Parker’s Nicholas Brooks ends long drought for Coloradans by making match play at U.S. Junior Am; Coloradans Tyler Long and Henry Starr post top-10 finishes in PGA High School Golf National Invitational
By Gary Baines – 7/22/2025
It had been a good long while since the last time a Coloradan had advanced to the match-play portion of the U.S. Junior Amateur.
How long?
Ryan Gerard, who won on the PGA Tour on Sunday at the Barracuda Championship, also was in the Junior Am match-play bracket the last time it happened.
In 2017, two Colorado residents — Jackson Solem of Longmont (round of 32) and Davis Bryant of Aurora (round of 64) — made match play at the Junior Am. A golfer from the Centennial State hadn’t advanced to match play since at the event …
Until Tuesday.
That’s when Nicholas Brooks of Parker ended the drought. The left-hander, who last month tied for the third-lowest winning score in AJGA history in claiming the Colorado Springs Junior title, tied for 37th out of 264 players in the stroke-play portion of the Junior Am in Dallas. With the top 64 advancing to match play — which begins on Wednesday — Brooks made the grade with scores of 73-70 for a 2-over-par total.
The senior-to-be at Lutheran High School, who will play his college golf at Butler, eagled the 609-yard fifth hole and added a birdie and two bogeys en route to his 1-under-par 70 on Tuesday.
It wasn’t the 22-under-par Brooks had shot for three days in the AJGA Colorado Springs Junior, but this performance has come on a much bigger stage — arguably the top junior golf championship in the world. Brooks qualified for the event a day after his AJGA victory, shooting a 4-under 66 at Flatirons Golf Course in Boulder.
Here are the scores for all the Coloradans at the U.S. Junior Amateur:
Advances to Match Play
37. Nicholas Brooks, Parker 73-70–143
Failed to Advance to Match Play
106. Brayden Forte, Aurora 77-71–148
119. Ash Edwards, Boulder 75-74–149
148. Gregory White, Centennial 76-75–151
232. Austin Hunt, Highlands Ranch 77-82–159
For all the results, CLICK HERE.
— Meanwhile, at another national junior tournament, two Coloradans posted top-10 finishes on Tuesday at the boys PGA High School Golf National Invitational at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina.
Tyler Long of Evergreen, a member of the Team Colorado junior elite squad who will tee it up for the University of Colorado starting in the fall, tied for fifth place out of 315 competitors. And Henry Starr of Englewood shared seventh place.
Long, the 2024 3A state high school individual champion, went 72-67-69 for an 8-under-par total which left him eight strokes behind winner Rory Asselta of New Jersey. Over the final 36 holes, Long made just one bogey while recording nine birdies.
Starr, a graduate of Cherry Creek High School who is headed to Colorado Mesa in Grand Junction, carded scores of 73-68-68 for a 7-under-par total. He, too, was particularly sharp over the final 36 holes as he posted an eagle, nine birdies and three bogeys.
Earlier this summer, Long won the prestigious RLX Ralph Lauren Junior Classic held at Bethpage Black, where the 2025 Ryder Cup Matches will be contested. Also last month, he placed fifth at the Western Junior, another big-time event.
Long is No. 11 nationally/internationally in the Rolex AJGA Rankings.
For all the scores from the boys PGA High School Golf National Invitational, 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