The 2026 Par 54 Classic at Strategic Fox Golf Course in Plymouth handed out its trophy on a Friday evening in early June, and Helen Puffenberger was right there to collect it — the same way she collected it in 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025. Five Par 54 Classic titles. Four of the last four. A par 3 course that has become, for all practical purposes, her personal property. The defending champion is the champion again, and the only real question on the leaderboard by the time she closed with a back nine gross of 29 was whether anyone in the field was close enough to matter. Tyler Floyd and Corey McCue each finished at net 56 to share second. Puffenberger crossed the line at net 55. Nobody caught her. Nobody got particularly close.
That back nine is worth dwelling on. A gross 29 on an all-par-3 layout means one-putts, chip-ins, and the kind of short-game precision that defines the best Par 54 Classic performances in this event’s 23-year history. She opened with a front nine gross of 32, which was competitive but not dominant. Then the back nine happened, and the score went from close to comfortable. Net 55 (+1) for the win, and a fifth champion’s entry next to her name on a list that includes Jeff Klipa (three times), Barb Hoelzle (twice), and David Martin (twice). Nobody has come close to matching Puffenberger’s run at Strategic Fox. At this point, winning this event is what she does.
Floyd’s gross 59 (29 front, 30 back) is the round that almost was. He played the front nine at exactly the same pace as Puffenberger’s back nine — a 29 that had him right in the conversation — before settling for a 30 on the back and a share of second. For a player of Floyd’s caliber to shoot 59 on a par 54 layout and still finish second tells you everything about the standard Puffenberger set. McCue came at it from the other direction — 31 front, 28 back — posting the best back nine gross in the men’s field and making his charge just a touch too late. Both Floyd and McCue share second at net 56 and split $11.
Greg Kline and Scott Wilsey tied for fourth at net 58, two strokes off the lead. Kline’s gross 63 gave him five net strokes applied — half his MTHI in the Par 54’s unique handicap format — and a fourth-place check to add to a 2026 season that has now included crossing the $3,000 career earnings milestone. Chris Dunmore, Tom W. Litzler, and Chuck Withey all shared sixth at net 59, with Withey’s 30 on the front nine representing one of the better opening halves in the field. Rich Dunmore, Mike Prieskorn, Rod Theunissen, and Jamie Wilson all finished in a four-way tie at ninth — four $0.75 checks split so many ways that the real prize was a Friday afternoon of competitive golf at Strategic Fox.
The within-group closest-to-pin competition on hole 10 added a five-dollar side prize to each group’s afternoon, giving every player one more reason to stripe a 6-iron at the flag on a Friday in June.
Helen Puffenberger walked off Strategic Fox with her fifth Par 54 Classic title, her third trophy of the 2026 season, and the day before the Harbour Pointe Open tee sheet called her name. She’s having a season. Strategic Fox keeps confirming it.