2026 Autohaus BMW St. Louis Player of the Year Awards

For players searching for competitive amateur golf near me or the best St. Louis golf tournaments, the 2026 season is in the books — and the Amateur Players Tour is proud to announce the winners of the Autohaus BMW St. Louis Player of the Year awards. Across eleven months, more than 350 members and nearly 2,000 competitive rounds, seven division titles were decided on courses from Annbriar to Norwood Hills to Dalhousie, and several of them came down to the final stroke of the final event.

The Autohaus BMW Player of the Year race rewards exactly what the APT was built to reward: showing up, competing against players of your own ability, and getting better. Points accumulate across every event a member plays anywhere on the tour, which means a Tuesday in Western Kentucky counts the same as a Sunday at home. Each division champion receives a maximum prize package that includes a 2027 APT membership along with custom APT Player of the Year gear courtesy of SWAG. Every runner-up receives a paid 2027 membership.

The race carries the Autohaus BMW name for a reason that goes deeper than a logo on a flag. Founded in 1966 by Willi and Anita Fink, the Maplewood dealership at 3015 S. Hanley has spent nearly six decades building something increasingly rare in the automotive business — a company where the relationship matters more than the transaction. It remains family-owned and family-operated, with members of the founding family still in key management positions, and it has one of the longest-tenured sales and service staffs in the industry. Customers are not handed off down a line. They work with people who know them, who remember what they drove last time, and who are still there the next time they walk through the door. The family calls it the “Autohaus Experience,” and it has carried the dealership to its position as the largest and fastest-growing BMW center in Missouri. That philosophy is why the partnership fits. The APT is built on the same premise — that a golfer is better served competing in a division suited to their game, among people who know their name, than getting lost in a field where they never had a chance. Both organizations succeed by treating people as individuals rather than entries. Autohaus BMW powers the St. Louis Player of the Year Race, and their team has been on site all season with vehicles on display for members to see up close. We’re grateful for their support, and we’d encourage every APT member in the St. Louis area to visit them in Maplewood or online at autohausbmw.com.

In Division 1, John Todd turned the Autohaus BMW Player of the Year race into a season-long clinic in consistency. The Wright City veteran and two-time National Senior Player of the Year banked 3,422.50 points across 11 counting starts, and in ten of those eleven he walked off with a top-three finish — a run of sustained excellence that made the math a formality long before the field arrived at Annbriar. Todd won twice, capturing Annbriar in April with a 3-over 75 and taking his game on the road for a victory at Fossil Creek in the Dallas/Fort Worth chapter, a reminder that Player of the Year points travel wherever a member tees it up on the APT. He was every bit as dangerous when he didn’t win, finishing runner-up at Pevely Farms in March with a 72, again at Gateway National in June, and again at the Elevated event at Spencer T. Olin in August, where his 77 produced the single biggest points haul of his campaign. His low round of the year came at The Falls in July, a 1-under 71 that anchored a T3. Todd closed at 3,422.50 to win the division by 495 points. Caleb Schenck ran him closer than the final margin suggests, and he did it on a short runway. Schenck did not tee it up until the Summer Kickoff at Bogey Creek on May 31, then compressed a full season’s worth of golf into three months — ten starts, three victories, and runner-up honors in the standings at 2,927.50. He won back-to-back weekends in July, taking WingHaven Country Club with a 1-over 73 before firing his season-low 2-under 70 at Far Oaks, and he saved his best for last, closing out the Local Finals with a 4-over 76 and seven birdies to claim the chapter’s championship. Jared Jordan finished third at 2,326.67 in just six starts, headlined by a dominant two-round performance at the 36-hole Elevated event at Norwood Hills Country Club, where rounds of 69-75 produced a convincing victory on the fastest greens the chapter saw all year. Matt Borgmeyer took fourth at 2,283.36, with Michael Flynn fifth at 2,277.92 in one of the tightest finishes on the board — fewer than six points separated the two.

