delivered all three.
The trophy now belongs to him. The story belongs to Weekenders history.
And somewhere at Mercer Oaks East, a few extra holes have become part of club legend.
Congratulations to Joe Kepic, your 2026 Weekenders Players Champion!
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