Another big-time golf event set for the Centennial State as 2030 U.S. Junior Amateur coming to Colorado Golf Club, which will serve as the primary host for its second USGA championship
By Gary Baines – 10/13/2025
When it comes to hosting big-time national and international golf tournaments in Colorado in the 21st century, Colorado Golf Club certainly has carved out a spot among the top venues in the state.
With the Senior PGA Championship (2010), the Solheim Cup (2013) and the U.S. Mid-Amateur (2019) being held at the Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw course in Parker — along with CGC serving as the second site for the stroke-play portion of the 2023 U.S. Amateur that Cherry Hills Country Club hosted — Colorado Golf Club has become one of the go-tos for such events. Others that fall into that category since 2000 are Castle Pines Golf Club (The International, then the 2024 BMW Championship); Cherry Hills (3 USGA championships this century, 2014 BMW Championship and the 2009 Arnold Palmer Cup); The Broadmoor (4 USGA championships this century, with two more scheduled); and TPC Colorado (7 Korn Ferry Tour events since 2019).
And now Colorado Golf Club, which opened in 2006, will be adding another national/international championship to its resumé. The USGA announced on Monday morning that the venue will host the U.S. Junior Amateur in 2030, with the dates set for July 22-27. The 36-hole championship match is scheduled for the final day. A second course for the stroke-play portion of the event has yet to be selected.
It will be the second time CGC serves as the primary host for a USGA championship after Australian Lukas Michel became the first international player to win the U.S. Mid-Amateur there in 2019.
“The club was founded on giving back to golf, and that’s what makes Colorado Golf Club so special,” Graham Cliff, the club’s PGA director of golf, said in a video released in conjunction with the USGA announcement. “… We’re ecstatic to host the Junior Amateur. If you look at the history of that event — Tiger Woods, Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth, some of the big names of golf today, they started their careers winning those championships.
“Colorado Golf Club is a strategic and demanding championship venue, and we could not be more proud to welcome the 2030 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship,” Cliff added in a release. “With an emphasis on the future generation of professional golfers, the Junior Amateur is meaningful to our members and to golf enthusiasts everywhere.”
Indeed, the U.S. Junior Am, which debuted in 1948, features champions as Woods (three times), Spieth (twice), Scheffler, Johnny Miller and David Duval. Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Bob Byman, a resident of Boulder at the time, won the championship in 1972 in Dallas. Duval, who has lived in Colorado for most of the 21st century, claimed the title in 1989. Nick Dunlap, a two-time champion on the PGA Tour who won the 2023 U.S. Am title at Cherry Hills, prevailed at the U.S. Junior Am in 2021.
CGC previously served as the primary host for a USGA championship in 2019, when the U.S. Mid-Amateur paid a visit.
Barring another addition in the interim, the 2030 U.S. Junior Am will become the 37th USGA championship held in Colorado, which hosted the U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor this past summer. The Broadmoor is also scheduled to hold the 2031 and ’37 U.S. Senior Opens — an announcement that came in June.
“Colorado Golf Club has already proven to be a fantastic venue to host USGA championships and this is yet one more step in building a legacy as a venue for national championships,” said Ed Mate, the longtime executive director of the CGA.
The U.S. Junior Am has previously been held in Colorado three times — in 1950 at Denver Country Club (Mason Rudolph won), in 1976 at Hiwan Golf Club in Evergreen (Madden Hatcher III) and in 1987 at Sonnenalp Golf Club in Edwards (Brett Quigley).
Since 2021, when the USGA expanded the field, the U.S. Junior Amateur features a field of 264 players, with the top 64 after two days of stroke play advancing to match play. Originally limited to male golfers 17 and younger, the U.S. Junior Am added 18-year-olds to the mix starting with the 2017 championship. Nowadays, the U.S. Junior Amateur champion receives an exemption into the following year’s U.S. Open.
As for Colorado Golf Club, it’s certainly proven a test in previous big-time events held at the facility. The course sits at 6,200 feet elevation and its features include ponderosa pine, natural gullies, streams and rolling hills — and even a boomerang green on the short par-4 14th hole. Wind often can be a factor. And it’s not at all unusual for wild turkeys and other wildlife to be hanging out the course. This year, Golfweek placed CGC No. 35 among the top modern courses (opened since 1960) in the U.S.
In the two stroke-play rounds for the U.S. Mid-Am in 2019, the stroke average for the par-72 CGC was 78.073. It was 74.5 for the 2023 U.S. Amateur. Tom Lehman won the 2010 Senior PGA Championship at the club with a four-day total of 7 under par.
The par-3 11th hole is one of the more photographed on the course.
As Jon Olson, a former University of Colorado-Colorado Springs golfer, said after competing at Colorado Golf Club six years ago in the U.S. Mid-Am, “It’s an awesome golf course. If the people aren’t great, it’s not going to be an awesome experience. But the people were even better than the golf course, in my opinion. They’re so welcoming. They want us here. They love every minute of it. They come out to watch. That’s really special. They’re giving this place up for I don’t know how many weeks. For us, it’s a really good opportunity to come out here and enjoy playing somewhere we typically don’t get to.”
As for the USGA, with the success Colorado Golf Club and other courses in the Centennial State have enjoyed hosting USGA championships, it’s looking forward to more of the same with the 2030 U.S. Junior Am.
“The USGA is excited to return to Colorado Golf Club and appreciates the club’s support of amateur golf and their collaboration throughout the years,” Rob Doone, director of the U.S. Junior Amateur for the USGA, said in a release. “The club will host an international field of the best junior players, all hoping to manage and execute their games at the highest level as they compete for the title of world’s best — and a spot in the U.S. Open.”
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