Division 2 produced the closest Player of the Year race in the chapter, and it was not settled until the final cards were signed at Annbriar. David Adams claimed the Autohaus BMW title with 3,041.57 points, edging Todd Feuerhaken by 7.93 — a margin of under eight points across a season that spanned eleven counting starts and ten months. Adams got there by peaking exactly when it mattered. The Fenton, MO player won three times in 2026, breaking through at Annbriar in April with a 79 before returning to the winner’s circle at Gateway National in June with a 3-over 74, then closing the season with a 2-over 74 at the Local Finals — the low round of the entire championship, built on fifteen pars and nothing worse than a bogey. He was a fixture near the top all year besides, finishing runner-up at Persimmon Woods with a 76, tying for second at The Falls with another 74, and placing fifth at APT Homecoming, the 36-hole major at Annbriar. The finals win was worth 819.38 points, more than a quarter of his season total, and he needed every bit of it. Feuerhaken’s campaign deserves every bit as much credit, and he led this race for the better part of the year. The Cottleville, MO player won four times in 2026 — Pevely Farms in November with a 1-over 73, the Myrtle Beach Holiday Classic with rounds of 74-80—154, APT Homecoming with a 72-82—154 that made him a national champion on his home course, and the Elevated event at Spencer T. Olin in August, where his 2-over 74 was the low round of a 121-player field. He added runner-up honors at the APT Independence Open and top-three finishes at Stonewolf, Birch Creek and Bogey Creek. He arrived at Annbriar with the title in his hands and posted a 7-over 79, a fine round on a day when only one player in the division broke 77 — it landed him in a four-way tie for fifth. A three-way tie, or solo sixth, would have been enough. Golf rarely comes down to that fine a point, and Feuerhaken’s season stands on its own regardless of where the decimals fell. Behind them, defending 2025 National Player of the Year Michael Lingenfelter finished third at 2,707.59 on the strength of the most ambitious schedule anyone in the chapter attempted. The Decatur, IL player defended his crown by taking his game everywhere — Kiawah Island, Cloudland, Myrtle Beach, Huron Creek, French Lick — and won four times along the way, capturing the Fall Kickoff at Far Oaks with a 1-over 73, the APT Cloudland Challenge, The Battle on Cumberland in East Tennessee, and Huron Creek Country Club in Fort Wayne. Billy Davis took fourth at 2,507.48, with Taylor Young fifth at 2,268.18.

Division 3 delivered a genuine photo finish, and it was decided by everything except the final round. Gerald Harsley captured the Autohaus BMW Player of the Year title with 1,799.82 points, holding off Mike Paubel by 57.06 in a race that stayed alive until the very end — the two of them arrived at Annbriar separated by less than that, then played the Local Finals to a dead heat, each carding an 85 to share 11th and each banking exactly 139.50 points. Whatever was going to separate them had already happened. Harsley’s 2026 was the payoff for a steady, patient climb. After working his way up from Division 4 and capping a strong 2025 rookie campaign with runner-up honors at the season finale, the St. Louis native broke through at the top of his new division and never looked back. He won three times, and he did it in three different chapters — the LV-Summerlin Championship in November, the DFW event at Champions Circle Golf Club in December, and his first Division 3 victory on home soil at Annbriar in April, where an 84 led a deep field wire to wire. He backed those up with a season’s worth of near-misses that kept the points flowing: runner-up at the Season Kickoff at Stonewolf, runner-up again at the Elevated event at Spencer T. Olin in August, second at the Country Club Monday at Panther Creek, and third-place finishes at Birch Creek, Dalhousie and the 36-hole APT Independence Open, where an 84-78—162 produced his biggest single haul of the year. Paubel’s runner-up campaign was a study in showing up and delivering wherever the tour took him. The Lake St. Louis player won four times in 2026 and collected those trophies across four different chapters — Paxton Park in Western Kentucky in April, the Annbriar Homecoming Folds of Honor Friday event in June with an 80, Gateway National Golf Links in June where his 81 earned a share of medalist honors, and the Pine Lakes Classic in Central Illinois in August with a 76, his low round of the season. He added a runner-up at the Country Club Sunday at CCD, a third at the KC Elevated event at Mozingo Lake, a third at The Falls with a 78, and a fourth at WingHaven. Dustin Hunter finished third at 1,706.10, less than 37 points off runner-up honors, and he won four times along the way — the Fall Kickoff at Far Oaks with a 78 that included an eagle on the opening hole, the Pevely Farms event in March with another 78, and both winter stops in Florida, the APT January Kickoff at Innisbrook Resort and the Winter Shootout at Reunion Resort. Scott Sahli took fourth at 1,559.52 in a season that earns him his own headline later in these standings, and Rick Johnson rounded out the top five at 1,453.03.

