2026 Persimmon Up Recap (Sharks Retain the CUP!)

The seventh annual Persimmon Cup will be remembered as one of the most unusual weekends in Cup history.

Twenty players arrived ready for five rounds of competition, with Ryan King leading the Great White Sharks and Noah McElhiney captaining the Golden Bears. Mother Nature, however, had other plans.

For the first time in seven years of the Persimmon Cup, weather forced rounds to be cancelled. Saturday morning’s third round and Sunday’s fifth and final round were both washed away, leaving just three rounds to decide the 2026 Cup.

Through those three rounds, the Great White Sharks came out on top, thirty seven and a half to twenty nine and a quarter, winning the Cup by eight and a quarter points.

The Sharks came out firing in Round One, taking a commanding fourteen and a quarter to eight advantage over the Bears.

The Golden Bears answered with a much tighter Round Two, but the Sharks again came away with the edge, twelve to ten and a half.

After Round Three was lost to weather, the Cup resumed Saturday afternoon. Round Four delivered the closest battle of the weekend, with the Sharks edging the Bears eleven and a quarter to ten and three quarters.

Unfortunately, Sunday’s singles matches never got the opportunity to decide things on the course. Continued rain wiped out the fifth and final round, officially bringing the 2026 competition to a close.

The Sharks finished with fifty six point two percent of all points earned, compared with forty three point eight percent for the Bears.

The individual competition couldn’t have finished any tighter.

Scott Lynch of the Great White Sharks and Scott Raver of the Golden Bears each finished with seven and a half points, sharing the top spot on the 2026 leaderboard.

Even more remarkably, both were Persimmon Cup rookies. That resulted in Lynch and Raver sharing the honors as both co Most Valuable Players and co Rookies of the Year.

Behind them, Cory Roberts and Sean Roley each delivered seven points for the Sharks. Adam Schmuelling finished with six and a half. Ethan Nelson and Andy Weaver followed with five and a half points apiece, and Bryan Swords finished with five.

Perhaps the biggest story of the weekend, though, wasn’t something reflected on the scoreboard.

With conditions at Swan Lake preventing the scheduled competition from being played there, every completed round of the 2026 Persimmon Cup was played away from Swan Lake.

Making that happen required some serious adjustment on the fly, and Andy Weaver’s coordination and effort were a huge part of keeping the Cup alive and getting twenty guys onto golf courses.

And the unexpected change of scenery produced some incredible golf.

The Cup made stops at Rozella Ford, Stonehenge, and Rock Hollow, giving the group three different venues for the three rounds that were completed.

Stonehenge was the unanimous favorite of the weekend. It was an amazing golf course and quickly became one of the highlights of the trip.

The Cup also got the opportunity to take on Rock Hollow, a course that has previously been recognized among the top two hundred public golf courses in the United States, along with a memorable opening round at Rozella Ford.

What could have been a logistical nightmare instead became part of the story of the seventh annual Persimmon Cup.

Three completed rounds. Three different golf courses. Two rainouts. Twenty guys adapting on the fly.

And through all of it, the weekend never lost what makes the Persimmon Cup special.

There was great food, plenty of time on the patio, a lot of laughs, and the camaraderie that has become every bit as important to the Persimmon Cup as the golf itself.

Even when the weather refused to cooperate, the group found a way to make the most of it.

The seventh Persimmon Cup wasn’t the five round battle everyone expected.

It was wet. It was unpredictable. It required plenty of improvisation.

And somehow, that may have made it even more memorable.

But it was still the Persimmon Cup.

And when the rain finally brought the competition to an end, the Great White Sharks were once again holding the Cup.

Final score: Great White Sharks, thirty seven and a half. Golden Bears, twenty nine and a quarter.

2026 co Most Valuable Players and co Rookies of the Year: Scott Lynch of the Great White Sharks and Scott Raver of the Golden Bears, with seven and a half points each.

Seven years down.

On to year eight.