Starting the countdown of the top 25 Colorado golf stories of 2025
By Gary Baines – 12/26/2025
Around these parts — meaning at ColoradoGolf.org —we’ve been publishing a rundown of the top 25 stories of the year in Colorado golf, plus an honorable-mention category, for more than a decade. (And from 2009 through ’14, we selected the top 10 or 18 stories, depending on the year).
And now, we’ve apparently gotten to the point that this year we’ve really hit the mark as we can call our compilation the “Top 25 of ’25”.
But no matter the headline, it’s always fun to look back on the year and revisit some of the top golf moments in the Centennial State — whether from the perspective of a golf fan, a player, someone in the business or just an interested observer. With yet another eventful year, there’s no lack of worthwhile candidates for a spot on the list.
So without further ado, we give you the top 25 Colorado golf stories of the year. And, as has become tradition, we’ll break the rundown into two parts — with the second one being published early next week — and with a countdown to No. 1, to preserve some suspense. The second installment will include the honorable-mention picks.
Here are story selections Nos. 25 through 13:
25. The Colorado Open and Colorado Women’s Open went into uncharted territory when each started featuring $100,000 first prizes — the men’s tournament in 2016 and the women’s in 2022. That was unheard-of at the time for state and regional opens. But in March, the leadership of the two Colorado events (and the Colorado Senior Open) indicated that might have been more than the market could bear, and announced that the winners of the championships in 2025 would receive half as much — $50,000 in each case. With Inspirato requesting an early termination of its title sponsorship deal with the Colorado Open championships — and being granted its release a year early by the Colorado Open Golf Foundation— 2025 marked the company’s final year in the title role for the tournaments at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in northeast Denver. And with the Colorado Open Golf Foundation now looking for a title sponsor for 2026 and beyond, the first-place prize money was cut to $50k in the hopes that will make it easier to forge a new title sponsorship deal. (READ MORE)
24. In the months leading up to the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in Farmindale, N.Y., the course hosted a prestigious AJGA event — the RLX Ralph Lauren Junior Classic — that attracted 10 of the top 25 males in the Rolex AJGA Rankings. And this year the tournament was won by a Coloradan — Tyler Long of Evergreen, a member of the Team Colorado junior elite squad and now a freshman on the University of Colorado men’s golf team. Long, winner of the Class 3A state high school title in 2024, subsequently was ranked among the top dozen junior golfers nationally/internationally by Rolex AJGA. (READ MORE)
Wyndham Clark (on screen), Jill McGill and Bill Loeffler at an event in late June at Cherry Hills Country Club, where they became honorary members.
23. Three golfers who grew up in Colorado and have gone on to win USGA national/international championships were awarded honorary memberships this year by Cherry Hills Country Club, the course that has hosted more USGA championships than any other in Colorado (10). Wyndham Clark (winner of the 2023 U.S. Open), Jill McGill (1993 U.S. Women’s Amateur, 1994 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links and 2022 U.S. Senior Women’s Open) and Bill Loeffler (1986 U.S. Mid-Amateur) all were sons or daughters of Cherry Hills members, and now they’re honorary members at the club where they cut their teeth. (READ MORE)
22. 2025 was an extraordinary year — by Colorado junior golf standards — for Nicholas Brooks of Parker. First, in winning the AJGA Colorado Springs Junior by seven strokes at Cheyenne Shadows Golf Club at Fort Carson, Brooks tied for the third-best winning score, relative to par, in the history of the AJGA, which was founded in 1978. Brooks went bogey-free for the tournament, shooting scores of 65-63-66 for a 22-under-par total. (READ MORE) Then in July, Brooks became the first Coloradan since 2017 to advance to match play at the U.S. Junior Amateur, which now features 264 competitors. (READ MORE) Later in the year, Brooks was included in the second edition of the Team Colorado junior elite squad. Also, he was named a Future Famer by the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame and he signed to play his college golf at Butler University.
21. Parker Edens, who grew up in Greeley and played and coached at Colorado State, has had quite a run at the U.S. Mid-Amateur in recent years. The 2023 Colorado Open overall runner-up — and two-time low-amateur at the event — advanced to the quarterfinals of the national championship in 2025 — matching what he did at that event in 2023. In the last three years at the U.S. Mid-Am, Edens has gone to the quarterfinals, to the round of 16 and to the quarterfinals again. (READ MORE)
Dillon Stewart of Fort Collins celebrated a victory on PGA Tour Americas.