Division 4 was the tightest race on the board from top to bottom, and the decimals told the story. Ryan Troll captured the Autohaus BMW Player of the Year title with 717.21 points, but the margin behind him was almost nothing — Mike Scalera finished second at 681.62 and Justin Levine third at 681.05, a gap of fifty-seven hundredths of a point. Seven players finished within 121 points of the title. Troll won this one on volume and reliability rather than a signature week. The O’Fallon, MO player teed it up eleven counting times and finished in the top five in seven of them, breaking through for the victory at the Season Kickoff at Stonewolf in March before stacking podium after podium — third at Crescent Farms, third at the 54-hole APT Players Championship, fourth at The Falls, and matching T3 finishes at WingHaven and the Elevated event at Spencer T. Olin. He saved his best golf for the last day of the season, firing an 81 at the Local Finals for solo third and the biggest points haul of his year, then adding runner-up honors in the Mid-Am Net competition on the same card. It was the closing statement the standings demanded. Scalera’s runner-up campaign was built on the most productive stretch anyone in the division put together. The St. Peters player won three times, opening the season with a victory at the Fall Kickoff at Far Oaks in October and then going back-to-back in July, taking The Falls with a 76 — his low round of the year and one of the best scores posted in Division 4 all season — before backing it up the very next day at WingHaven Country Club with an 82. He added runner-up finishes at Pevely Farms and Persimmon Woods, a third at Pevely in March, and a third at the General’s Retreat in Nashville. Scalera also closed the year as the Golf with Jay Delsing Senior Net series champion and the Division 4 series runner-up. Levine’s third-place finish was the product of a spectacular finishing kick. The Wentzville player collected a runner-up at the Blue Top Ridge Elevated event in Iowa, a third at Stonewolf, a T3 at Caledonia in Myrtle Beach, and a fourth at the APT Double Down at French Lick, then arrived at Annbriar and won the whole thing — a 7-over 79 that survived a closing 7 at the par-5 18th, paired with a net 8-under 64 to take the Mid-Am Net title on the same day. That performance was worth more than a third of his season total and nearly vaulted him into second. Dave Draucker finished fourth at 663.35 with two victories of his own, winning the Omni Homestead Warm-Up in October with a 79 and the Elevated event at Spencer T. Olin in August with an 80. Roger Eberlein rounded out the top five at 609.62.

Division 5 produced the most dominant campaign in the chapter, and a race in which the top two players finished the season in a different division than they started it. Roger Eberlein claimed the Autohaus BMW Player of the Year title with 544.00 points, holding off Mark Smith by 82.75 — and both men earned promotions on the strength of what they did. Eberlein’s year was relentless. The Valley Park, MO player won nine times in 2026, and the run from spring into summer was as good a stretch as anyone in the chapter put together at any level. He opened with a victory at the Season Kickoff at Stonewolf in March, added Annbriar in April with a 93, then took Crescent Farms in May in a playoff on the second extra hole. From there he simply would not lose: a win at Pilgrims Run in Michigan in June, the Annbriar Homecoming Folds of Honor Friday event, the Bogey Creek reschedule with an 85, Persimmon Woods, The Falls with an 86, and Far Oaks with another 86 to close out his Division 5 season. He was runner-up five more times, including a second-place finish at the 36-hole APT Homecoming major at Annbriar and another at the Elevated event at Norwood Hills. The performance earned him a mid-season promotion, and he finished fifth in the Division 4 standings on top of it. Eberlein also closed the year as the Golf with Jay Delsing Division 5 series champion. Smith’s runner-up campaign was every bit as decorated and came in even fewer starts. The Johnston City, IL player won eight times before his promotion in June, sweeping through the Western Kentucky chapter with victories at the Kentucky Dam Golf Championship, Drake Creek, Paxton Park with an 85, and the Mineral Mounds Elevated event, while collecting St. Louis wins at Birch Creek with an 86 and the 36-hole Elevated event at Norwood Hills with rounds of 89-91—180. The crown jewel came in June at APT Homecoming, where an 86-90—176 made him a champion in a 160-player major field on his home course, and he followed it two days later with a win at Gateway National — his last round in Division 5. He added runner-up finishes at Stonewolf, the Elevated Shootout at The Den in Central Illinois, Boots Randolph and the Annbriar Homecoming Folds of Honor event, then finished seventh in Division 4 after moving up. With those two moving on, Wayman Declue carried the division home. The Dupo, IL player finished third at 449.83 and saved the biggest round of his season for the last day, capturing the Local Finals at Annbriar with a 19-over 91 — his third victory of the year, following wins at The Shoals Elevated event in Birmingham with rounds of 91-101—192 and the Country Club Sunday at CCD in Central Illinois with a 92. He was runner-up three more times, at Persimmon Woods, the Fyre Lake Elevated event in Iowa, and Dalhousie. Dane Kearns finished fourth at 395.00, with Esther Flora fifth at 343.75 after a consistent season that saw her contend in Division 5 week after week.

