Nicholas Brooks of Parker ties for 3rd-best winning score in AJGA history in claiming Colorado Springs Junior title; Washington’s Angela Zhang earns 2nd straight AJGA girls victory in Colorado. A day later, Brooks qualified for U.S. Junior Amateur
By Gary Baines – 6/12/2025
It would have been enough of a feat for Nicholas Brooks of Parker to win an American Junior Golf Association title for the first time, but he went a few steps further this week at the AJGA Colorado Springs Junior at Cheyenne Shadows Golf Club in Fort Carson.
The senior-to-be at Lutheran High School added considerably to his accomplishment by finding his way into the AJGA record book in the process.
On Thursday, Brooks finished at 22 under par for three rounds at Cheyenne Shadows, tying for the third-lowest 54-hole score, relative to par, in AJGA history.
The only ones better have been 26 under by Michael Lee at the 2023 Babygrande D.C. Classic and 23 under by Clark Van Gaalen at the 2023 Brandon Wu Championship. Brooks tied Rylan Johnson (2022 Jim Click Automotive/HSL Properties Championship presented by the Tucson Conquistadores) for third on the list.
Another feat: Brooks, a left-hander, went bogey-free for the entire tournament, making 22 birdies.
The Coloradan ending up winning by seven strokes over Duff McKay of Dallas. While that victory margin was impressive, it’s nowhere near the AJGA boys record. It turns out that record belongs to a golfer who grew up in Colorado as David Oraee of Greeley won the 2009 Junior All-Star at Aspen by 18 strokes. Oraee went on to be a standout at the University of Colorado.
Brooks thus extends the streak to five regarding boys tournaments at Colorado-based AJGA events being won by residents of the Centennial State.
Miles Kuhl of Boulder prevailed at The Wyndham Clark Presented by the Colorado Golf Association last week, and Kuhl, Tyler Long of Evergreen and Austin Hunt of Highlands Ranch won the three Colorado tournaments on the 2024 AJGA schedule.
In the boys division at Cheyenne Shadows, four of the top five finishers were Coloradans as Jack Brayman of Erie and Campbell McFadden of Greenwood Village (both -13) tied for third and Landon Houska of Fort Collins (-11) was fifth.
Brooks finished runner-up last year in the Mizuno Colorado PGA Junior Invitational, a junior major in the state. He won a Class 3A regional high school tournament last fall and placed ninth in the 3A state tournament. Brooks won a Colorado PGA Cup Series event at Meadow Hills in April of this year, and he placed fifth at the AJGA Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach Visitor Bureau Junior Championship.
(Updated June 13: Brooks followed up Thursday’s success by qualifying for the U.S. Junior Amateur on Friday at Flatirons Golf Course in Boulder. And, by the way, he went bogey-free again, shooting a 4-under-par 66. The U.S. Junior Am is set for July 21-26 in Dallas.)
In the girls division at Cheyenne Shadows, Angela Zhang of Bellevue, Wash., won an AJGA title for the second straight week in Colorado, having prevailed at The Wyndham Clark last week. The future University of Southern California golfer went 69-70-69 this time for an 8-under total and a six-stroke victory. It was her third AJGA win of 2025 and eighth overall.
Two Coloradans tied for second place as Ella Scott of Castle Rock (72-73-69) and Addison Dorsey of Colorado Springs (69-72-73) checked in at 2 under. Scott, a member of the Team Colorado junior elite squad, won the Class 5A girls state high school individual title last month.
For all the scores from the AJGA Colorado Springs Junior, click on the following: BOYS, GIRLS.
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