Colin Prater red-hot at Denver CC in winning his second CGA Match Play and his fifth CGA open-age major championship; this title is his first since turning 30
By Gary Baines – 6/20/2025
DENVER — Gradually but convincingly, the high school science teacher from Colorado Springs is driving home this lesson:
Colin Prater is in the midst of assembling one of the best records ever in Colorado state amateur golf championships.
On Friday, the three-time CGA Les Fowler Player of the Year won the 125th CGA Match Play at Denver Country Club, defeating Jordan Jennings of Durango/Montrose 9 and 8 in the scheduled 36-hole championship match.
It marked Prater’s second CGA Match Play title and fifth men’s CGA open-age major championship overall as he’s also won the CGA Amateur in 2016, ’20 and ’24. (And, for good measure, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs grad qualified for and competed in the 2024 U.S. Open.)
Records for the CGA Amateur in the early years aren’t complete, but based on what is known, only two players have won more men’s open-age CGA majors than Prater — Larry Bromfield (eight titles, all in the Match Play from 1912-28) and Claude Wright (six titles, two in the Match Play and four in the Amateur in the 1940s and ’50s).
Besides that, the only golfer with five or more CGA men’s open-age major titles is Jim English Sr. (joining Prater with five — three Amateurs and two Match Plays, all from 1956-61).And on Prater’s end, he also has two CGA Mid-Amateur championships to his credit.
“Maybe I’m a little bit delusional in thinking I want to be one of the best ams in the state ever,” Prater said. “So to continue to be able to add to my resumé is great.”
Prater previously captured the CGA Match Play title in 2020.
Besides that,Prater on Friday joined Nick Nosewicz (winner in 2015 and ’23) as 30-somethings who have captured the CGA Match Play in the last 30 years. Prater is 30.
And one more thing: Of the four most lopsided CGA Match Play finals since 1990, Prater has been the winner of two of them (9 and 8 this year and 8 and 7 over Ross Macdonald in 2020).
How good was Prater in Friday’s final — particularly the first 18 of it? He shot an 8-under-par 63 at DCC in the morning. Jennings, the 2020 4A boys state high school champion who now plays at Fort Lewis, was even par for those 18 holes and found himself 7 down at the intermission.
“It was challenging,” Jennings said. “It started off right from the get-go. He was 4 under through five and I was even through five, and I was 4 down. I was sitting there like, ‘Jeez’.
“But it was pretty cool to have a front-row seat to watch that. That was impressive. Colin is a great player — not only a great player but a great guy too. I got to learn a lot. It was awesome.”
Actually, Prater didn’t make a bogey or lose a hole on Friday until the 22nd hole of the final, which he three-putted. He struggled on the 25th hole of the day — the par-3 seventh, where he would have made a bogey at best after blading a bunker shot over the green. But when he birdied the 28th hole to close out the match, he still was 1 under for the day’s second round and 9 under for the day.
Prater played his first 46 holes at Denver Country Club in 22 under par this week.
That’s pretty stout, coming on the heels of him going 7 under par for the 12 holes of his quarterfinal and 7 under for the 16 holes of his semifinal on Thursday.
Not bad for a guy who hadn’t seen the DCC course before Thursday morning.
“It was stellar golf,” he said. “The first 46 holes I played out here, to play that in 22 under par, that’s pretty incredible. It’s a beautiful place with immaculate greens, little wind, hitting a lot of wedges in …
“I think the golf course set up very well for me because it set up to a strength of mine, which is I can control the distance I hit it pretty well. Then it’s just controlling spin. If you can control distance well and control spin and you put it in the right place, you’re going to make a lot of birdies. I did a really good job of that the first 46 holes I played (at DCC).
“(This course) is very Broadmoor-esque, which is nice,” added Prater, who honed his game at The Broadmoor but now calls Cherokee Ridge his home course.
Prater wasn’t at his best earlier in the championship as CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora hosted pod play and the round of 16 earlier in the week. Indeed, he lost 3 and 2 to budding teenage standout Ash Edwards of Boulder in pod play on Tuesday before changing putters and going from playing white to yellow balls the rest of the way.
At the end of the day, the mid-amateur proved too much this week for many of the top college players — and younger — in the state.
