Soaring at Air Force

A week after falling a shot shy of title at season opener, CU men cruise to victory at Falcon Invite at Air Force Academy; CU freshman Gavin Amella, from Team Colorado, falls in a playoff at 26-man Air Force Individual

By Gary Baines 

The University of Colorado men’s golf team seems to love competing in September — especially when it’s at tournaments in the Centennial State.

The great majority of the team titles the Buffs have earned in their most recent era of existence have come both in the first month of the season (September) and at tournaments in Colorado.

That trend continued on Monday as CU ran away with the team championship in the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational at the Air Force Academy’s Eisenhower Golf Club.

The Buffs, a week removed from falling a shot shy of the team title at the season-opening Vuori Invitational, prevailed by 15 strokes at Eisenhower, where in recent years they also won in 2018 and ’19.

Of CU’s last 19 team titles — which technically include ties and playoff losses — 15 have come in September, and 14 at Colorado-based tournaments.

This time around, the Buffs put four individuals into the top 10 out of a field of 90 at the Blue Course. Brandon Knight, who last month advanced to the quarterfinals at the U.S. Amateur, shared third place individually with teammate Ty Holbrook and UC Santa Barbara’s Dylan Ma. CU’s Asher Whitaker was eighth and Parker Paxton ninth. Tyler Long of Evergreen wasn’t far out of the top 10, placing 13th.

Wyoming junior Brody Leid (68-70-69 for 9-under-par total) claimed the individual title by one over University of Denver sophomore Arthur Akpinar of Germany, who bogeyed his final two holes but placed a college-career-best second.

In the team standings, CU checked in at 30 under par for three days. DU (-15) finished a distant second (with UTEP) in the 18-school field. Host Air Force (even par) was eighth and Northern Colorado ninth (+1).

Monday marked the 21st large-field team victory for the CU men since Roy Edwards became head coach 20 years ago.

At the concurrent Air Force Individual at Eisenhower Golf Club’s Silver Course, three players finished regulation tied for first place out of a field of 26 — CU’s Gavin Amella (a freshman) and Casey Kosney (a sophomore) and San Jose State’s Joey Allan. All three ended up at 11 under par for three rounds and played off for the title.

Amella, the CGA State Junior champion from Castle Rock who’s a member of Team Colorado — which is part of the USGA’s National Development Program — was eliminated on the first extra hole, where he made par. Then Allan made a birdie — to Kosney’s par — on the fourth playoff hole to prevail.

For all the scores from the Falcon Invite, CLICK HERE. And for the Air Force Individual, CLICK HERE.

CU will host the Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational at Boulder Country Club on Sept. 29-30, when all five Colorado-based NCAA Division I men’s golf teams will tee it up.

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