The Mid-Am Net Player of the Year race went down to the final round of the final event, and Justin Levine won it exactly when he had to. Levine claimed the Autohaus BMW title with 440.91 points, edging Ryan Troll by 14.83 — a margin he did not hold until his last putt of the season dropped at Annbriar. Levine’s net 8-under 64 at the Local Finals was the low net round posted in the chapter all year, a four-shot victory that delivered 126.25 points and swung the standings on the spot. It capped a season that had been building toward exactly that. He broke through at the APT Double Down at French Lick in August, the last stroke-play major of the season, with rounds of 72-67—139 to win outright, and added a runner-up at Caledonia in Myrtle Beach with a net 68 the following week. Closer to home he was a constant presence at the top, taking third at WingHaven with a net 70, fourth at The Falls with another 70, T3 at Stonewolf, T3 at the Blue Top Ridge Elevated event in Iowa, and T4 at Birch Creek. Levine also captured the Division 4 gross title at the Local Finals on the same card — a double-dip that turned the last day of the season into the best day of his year. Troll’s runner-up finish came after leading the race for much of the summer, and his season was every bit as accomplished. The O’Fallon, MO player won the 54-hole APT Players Championship in May with rounds of 76-72-73—221, then went back-to-back in July, taking The Falls with a net 5-under 67 — his low net round of the year — and sharing medalist honors at WingHaven the very next day with a net 69. He added a runner-up at the Elevated event at Spencer T. Olin with a net 71, a T3 at Stonewolf, and a T3 at the Kiawah Island Folds of Honor Friday event. Troll closed the season the way he played all year, posting a net 68 at the Local Finals for solo second — and finished the day as the Division 4 Autohaus BMW Player of the Year. Dustin Hunter finished third at 357.00 with four victories, opening the season with back-to-back wins at the Fall Kickoff at Far Oaks with a net 68 and Pevely Farms with a net even-par 72, then sweeping the Florida winter swing with a share of medalist honors at the APT January Kickoff at Innisbrook Resort and adding another at Pevely Farms in March with a net 68. Scott Sahli took fourth at 340.00 in just eight starts, with Matt Borgmeyer fifth at 292.63.

The Senior Net Player of the Year race was the deepest contest on the board, drawing entries from every gross division on the schedule, and Rick Johnson survived it with 536.07 points to take the Autohaus BMW title by 16.07 over defending 2025 National Player of the Year Michael Lingenfelter. The Sullivan, IL player got there by casting the widest net in the chapter — starts across nine different chapters and every major on the calendar, from Kiawah Island to Cloudland to Innisbrook to French Lick. Johnson won three times in 2026, and each one came in a different chapter. He opened with a victory at the Fall Kickoff at Lincoln Elks in Central Illinois with a net 69, shared medalist honors at the APT Cloudland Challenge in March with rounds of 79-70—149, and delivered his signature performance in April at the 36-hole Elevated event at Norwood Hills Country Club, where a net 65-71—136 won outright and produced 128.20 points, the biggest single haul of any senior in the chapter this season. He added a runner-up at the APT Summer Stableford Shootout, another at the Country Club Sunday at CCD with a net 68, and a share of the title at the Country Club Monday at Mattoon in July. Johnson also finished fifth in the Division 3 gross standings. Lingenfelter’s runner-up finish continues one of the most remarkable stretches of golf in APT history. The Decatur, IL player defended his National Player of the Year crown by playing an almost unthinkable schedule and winning on it, capturing five titles in 2026 — the Fall Kickoff at Far Oaks with a net 71, The Conflict at Kiawah with rounds of 69-82—151, the Clash at Kissimmee Bay with a net 72, the APT Cloudland Challenge with a net 76-73—149, and The Battle on Cumberland in East Tennessee with a net 72-70—142. He added a third at Persimmon Woods with a net 69, a third at Huron Creek, and a fourth at St. Clair Country Club with another net 70. Lingenfelter finished third in Division 2 as well. Mark Smith finished third at 484.40, a remarkable result for a player who spent the first half of the season in Division 5. Smith won five times on the senior side, taking Paxton Park in Western Kentucky with a net 64 — the low net round posted by any senior in the chapter all year — along with Drake Creek with a net 71, Mineral Mounds with a net 77, Boots Randolph with a net 74, and Silo Country Club in July with a net 75. He added runner-up finishes at the Season Kickoff at Stonewolf, Birch Creek with a net 67, and Gateway National with a net 68. Roger Eberlein took fourth at 451.53, with David Adams fifth at 448.03 after a season that also produced the Division 2 Player of the Year title.

