Team from Colorado/CGA posts its 2nd-best finish ever at boys Junior America’s Cup as Ash Edwards and Brayden Forte place in top 5 individually
By Gary Baines – 7/31/2025
Early in Thursday’s final round of the boys Junior America’s Cup in Portland, Ore., the team representing Colorado and the CGA pulled into a tie for the lead with Arizona.
Thoughts of possibly repeating an extremely rare feat — the Centennial State claiming the team title in the prestigious event — surely were entertained.
Alas, the 2025 team didn’t end up joining the 2018 squad as the only ones in Colorado history to win team championships in the boys event which features many of the top players from the western U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Still, it was a very strong showing by Colorado by historical standards. The Coloradans ended up finishing solo third out of 18 teams, matching the second-best performance by Coloradans in the 50 years the state has sent a team to the boys JAC. The 2011 and ’15 teams from Colorado also placed third. And the 2018 squad featuring Dillon Stewart, Davis Bryant, Cal McCoy and Walker Franklin earned the lone Colorado team title in the event.
In Portland, where the top three scores from each four-player team counted toward the team total each day, the Colorado team finished at 2 under par, 15 strokes behind champion Arizona and five back of runner-up Southern California.
Colorado put two players in the top five individually — out of the 72-person field. Ash Edwards of Boulder, the son of University of Colorado men’s golf head coach Roy Edwards, tied for third, while Brayden Forte of Aurora placed fifth. Edwards won the Colorado Junior PGA Championship this year, while Forte claimed the CGA State Junior title.
Edwards ended up at 4 under par, 10 strokes behind runaway winner Landon Ashcraft of Arizona, a Texas A&M commit. Forte finished a stroke behind Edwards.
Rounding out the Colorado/CGA team were CU-bound Tyler Long of Evergreen and Miles Kuhl of Boulder. Long, currently No. 9 in the national/international boys Rolex AJGA Rankings, won the AJGA’s RLX Ralph Lauren Junior Classic at Bethpage Black earlier this summer. And Kuhl prevailed at the AJGA’s Wyndham Clark presented by the CGA for the second straight year. Long finished 21st individually at the JAC on Thursday, while Kuhl was 48th.
The showing by Edwards was among the best individual performances by Coloradans in the boys JAC. Though records for the event aren’t complete, the best of the bunch, Colorado-wise, were Stewart’s victory in 2018 and John Segelke’s tie for first in 1990.
Forte, Long and Kuhl as part of the Team Colorado elite junior squad.
Many famous golfers have competed in the boys Junior America’s Cup over the years, including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Fred Couples, Patrick Cantlay, Rickie Fowler and Tony Finau. The boys JAC was last held in Colorado in 2011 at Hiwan Golf Club, where DeChambeau was among the top individual finishers.
Here are the scores for Colorado, team-wise and individually, at the JAC:
3rd as a Team. Colorado/CGA 212-213-212—637
3. Ash Edwards, Boulder 67-71-71—209
5. Brayden Forte, Aurora 68-74-68–210
21. Tyler Long, Evergreen 77-68-73—218
48. Miles Kuhl, Boulder 80-75-73—228
For all the scores from the boys Junior America’s Cup, 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