On this day anyway, the student schools the teacher as Brayden DeStefano beats defending champ Colin Prater at CGA Match Play; he’ll play Traejan Andrews in finals. Home-course favorite Henly Wilson will face Elle Higgins in Women’s Match Play finale
By Gary Baines
COLORADO SPRINGS — “Moving day” regarding golf is normally associated with the next-to-last day of a stroke-play tournament.
But on Thursday — the penultimate day of the 126th CGA Match Play and the 111th CGA Women’s Match Play at Flying Horse North — there were certainly plenty of notable players moving on or out in interesting fashion.
To name several from a breezy and at times very cool day that featured both quarterfinal and semifinal matches of both championships:
— Both defending champions were ousted in Thursday afternoon’s semifinals, with 17-year-old Brayden DeStefano of Peyton defeating one of his high school coaches and teachers at Cheyenne Mountain, 2025 champ Colin Prater, 3 and 2. On the women’s side, Elle Higgins of Centennial ousted last year’s winner, New Mexico State golfer and four-time New Mexico state high school champ Rylee Salome, 5 and 3.
Brayden DeStefano reacts to chipping in for birdie on the sixth hole of his semifinal match on Thursday.
— DeStefano, the 2024 state high school individual champion from the Country Club of Colorado, actually beat both of last year’s CGA Match Play finalists on Thursday as he toppled 2025 runner-up Jordan Jennings of Montrose 3 and 2 in the quarterfinals.
— Two players — both teenagers — from the area in and around Colorado Springs are in the finals. DeStefano is a 17-year-old who lives in Peyton, about 20 minutes away from Flying Horse North, and he goes to school in the Springs. And Henly Wilson is a 15-year-old who resides in Colorado Springs — again, about 20 minutes away — and attends Pine Creek High School.
Henly Wilson said she’s played Flying Horse North roughly 100 times.
— To take that local angle a step further, Wilson calls the Flying Horse layouts her home courses, and estimates she’s played Flying Horse North about 100 times.
— For the second straight year, a golfer from Fort Lewis College is in the men’s final as Traejan Andrews of Greeley won two matches on Thursday to advance. Jennings, the 2025 Match Play runner-up, was a Fort Lewis teammate of Andrews for the last few years, though Andrews plans to transfer to Eastern Washington next season for his final year of college eligibility.
— One member of Team Colorado — the junior elite squad that’s part of the USGA’s national development program — is a finalist as DeStefano made it in the men’s bracket. Another, Zoe Bar-Or of Greenwood Village, fell to Wilson in the semis, 2 up.
DeStefano will face the 22-year-old Andrews in Friday’s 36-hole Match Play final beginning at 7 a.m., while Wilson will square off with Higgins in the 18-hole Women’s Match Play finale starting at 7:10.
Here are some of Thursday’s highlights from the two tournaments, the longest continuously-held state golf championships in Colorado:
DeStefano (left) and Prater (right) and their caddies gather for a photo before Thursday’s match.
— Men’s CGA Match Play: DeStefano, the Class 4A boys state high school individual champion in 2024 as a sophomore at Cheyenne Mountain, was matched up in Thursday’s semifinals with Prater, an assistant coach for the CMHS boys golf team who also taught a high school anatomy class to DeStefano — and others — this past school year.
Suffice it to say Prater has imparted a fair amount of knowledge — in golf and beyond — to the future University of Colorado golfer. And with Prater — winner of three CGA Amateurs and two CGA Match Play and a qualifier for the 2024 U.S. Open — admittedly not playing his best, DeStefano posted the 3-and-2 victory to punch his ticket to Friday’s final against Andrews.
DeStefano, a senior-to-be, trailed after only one hole (No. 3), and didn’t lead by less than 2 up after No. 7. He two-putted for birdie on the par-5 fifth hole and chipped in for birdie on No. 6 to gain the upper hand for good.
“It feels awesome,” DeStefano said. “I mean, this is my first time beating (Prater). I’d never beaten him when we’re just playing anywhere, so it was good to beat him, and especially right now.”
Defending champion Prater was left in disbelief at times in the semifinals.
Prater is very competitive, but in this case he had some mixed feelings given he’s close with DeStefano.
“Obviously, I want him to play well,” Prater said. “So maybe that’s a little bit different than when I’m playing some other guy that I don’t really know very well.
“But he’s a phenomenal player. I’ve taught him a lot. He’s learned a lot. Obviously, he was better than me today. So I’m really, really happy for him. I mean, this guy’s limit … he’s going to be such a great college player.”
So did the circumstances make Thursday’s matchup a little awkward?