New for 2026, the APT St. Louis chapter introduced The Players Award, given to the member who best embodies what it means to belong to this tour — camaraderie, performance, sportsmanship, and the character of a true APT champion. It is not decided by a points table, and it is the award we are proudest to hand out. The inaugural winner is Mike Paubel. A firefighter by trade, Paubel brings the same instinct to a golf course that he brings to work — if somebody needs help, he is already moving. Over the course of the 2026 season he became the member other members look for: the first to introduce himself to a new player standing alone on the range, the first to walk a struggling competitor through a rules question, the first to lend a word of encouragement to someone having a hard day. He does it without being asked and without wanting credit for it, which is precisely why the chapter wanted to give him some. He backed it up between the ropes, too. Paubel finished runner-up in the Division 3 Player of the Year race, won four times across four different chapters, and played a schedule that took him from Indianapolis to Memphis to Western Kentucky to Phoenix to Birmingham to Kansas City, making friends at every stop. Performance, sportsmanship, and community. Mike Paubel is what being an APT member is all about, and there was no better choice to put his name on this award first.

Every so often a rookie season follows a script too good to be true. Scott Sahli’s did, and it earns him 2026 Rookie of the Year honors. The Salem, MO player arrived in Division 4, won a major, earned a promotion on merit, then won again at the higher level — and closed the year holding the trophy at the chapter’s championship. Sahli started slowly, as most first-year players do, opening with a T4 at the Fall Kickoff at Far Oaks and taking a few months to find his footing. The breakthrough came in April at Annbriar, where an 87 delivered his first career APT victory and a one-shot win. From there the season accelerated. In June he traveled to the Annbriar Homecoming Folds of Honor Friday event and won it with a 79, then backed it up the very next day at APT Homecoming — the 36-hole major with a field of 160 players from across the country — posting 81-81—162 to win outright on the biggest stage the chapter hosts all year. That performance earned him a promotion, and his first start in Division 3 came at Gateway National on June 15th. Rookies often struggle after a move up. Sahli did the opposite, improving by better than two shots per round while facing better competition. He closed with a run that would have been impressive from anyone: a runner-up at St. Clair Country Club in August with an 80, another runner-up at the Elevated event at Spencer T. Olin with an 82, and then the Local Finals at Annbriar, where he turned in 42 and came home in 1-over 37 — birdieing the par-5 14th and closing with four straight pars — for a 7-over 79 and a two-shot victory in his new division. He finished fourth in the Division 3 Player of the Year standings and fourth in Mid-Am Net in only eight starts there. A major championship, victories in two divisions, and a chapter championship on the final day of his rookie year. Congratulations, Scott.

No player in the St. Louis chapter changed more over the course of a season than Mark Smith, the 2026 Most Improved Player. The Johnston City, IL player opened the campaign in Division 5 and closed it in Division 4, improving by better than three shots per round after the promotion while playing against a stronger field. His scoring floor moved with it — his best round as a Division 5 player was an 85, matched twice; as a Division 4 player he twice posted 83, at the Country Club Sunday at CCD and again the following day at St. Clair Country Club. The wins came in a torrent before the move, eight of them in Division 5, including a four-victory run through the Western Kentucky chapter and the 36-hole Elevated event at Norwood Hills. The one that earned the promotion came in June at APT Homecoming, the 36-hole major at Annbriar, where an 86-90—176 made him a champion in a 160-player field. Two days later he won at Gateway National with an 85 — his final round as a Division 5 player. What makes the season genuinely impressive is what happened next. Plenty of players earn a promotion and disappear. Smith won again in his new division, taking Silo Country Club in Western Kentucky in July with an 88, and kept right on contending — third at WingHaven, third at CCD, fourth at the Country Club Monday at Mattoon, fifth at St. Clair. He finished second in the Division 5 Player of the Year standings despite playing only half a season there, seventh in Division 4 despite arriving in June, and third in the Senior Net race. He also closed the season as the Golf with Jay Delsing Senior Net series third-place finisher. Three sets of standings, three top-seven finishes, two divisions, nine victories. That is what improvement looks like.

Congratulations to every champion, every runner-up, and every member who competed in the St. Louis chapter in 2026. Thank you to Autohaus BMW, Golf with Jay Delsing, Simply Senior Solutions, and The Loading Dock for supporting this tour all season long. Attention now turns to the North American Championship, where the chapter will be well represented in the National Player of the Year races — Todd Feuerhaken sits 4th in Division 2 with Michael Lingenfelter 7th, while Division 3 sends three players inside the national top 20 in Gerald Harsley at 8th, Mike Paubel at 10th and Scott Sahli at 18th. The 2026 Fall Season loads soon, kicking off October 11th at Annbriar Golf Course and continuing October 25th at Far Oaks Golf Club. Registration opens this week — we’ll see you out there.