20. Dillon Stewart of Fort Collins won in just his second start on PGA Tour Americas, scored a victory in the Bromont Open in Quebec. (READ MORE) The 2023 CGA Amateur champion went on to earn some exempt status for 2026 on the Korn Ferry Tour thanks to his performance at the final stage of Q-school. (READ MORE) Stewart is a former state high school champion who has also captured titles at the Junior America’s Cup, the AJGA Hale Irwin Colorado Junior and the Sinclair Rocky Mountain Open, among other victories.
19. The second edition of Team Colorado, the elite junior squad that’s part of the USGA’s National Development Program, was introduced recently. The accomplishments of the 16 players included — eight boys and eight girls — are quite remarkable, especially taken collectively. We counted the ways. (READ MORE) Meanwhile, also recently, longtime golf instructor Kelli McKandless earned the distinction of being named the first coach for Team Colorado. (READ MORE)
18. Winning on the PGA Tour — against many of the best players in the world — is no small task. And claiming a title on the Korn Ferry Tour is no walk in the park either. But in February, former Air Force Academy golfer Kyle Westmoreland used a 61 in the third round to spark him to victory at the Astara Golf Championship in Bogota, Colombia. Alas, KFT career victory No. 1 wasn’t enough to help him regain his PGA Tour card through the season-long KFT points list. Instead, Westmoreland will return to the Korn Ferry Tour in 2026. (READ MORE)
Amy and John Lee at the grand opening of the Mike Lee 9, named for their late son.
17. In one of the top feel-good stories of 2025 in Colorado golf, John and Amy Lee of Greeley continued to make good things happen in the wake of tragedy by teaming with the city of Greeley to open the Mike Lee 9 at Boomerang Golf Links in August. The facility — a nine-hole short course built mainly for beginners — is named for Michael Lee, the 2011 CGA Match Play champion who passed away in December 2020 at age 28 after battling Covid-19. John and Amy Lee, Mike’s parents, continue to do good works in Michael’s name — mainly via golf — through the Michael Ray Lee Foundation. That includes the Mike Lee 9, which features very short holes (27 to 66 yards) and SNAG (Starting New At Golf) equipment rather than traditional golf clubs and balls. (READ MORE) In 2026, John and Amy Lee — via the Michael Ray Lee Foundation — will receive a Distinguished Service Award from the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame.
16. Justin Leonard — the 12-time PGA Tour winner, 1997 British Open champ and one of the American standouts in the 1999 Ryder Cup — lived full time in Aspen from 2015-22. Since then, he’s become a mainstay on PGA Tour Champions, and this year he not only notched his first victory on that circuit, but added a second title. In February, he earned his first tour-sanctioned win since 2008 by prevailing at the Chubb Classic. (READ MORE) Eight months later, Leonard drained a 20-foot eagle putt on the final hole to prevail at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic. (READ MORE)
15. Colorado Golf Association championships — otherwise known as state amateurs — have been contested since 1901. Though records for CGA Amateurs in the early years aren’t complete, but based upon what is known, only two players have won more men’s open-age CGA majors than the five collected by Colin Prater of Colorado Springs. Prater, a 30-year-old high school science teacher, notched No. 5 this past summer by prevailing in the 125th CGA Match Play at Denver Country Club. Previously, he won the CGA Match Play in 2020 and the CGA Amateur in 2016, ’20 and ’24. As for those with more men’s open-age major titles, 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) are the only ones above Prater, with Jim English Sr. (five titles, all from 1956-61) matching Prater’s total. (READ MORE)
14. PGA Tour winner Kevin Stadler and the late CWGA co-founder Ella Moffat McLaughlin have been voted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame, and next year’s induction ceremonies will be “All in the Family” moments for them. Kevin will join dad Craig (winner of the 1982 Masters) and Ella her husband ‘Mac’ as CGHOF inductees. It will mark the third father-son duo to be enshrined, and the third husband-wife pair. (READ MORE)
13. Geoff Keffer of Lakewood has accomplished some remarkable things as a player in the Colorado PGA ranks over the last two decades. And 2025 was certainly no exception for the Lakewood Country Club assistant golf professional. In September, Keffer not only won the Colorado PGA’s most prestigious tournament — the Colorado PGA Professional Championship — for the third time, but he lapped the field, prevailing by eight strokes at Flying Horse North. Keffer became the 10th known player to win three or more overall Section championships. (READ MORE) That led to the 47-year-old being named the Colorado PGA Dow Finsterwald Player of the Year for a record-extending 10th time — all of them coming since 2012. For the record, the golfer with the next-most CPGA overall player of the year awards is Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Bob Hold, who earned seven of them from 1966-71 and ’74. (READ MORE)
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