2-time CO Women’s Open champ Becca Huffer records best Epson Tour finish in almost 2 years; Kyle Westmoreland notches top-10 on Korn Ferry circuit; Justin Leonard continues hot run on Champions Tour
By Gary Baines – 9/21/2025
A handful of golfers with significant Colorado connections recorded top-10 finishes on major tours on Sunday, though two of them technically will be unofficial.
— Becca Huffer of Monument posted her best Epson Tour finish in almost two years, tying for fifth in the Murphy USA El Dorado Shootout in El Dorado, Ark.
The two-time Inspirato Colorado Women’s Open champion carded scores of 70-70-74 for a 2-under-par total, which left her two strokes behind champion Erica Shepherd, who birdied her final hole.
Huffer, a former LPGA Tour player, moved up to No. 33 in the season-long points list. If the former CGA Women’s Player of the Year moves into the top 15 after the season-ending Epson Tour Championship Oct. 2-5, she’ll have at least conditional status on the LPGA Tour in 2026.
— Former Air Force Academy golfer Kyle Westmoreland, who needs a strong finish to the Korn Ferry Tour season to earn a PGA Tour for the second time, helped his cause a bit on Sunday with a ninth-place showing at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship in Columbus, Ohio.
With the top 20 players on the season-long points list as of Oct. 5 earning 2026 PGA Tour cards, Westmoreland moved up two spots, to 29th. Just two more events remain on the 2025 KFT schedule.
Westmoreland, a full-time PGA Tour player in 2022-23, posted rounds of 69-66-70-70 for a 9-under-par total. His ninth-place showing, worth $38,325, was his first KFT top-10 since April. He has a victory and a fourth-place to his credit in 2025, but has missed 14 cuts.
— Since the U.S. Senior Open at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, former Aspen resident Justin Leonard has been playing some stellar golf on PGA Tour Champions.
He was runner-up at the ISPS Handa Senior British Open and placed seventh at the Boeing Classic and 11th at the Stifel Charity Classic. And on Sunday, following a bogey-free 2-under-par 70 at Pebble Beach Golf Links, Leonard tied for fifth at the PURE Insurance Championship in Pebble Beach, Calif.
Leonard, who lived in Aspen from 2015-22, made two birdies and 16 pars on Sunday. He went 69-69-70 for the week as Champions players competed alongside members of the First Tee.
— Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Jennifer Kupcho and former University of Colorado golfer Robyn Choi tied for ninth in the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, which was declared an unofficial 18-hole LPGA Tour event as large amounts of rain prevented two rounds, much less three, from being completed. The course received 3.25 inches of rain on Saturday night.
Because of the situation, no season-long CME points will be awarded. Completion of 36 holes are needed for an event to be official.
Kupcho and Choi matched 6-under-par 65s in the one round that was completed. Kupcho made an eagle, five birdies and a bogey, while Choi recorded six birdies in a bogey-free round. They each made $26,122 in “unofficial” money.
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