The clouds that hung over The Orchards Golf Club in Washington Township on Saturday, August 22nd threatened to make the 2026 Eastern Championship a miserable afternoon. The rain never fully cooperated with its own threat, and the field went about its business under gray skies on one of the Eastern Division’s most demanding layouts — 6,510 yards from the blue tees, rated 71.8 with a slope of 137. While most of the field was simply trying to stay dry and stay alive, Mike Prieskorn and Ned Loving decided to hold their own private birdie contest on the front nine, and the scoreboard swung between them like a pendulum all the way to the turn. What happened on the back nine settled the Eastern Championship in the most decisive fashion of any division title race all season.
The front nine belonged to the two of them. Loving came out swinging with five front nine birdies — a front nine that would have turned heads at any event on the Mulligan Tour schedule. Prieskorn answered with four of his own. When they reached the turn, Loving held a one-stroke lead and looked every bit like a player who was going to add an Eastern Championship to his 2026 résumé. Then the back nine intervened. Loving faltered, the momentum that had carried him through nine holes evaporating in the face of The Orchards’ unforgiving second half. Prieskorn, meanwhile, did something far less glamorous and far more effective — he went out and played eight straight pars, added one birdie, and produced the kind of back nine that wins championships without a single moment of drama. By the time the cards were signed, Prieskorn had posted a net 68 (-4) and a six-stroke victory that was never in doubt after the turn.
Jeff Feikens and Ned Loving finished in a tie for second at net 74 (+2), each pocketing $26 — Loving’s front nine heroics earning him half the runner-up money but none of the trophy. Willi Hesse took fourth at net 76 (+4) for $12, with Jonathan Barnes and Chuck Withey sharing fifth at net 77 (+5) for $7 apiece. Mike Lee finished seventh at net 78 (+6) for $4, with Rich Dunmore taking eighth at net 79 (+7) for $2. Helen Puffenberger, Greg Fobare, and Scott Wilsey all finished outside the money in a day where the premium layout at The Orchards made net 68 look like a score from another stratosphere.
The Eastern Championship has been contested since 2010, and its champions list includes Greg Kline’s -4 wire-to-wire in 2010, Ron Hiestand’s -4 dominant win in 2012, and Joe Brandenburg’s -4 title at Greystone in 2023 — all matching Prieskorn’s 2026 score. He joins that company now. The Division Championships are complete. The Mulligan Tour now turns its full attention to the season’s final summit — the Tour Championship — where the money race, the world rankings, and the year’s last major trophy all converge on a single round. Prieskorn walks in hot. The rest of the field has been warned.