Here, There & Everywhere

4-time CGA Amateur champ Colin Prater facing a ‘crazy fall’ as he adds CSU men’s golf assistant coaching position to his day job as high school science teacher in Colorado Springs

By Gary Baines 

The Colorado State University men’s golf team begins its season on Thursday and Friday by hosting the Ram Masters Invitational at Fort Collins Country Club, and among those on hand will be the most accomplished Colorado amateur in recent years.

No, it won’t be a competitor in the tournament, nor merely an interested spectator, nor even an alum of one of the schools involved.

Instead, it will be Colin Prater of Colorado Springs, who just last month tied a record by winning the CGA Amateur for the fourth time. He’s also claimed two CGA Match Play titles and competed in one U.S. Open and four U.S. Amateurs — with No. 5 coming up next summer.

Prater will be in Fort Collins in a paid capacity, as the new men’s golf assistant coach for CSU. It was just Friday that the university and head coach Jack Kennedy announced the addition.

But it’s not like the 31-year-old will be giving up his day job. The former Colorado Mesa and University of Colorado-Colorado Springs golfer will continue to teach science at Cheyenne Mountain High School — as he has for the last three-plus years — during the week. Then the plan is to head up to Fort Collins for the weekends, when he’ll work with the CSU team. He’ll also be there for all the Rams’ tournaments.

“It’s gonna be (a) crazy fall as I’m still teaching during the week and spending each weekend in Fort Collins,” Prater said in a text to Colorado Golf Journal on Monday. “(I’m) really looking forward to the opportunity. Jack just reached out. I think it’s always been a goal of mine to coach at the college level! I hope to be a great resource to the boys.”

Asked further about his two jobs, Prater added, “I’m in a sense doing both full time. Creating practice plans and talking with recruits when I’m in the Springs and then coaching and hanging with the guys on the weekends. I plan to do it at least through the spring semester for now.”

Prater, who has a wife and two young daughters at their home in Colorado Springs, did give up his position as an assistant coach for the golf teams at Cheyenne Mountain High School.

CSU’s men’s golf schedule calls for four tournaments in the fall — from Sept. 10 through Oct. 20 — then at least seven events in the spring — from Feb. 15 through at least May 2.

“We are very excited to have Colin join the Ram golf family,” Kennedy said in a CSU release. “His record speaks for itself in Colorado history, but he is an even better human being. Colin will have an immediate impact in developing our current players and recruiting the best players to CSU.”

Speaking of which, one of CSU’s current players was on the golf team at Cheyenne Mountain High School, where until just recently Prater served as an assistant coach — sophomore Charlie Doyle. Other CSU players against which Prater likely has competed in big Colorado tournaments are junior Charlie Tucker of Castle Pines and senior Elijah Knudsen of Mead.

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