Aug 1, 2025 By Rob Burchianti 4 min read

It wasn’t long ago the future of the Fayette County Open seemed to be in jeopardy.

“Five years ago we had 32 golfers,” said Justin Goletz who currently runs the Fayette Open along with Dan Glover.

This year’s field will include a whopping 112 golfers in a three-day tournament that starts with today’s first round at Duck Hollow Golf Club.

The second round will take place Saturday at Pleasant Valley Golf Club in Connellsville and the tournament wraps up Sunday at Uniontown Country Club with a flighted finish.

Two years ago the event had 47 participants and last year that number jumped to 101.

“I think it’s pretty nice what we’ve taken it to the last couple years,” Goletz said. “This is the fifth year we’ve done flighting, which I think has helped a lot. People typically didn’t play in the other Opens because when it wasn’t flighted they didn’t feel like they had a chance.

“But now, everybody is playing for something on the last day pretty much. We go as deep as five flights and we try to keep them as small as possible so everybody feels like they have a shot on Sunday.”

Tee times for the first two rounds are the same with golfers teeing off from 8 a.m. until 12 noon, but the flighted final round at Uniontown County Club features a shotgun start at 8 a.m.

“The shotgun start we have on Sunday is because we wanted everyone to finish around the same time and then everybody gets a free meal,” Goletz said. “Everyone will be sitting around, eating together, having a few drinks and talking. It’s just a really good time. It’s nice to see something like this in Fayette County being celebrated.”

There are four free entrants in the 2025 event, as the Fayette County Junior Open continues into its second year with a tournament within the tournament between four of the top high school golfers from Fayette County.

They are Tyler Felio of Albert Gallatin, Hunter Konieczny of Connellsville, Elim Martin of Uniontown and Sevi Vecchiolla of Laurel Highlands. Connellsville’s Ethan Porreca was last year’s winner.

“We give them free admission and they play what we call the Junior Open. We put their tee times right in the middle of the field and they play for their own prize,” Goletz explained. “We will give a $200 scholarship to this year’s winner.”

One the threats again for the top overall prize is likely to be seven-time winner Jeremy Enslen, who will be attempting to claim his third consecutive Fayette County Open title. Before that, Harison Laskey reeled off four consecutive victories in the event.

“Harison and Jeremy have dominated lately, although Harison won’t be able to play this year,” Goletz said. “I think the field is wide open. Some of the juniors coming back are playing really well. I know Logan Voytish played well last year and Matt Karpeal played well. Fred Davis always plays well. He just can’t quite get over the hump. There are a lot of good players.”

Enslen defeated Davis by one shot last year.

Winners receive a golf flag noting their achievement.

“We award flags now that say Fayette County Open champion and Fayette County Open Junior champion,” said Goletz, whose goal is to keep the event popular and thriving.

“What we wanted to do is grow golf in the area and just get people together and get them excited. The fact that we had to turn people away this year because we were full says something about how it’s risen in popularity, everybody wanting to be together.

“Having the people come out, the local communities, to watch the golf is good to see. You’ll have wives and girlfriends and mothers and fathers all following groups, pulling for their favorites. It’s encouraging to see Fayette County taking part in something like this.”