A year after Colin Prater claimed his third CGA Amateur title, a player he coached in high school, Thomas Herholtz, succeeds him as champion; the Colorado Springs golfer earned a U.S. Amateur berth in the process
By Gary Baines – 8/2/2025
WESTMINSTER — When Thomas Herholtz and Colin Prater were helping Cheyenne Mountain High School win a boys state golf championship in 2022 — Herholtz as a player and Prater as an assistant coach — it’s doubtful they envisioned themselves both winning Colorado Amateur titles in the ensuing few years.
Yet that’s exactly how it played out as Prater captured his third CGA Amateur championship last year, and Herholtz — a player Prater helped mentor in high school — prevailed on Saturday at Walnut Creek Golf Preserve.
“Pretty cool stuff!!” Prater said via text on Saturday after competing in the Western Amateur earlier this week prevented him from defending his CGA Amateur title. “Super happy for him. To be the best player in the state for four days is impressive.”
Asked about Prater — a winner of five CGA open-age majors — Herholtz said, “I know him pretty well. I was talking to my buddy who was on the bag (caddying) on Thursday, saying ‘You know what? If we go out and win this thing, I’m going to get something from Prater like, ‘I wasn’t there; that’s why you won.’ That’s kind of how he always is. But he’s a good dude, and he helped me out as a coach for sure.
“Playing with Colin, especially through high school, and seeing how good of a player he is … He was probably the first guy that I started to play with that I was like, ‘Wow, this guy is a step above where I was’ — especially when I was in high school. Watching him play, there’s so much to learn from his game. He doesn’t hit very many balls out of play, he doesn’t miss very many greens. It’s very simple golf. The more I play with him, the more it can help me get better because there’s so much to learn from his game.”
Things are definitely pointing up for Herholtz.
Herholtz — who lives in Colorado Springs during the summer and Arizona during the winter — may not have been one of the pre-tournament favorites at the CGA Amateur, but he shot to the top with three rounds of 68 or better this week. That included a 6-under-par 66 on Saturday that featured a whopping nine birdies, including on both of the last two holes following a 2-hour, 10-minute lightning delay.
That was enough for a 15-under-par total and a two-stroke victory over hard-charging Colorado School of Mines golfer Lukas Taggart, who went 66-65 the last two days after sitting at even par after 36 holes.
As Herholtz and his family and friends discovered when perusing the names on the trophy afterward, his accomplishment puts him in a CGA Amateur champions club that includes the likes of Hale Irwin, Steve Jones, Wyndham Clark, Bob Byman and Brandt Jobe. Just those five CGA Amateur winners now account for five U.S. Open titles, 32 victories on the PGA Tour and 47 on PGA Tour Champions.
“This feels awesome,” the 20-year-old said. “I hadn’t won anything big like this yet, but I’m hoping I can keep it going.
“I won some stuff in high school. I played a year of college golf (at Arizona Christian in 2023-24) and had a couple of good tournaments there, but school wasn’t for me. I just kind of took a different route. In terms of winning, this is probably the biggest thing I’ve won by far.”
Herholtz’s stellar shot on the par-3 17th on Saturday set him up for victory.
For the second straight year, the victory at the CGA Amateur comes with icing on the cake as the champion earns a spot in the U.S. Amateur, which this year is set for Aug. 11-17 at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. Last year, Prater was already exempt into the U.S. Am when he won the CGA Amateur. But this year, Herholtz will certainly make good use of the spot as he’ll tee it up at his first USGA championship.
“It’ll be really fun to go out there,” said Herholtz, who had fallen short in U.S. Amateur local qualifying in Albuquerque this summer. “I’m looking forward to going to Olympic and hopefully keeping it going out there.”
At Walnut Creek, Herholtz led by three after carding birdies on 10, 12 and 13, but he airmailed the green on the short par-3 14th and made bogey, and added another on the next hole when he three-putted. That cut his lead to one over Taggart, but after Herholtz hit his tee shot and was in the fairway on the par-4 16th, that’s when the horn blew, signaling a stoppage of play due to lightning in the area.
