With near records, rare feats, notable national/regional titles and more, it’s been a memorable year so far for Colorado junior golfers
By Gary Baines – 8/21/2025
The 2025 tournament schedule for elite-level junior golfers in Colorado certainly is far from complete at this point. For example, most of the boys state high school golf season — including the state tournaments (Oct. 6-7) — will be held in the fall, as will the Mizuno Colorado PGA Junior Invitational (Oct. 18-19).
Still, it’s a fact that the elite junior schedule in the Centennial State is front-loaded during the warm-weather months, simply because most kids start school in August. So the great majority of big-time national, regional and Colorado state junior golf events have been completed by mid August.
That being the case, it’s worth noting at this point the many stellar performances by elite Colorado junior golfers so far in 2025 — an exceptional number by historical standards.
Here are some of the highlights to date:
— Nicholas Brooks of Parker not only won the AJGA Colorado Springs Junior title in June, but the left-hander tied for the third-best winning score in AJGA history. Considering the AJGA was founded in 1978 — and that its “alums” include Tiger Woods, Scottie Scheffler and Phil Mickelson — that’s saying something. Brooks, now a senior at Lutheran High School, finished 22 under par for three rounds at Cheyenne Shadows Golf Club. The future Butler University golfer went bogey-free for the entire tournament, winning by seven.
— Also this year, Brooks became the first Coloradan since 2017 to advance to match play at the U.S. Junior Amateur. He lost in the round of 64 to a 2024 quarterfinalist in the event.
The Colorado boys Junior America’s Cup team that placed third this summer (from left between captains Steve Ivan, far left, and Mark Crabtree, far right): Ash Edwards, Tyler Long, Miles Kuhl and Brayden Forte.
— Evergreen’s Tyler Long, an incoming University of Colorado golfer and a member of the Team Colorado junior elite squad, won the prestigious RLX Ralph Lauren Junior Classic at the site of the 2025 Ryder Cup Matches. Also in June, the Evergreen High School graduate finished fifth in another high-profile junior event, the Western Junior Championship. Long now sits No. 12 in the AJGA national boys rankings.
— Speaking of the AJGA, for the second straight year, Colorado boys swept the titles in the AJGA events held in the Centennial State. Besides Brooks winning the Colorado Springs Junior, Miles Kuhl of Boulder, a Team Colorado member, captured the Wyndham Clark Presented by the CGA for the second straight year, and Henry Starr of Englewood prevailed at the AJGA Junior Open at The Bridges Presented by the City of Montrose.
— Two of the aforementioned Coloradans posted top-10 finish in the boys PGA High School Golf National Invitational at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina. Long tied for fifth place and Starr for seventh.
— In another example of how some of the top Colorado boys have excelled this year, the team representing the state and the CGA finished solo third out of 18 teams at the boys Junior America’s Cup, matching the second-best performance by Coloradans in the 50 years the state has sent a team to the boys JAC. In addition, Colorado put two players in the top five individually. Ash Edwards of Boulder, the son of University of Colorado men’s golf head coach Roy Edwards, tied for third, while Team Colorado member Brayden Forte of Aurora placed fifth.
Forte and Ella Scott claimed the titles in the CGA State Junior.
— In other tournaments this year, Edwards won the Colorado Junior PGA Championship, while Forte claimed the CGA State Junior title. Edwards went 8 under par on the first seven holes of the back nine en route to a final-round 64 and seven-stroke win in the Colorado Junior PGA.
— CGA State Junior champ Forte shot a 64 at TPC Colorado to earn a spot in the field for the Korn Ferry Tour’s Ascendant presented by Blue.
— On the girls side of things, two freshmen (Sophia Lee and Landry Frost) and two sophomores (Ella Scott and CheyAnne Schrick) claimed individual titles in girls state high school golf tournaments. Scott went on to capture the girls title in the CGA State Junior. Later she tied for 61st in the stroke-play portion of U.S. Girls’ Junior, but fell short of making match play in a 9-for-4 playoff. Scott and Lee are both members of Team Colorado.
— Lee, from Columbine Valley, has won two non-school-related junior majors in 2025 — the Mizuno Aurora Junior Championship by eight and the Colorado Junior PGA by two.
— Frost, the Class 4A individual state high school champion as a freshman, finished runner-up in the open-age CGA Women’s Match Play at Denver Country Club, losing to four-time New Mexico girls state high school champ Rylee Salome.
— Speaking of girls state high school champs, former Colorado winner Hadley Ashton of Erie put a bow on her junior career by winning the girls title at the Colorado PGA Junior Match Play. Ashton, a Team Colorado member, will begin her college golf career at the University of Wisconsin this coming fall.
— In the spring, Isaiah Fowler of Greeley placed seventh and Hudson Blake of Fort Morgan finished ninth in separate age groups at the Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals at Augusta National in Georgia. Blake had a “cool” interaction with Scheffler at the event.
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