“Shoot, they’re good,” Prater said of the younger set. “I like to think I’m one of the best players in the state, so it’s nice to be able to compete. I definitely didn’t have my ‘A’ game the first couple of days, but I played really good golf yesterday and I played a really good first 18 today.”
Jordan Jennings found himself 7 down after 18 holes despite standing at even par at that point.
And he did it all while traveling back and forth to Colorado Springs each day (round trip of over two hours) and enduring seven matches, featuring eight rounds over five days. And though a friend caddied for him on Wednesday afternoon and on Thursday, Prater used a push cart on Friday as temperatures reached the high 90s in the early afternoon.
“Every (championship) I win is getting increasingly more difficult,” he said. “I don’t hit it as far. I’m not as limber. The longer (matches) go, the more the body wants to break down, the more Advil you have to take. I was driving home last night and I was tired. And waking up this morning, I was still tired. The rejuvenation … I’m not 20 anymore.”
Still, Prater faces a packed tournament schedule this summer — though he won’t defend his CGA Amateur title as it conflicts with the Western Amateur. He plans to play many of the Elite Amateur Series events, plus hopefully the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Mid-Amateur.
Jennings encountered some tree trouble on the next-to-last hole of the match on Friday.
Meanwhile, though Jennings ran into a buzzsaw in Friday’s final, finishing runner-up was a confidence boost for the 22-year-old, who also finished second in the 2021 Colorado Junior Match Play and placed third in the 2025 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championship.
“If you had told me at the beginning of the week that I’d be playing in the championship match, I would have probably looked at you a little funny,” he said. “Obviously I’m disappointed I didn’t win, but at the end of the day, it’s awesome. I’m so happy to be here. It was a great experience and it was fun.”
This week marked the first time since 1960 that Denver Country Club has hosted the CGA Match Play, the association’s oldest championship.
Amy Lee, mother of the late Michael Lee, who won the 2011 CGA Match Play, presented the Lee medal to Prater.
After the CGA Match Play final, Prater was presented not only the championship trophy, but a medal in honor of 2011 champion Michael Lee, who passed away in late 2020 at age 28 after battling Covid-19. John and Amy Lee, Michael’s parents, watched part of Friday’s final and attended the trophy ceremony, with Amy placing the medal around Prater’s neck. The Lee medal will be awarded to every CGA Match Play champion from 2021-30.
“We owe a lot to the Colorado Golf Association in honoring Mike,” John Lee said. “It means the world to us for sure, so thank you very much.”
Michael Lee, a graduate of Greeley Central High School, played his college golf at the Colorado School of Mines, where he twice was named the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Player of the Year. He earned NCAA Division II honorable-mention All-American status in 2013 and was inducted into the Colorado School of Mines’ athletics Oredigger Hall of Fame in 2022. That same year, the Mines’ indoor golf center was dedicated to the memory of Lee and renamed in his honor.
John and Amy Lee created the Michael Ray Lee Foundation in their son’s honor, and have donated a significant amount of funds to various causes — mostly golf-related — in recent years. That includes helping to fund the Colorado Junior America’s Cup team, a squad on which Lee competed.
Just recently, the foundation’s annual fundraising tournament in Greeley drew a record 270 players. And later this summer, a developmental SNAG course (SNAG stands for Starting New At Golf) named in Michael Lee’s honor will open at Boomerang Golf Links in Greeley. The course will be called “The Mike Lee 9 at Boomerang.”
“It’s a testament to goodness” what the Lees have done for good causes in the wake of their son’s death, CGA executive director Ed Mate said on Friday.
The Michael Lee plaque and medal.
CGA MATCH PLAY RESULTS
Thursday’s Quarterfinals
Jordan Jennings, Montrose, def. Grant Samuelson, Fort Collins, 21 holes
Tyler Tyson, Arvada, def. Traejan Andrews, Greeley, 2 up
Colin Prater, Colorado Springs, def. Anthony Syrko, Lakewood, 7 and 6
Will Kates, Centennial, def. Pat Grady, Westminster, 5 and 4
Thursday’s Semifinals
Jordan Jennings, Montrose, def. Tyler Tyson, Arvada, 1 up
Colin Prater, Colorado Springs, def. Will Kates, Centennial, 3 and 2
Friday’s Scheduled 36-Hole Final
Colin Prater, Colorado Springs, def. Jordan Jennings, Montrose, 9 and 8
For all the results from the CGA Match Play, CLICK HERE.
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