That timing proved fortuitous for Herholtz as, after the delay, he returned to hit a nice wedge shot on 16 and made par. Then he pured a 3-iron from 241 yards to a foot from the cup on the par-3 17th, where he tapped in for birdie. And on the par-5 18th, after a drive down the middle, he hit a 7-iron from 205 yards to 20 feet from the hole and two-putted for another birdie.
“I will be honest — having a rain delay after two bogeys, I would think it maybe helped me a little bit, just because I got that reset,” Herholtz said. “I came back out, hit a pretty good wedge shot, and from there it was just kind of smooth sailing.”
Runner-up Lukas Taggart from the Colorado School of Mines didn’t make a bogey over his final 36 holes.
That didn’t leave much of an opening for Taggart, despite him going 66-65 the last two days of the tournament and not making a bogey in those 36 holes. Even with a birdie on 18 Saturday, he couldn’t catch Herholtz.
“I feel great about (finishing second),” said Taggart, who’s from Washoe Valley, Nev., south of Reno, and will be a senior on the Mines golf team. “It’s a bummer to come up short, but second place is amazing. I’m happy with it. No complaints there. Man, it was great. I played wonderful golf out there” Friday and Saturday.
Former champion Pat Grady ran into some problems on Saturday, but still tied for third place.
The 54-hole co-leaders, 2006 champion Pat Grady of Westminster and University of Colorado golfer Ty Holbrook, tied for a distant third place at 9 under par after shooting 74s on Saturday. Holbrook shared the lead with Herholtz after making 12-foot birdie on hole 11, but he played his final seven holes in 4 over to drop back. It was Holbrook’s second straight third-place finish in the CGA Amateur.
Grady, hoping to win a second CGA Amateur title 19 years after his first, could never get anything going on Saturday, finishing with a birdie and three bogeys.
CU golfer Ty Holbrook tied for third at the CGA Amateur for the second straight year, but had his share of frustration.
Sharing fifth place — at 8 under — were Air Force Academy assistant coach Jimmy Makloski of Pueblo and former University of Northern Colorado golfer Westin Pals of Castle Rock. Thirty-six-hole co-leader Gage Messingham of Arvada placed seventh after going 73-77 the last two days, with the 73 including a two-stroke penalty he incurred at the eighth hole on Friday.
As for Herholtz, he was asked if he surprised himself at all with his performance this week.
“A little bit,” he said. “I definitely knew I could be in contention if I played well. But definitely with the birdie-birdie finish, especially on 17, I definitely surprised myself a little bit. I would have been happy with anything on the green there. I hit that shot really well.
“My game has been trending a lot better since high school. Part of it is my mental game, part of it is my swing in general. I don’t have as many demons over the golf ball when there’s pressure anymore.”
After spending a season on the Arizona Christian golf team, Herholtz has been going to school at Arizona State University, where he plans to play club golf this coming fall. Suffice it to say he’ll return to Arizona with added confidence after how he played at Walnut Creek.
“I don’t know if I came into the week knowing that I could win it, but definitely after the first day of seeing the course and kind of how I was swinging it, it started to set in a little bit more: ‘Hey I’m playing really well. If I keep this going, I can be in contention for sure,’” he said.
Planes were never far away at Walnut Creek, including a couple of fighters.
And once he got there on Saturday, he capitalized by playing smart golf, he noted.
“I was talking to my dad, who was on the bag (caddying) today, saying, ‘Hey, I just want to keep it simple today,” Herholtz relayed. “Let’s play the par-5s well, don’t make any stupid mistakes.’ I had three two-putt birdies on the par-5, which makes the golf course a lot easier because all you really have to do on the other holes is try not to make any stupid bogeys. I was definitely playing a little conservative coming down the stretch, making sure I didn’t make any dumb mistakes. That was a huge part of it.”
For all the scores from the CGA Amateur, 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