ACL brings pro, high school and college championships to Myrtle Beach
Myrtle Beach hosted Mark Richards, Ryan Wiedenfeld and Chris Roybal, plus high school and college fields, in the ACL's first Signature Open of 2026.
The American Cornhole League turned John T. Rhodes Myrtle Beach Sports Center into a four-day championship hub, packing pro, high school and college events into the Myrtle Beach Signature Open from Jan. 1-4, 2026. The sports center called it the first Signature Open of the season, and the format was built to run amateurs and Pros alongside High School and College championships in the same building.
The pro side still delivered the headliners. Mark Richards, already the all-time winningest player in ACL history in just his fifth pro season, won the Myrtle Beach Signature pro singles final over Jacob Trzcienski in the season's first major championship. That put Richards back in the center of the league's biggest stage, and it showed why the pro tour remains the ACL's top-end draw even when the weekend is loaded with other divisions.
Doubles gave Myrtle Beach another marquee result. Ryan Wiedenfeld and Chris Roybal were crowned ACL Pro Doubles champions, while the field around them had real bite. Ethan Walker and David Morse both posted PPRs in the high 10s, the kind of number that usually means a team is making every bracket feel crowded. The league also framed the doubles side around the Richards-Tony Smith pairing, which made Wiedenfeld and Roybal's win land as more than just a routine title.
The weekend's biggest structural move was the way the ACL stitched the pipeline together. Its own site features ACL College and ACL High School as dedicated areas, and a Jan. 2 stream titled ACL National High School Singles and Doubles Championships & College Teams was set in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with the transcript pointing to the next college and pro stars of the future. That is the real hook here: fans could watch the sport's top tier and the next tier in the same place, without waiting for another event on another calendar.
The college bracket gave the setup regional weight as well, with Adrian College, East Carolina, Barton College, Oklahoma State, Winthrop, UTK Team 1 and Saginaw Valley all listed in the Myrtle Beach Signature Open field. The ACL also pushed its college championship onto ESPN2 in 7-9 p.m. ET windows on Thursday and Friday, giving the Myrtle Beach weekend a national runway that went well beyond the sports center floor.
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