Very strong senior class set to bid adieu to high school golf as 4 boys state tournaments on tap Monday and Tuesday
By Gary Baines – 10/3/2025
Monday and Tuesday’s boys state high school golf tournaments will truly be a statewide affair. After all, we have the Class 5A competition in Grand Junction (Bookcliff Country Club), the 4A in Longmont (The Fox Hill Club), the 3A in Eagle, between Vail and Glenwood Springs (Eagle Ranch Golf Club), and the 2A in Pueblo (Elmwood Golf Course).
The 36-hole events will also mark the high school golf finales for a strong group of seniors. In fact, going by the 2025 individual iWanamaker high school rankings in Colorado, the top six players — and 13 of the top 15 — are seniors. Those top 15 all own under-par scoring averages for the 2025 season.
Leading the way are Brayden Forte of Cherokee Trail (66.4 average for 18 holes), Landon Houska of Fossil Ridge (67.6), Dalton Sisneros of Cherokee Trail, Austin Hunt of ThunderRidge, Gregory White of Eaglecrest and Elijah Johnson of Denver East.
Also in the top 15 is the 5A defending individual champion Gavin Amella of Castle View.
Forte plans to play his college golf at Xavier, Houska at Minnesota, Sisneros at Radford, Hunt at the University of Denver, White at Radford, Johnson at Colorado Christian and Amella at the University of Colorado.
Forte, Houska, Sisneros, Hunt, Amella, White and Johnson all will tee it up at a stacked 5A tournament at Bookcliff. Also at that site will be two other top juniors in the state — both from Fairview — senior Miles Kuhl (committed to San Diego State) and sophomore Ash Edwards, son of CU head coach Roy Edwards. This year, Kuhl won the AJGA Wyndham Clark Presented by the CGA for the second straight year.
Forte, Houska, Hunt, Amella and Kuhl were all part of the inaugural Team Colorado, an elite junior golf group representing the state as part of a fledgling USGA national development program.
Forte, the 2025 CGA State Junior champion, played in the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour event at TPC Colorado this past summer after qualifying with a 64 at that course. He also qualified for the U.S. Junior Amateur and finished fifth individually at the boys Junior America’s Cup. So far this high school season, Forte has carded rounds of 60 (at Murphy Creek on Aug. 13), 64, 65, two 66s and a 67. His highest 18-hole score of the season has been a 71.
Edwards also had a memorable summer, winning the Colorado Junior PGA Championship by seven strokes and placing a team-best third individually at the Junior America’s Cup.
Meanwhile, Cheyenne Mountain junior Brayden Destefano, who has verbally committed to CU, will defend his individual state title at the 4A meet at Fox Hill. Destefano owns the seventh-best season-long stroke average in Colorado for 2025 — and the best for a 4A player.
At the 3A tournament at Eagle Ranch, Lutheran senior Nicholas Brooks is coming off a very strong summer season. The Butler-bound player won the AJGA Colorado Springs Junior and in the process he posted the third-best 54-hole total in AJGA history (22 under par). Brooks also became the first Coloradan since 2017 to advance to match play at the U.S. Junior Amateur.
As for the 2A meet, it’s being held for just the second year. Frontier Academy sophomore Isaiah Fowler finished seventh in his age group at the Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals at Augusta National in the spring.
The pairings and tee times for Monday: 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com