“Oh, absolutely, 1,000 percent,” Prater said. “I mean, he probably knew, when he made a mistake, what I would have told him. And simultaneously, when he saw me make a mistake, he probably already knew what I was thinking as well. I’m really happy for him and very proud of him. I wish I could have given him a little bit of a better match. I didn’t play well all week. I got lucky to make it as far as I did. I didn’t have my A, B and maybe not even my C game. I just kind of got lucky and fought it out and grinded and made a couple putts when I needed to.”
But DeStefano said playing Prater helped the student in this equation.
“I think it was less difficult,” said DeStefano, a former Optimist International Junior Golf age-division champion. “I see him weekly, play with him a lot, so … This is just more of like a fun time, and it’s not as stressful.”
And the bottom line is that the result landed DeStefano in the title match of one of the most prestigious amateur tournaments in Colorado.
“That feels awesome,” he said. “It’s just cool to play against all these older guys that are really good, and play well on a stage like this, and just win.”
Traejan Andrews had to play 37 holes to earn two victories on Thursday.
As for Andrews, in the quarterfinals he edged 2005 CGA Match Play champion Pat Grady in 19 holes in spectacular fashion as he made a 1-foot birdie on No. 17 and a 12-foot eagle on No. 18 to force “overtime.” Then he won the 19th hole with a 6-foot par — to Grady’s bogey — to advance.
“As long as there’s golf left, I think everyone’s got a chance — especially in match play,” Andrews said of his comeback. “I just knew that I had to make something happen.”
Then Andrews made it ever so slightly easier on himself in the semifinals, beating Zane Aiken of Parker, an incoming golfer at the University of Toledo, 1 up in regulation. Andrews, a first-team All-RMAC golfer this past season, never trailed in that semifinal and won No. 9 with a par and 10 with an eagle to expand the lead. Aiken got it to 1 down with a birdie on No. 14 and again with a birdie No. 17. But Andrews never relinquished the lead over the final 12 holes, and closed things out with a tying birdie on No. 18.
“I just had a good feeling,” Andrews said. “I was also super prepared coming in.”
So what does it mean making it to the final of one of the very top amateur events in Colorado?
“It’s really cool, especially because last year my teammate (Jennings) made it to the final, and that was really cool to watch,” Andrews said. “Tomorrow kind of feels like a bonus, especially after the fighting I did today.”
As has become tradition, Friday’s men’s winner will be presented the Michael Lee medal, in honor of 2011 champion Michael Lee, who passed away in late 2020 at age 28 after battling Covid-19. The Lee medal has been/will be awarded to every CGA Match Play champion from 2021-30.
CGA MATCH PLAY
At Flying Horse North in Colorado Springs
QUARTERFINALS THURSDAY
Colin Prater, Colorado Springs def. Zach Gomez, Westminster, 2 and 1
Brayden DeStefano, Peyton def. Jordan Jennings, Montrose, 3 and 2
Zane Aiken, Parker def. Julian Drapela, Highlands Ranch, 7 and 6
Traejan Andrews, Greeley def. Pat Grady, Westminster, 19 holes
SEMIFINALS THURSDAY
Brayden DeStefano, Peyton def. Colin Prater, Colorado Springs, 3 and 2
Traejan Andrews, Greeley def. Zane Aiken, Parker, 1 up
36-HOLE FINAL FRIDAY
Brayden DeStefano, Peyton vs. Traejan Andrews, Greeley
For all the results, CLICK HERE.
Elle Higgins beat defending champion Rylee Salome in a lopsided semi.
— CGA Women’s Match Play: Given Wilson’s home-course connections, it wasn’t surprising that she garnered a fair amount of support during Thursday’s two matches — both of which went to the 18th hole. She beat Lilie Cohen of Parker 1 up in the quarterfinals before her 2-up win over Bar-Or in the semis.
“I had a lot of people out there actually,” Wilson said. “I had my grandma, my brother, my caddie, and then my caddie’s parents.”
Asked about the edge she might have, having played Flying Horse North roughly 100 times, Wilson said, “I think I have a good advantage, just knowing how the greens work and what tee shot I’m supposed to hit, what I mainly hit on each hole, so I don’t have to figure clubs out. With the wind, I struggled a little bit with that today.”
Even knowing the course so well, Wilson has surprised herself by making it to the final.
“I can’t believe it,” she said. “I didn’t know I was going to get this far.”
Meanwhile, Higgins, a 21-year-old senior-to-be on the University of Wyoming golf team, took in stride convincingly ousting the defending CGA Women’s Match Play champ, Salome.
“I’m happy,” Higgins said. “I knew it was going be tough, but I figured I would have to face her at some point if I wanted to win.”
Actually, that semifinal was never close after the first few holes. Higgins won the first three holes with pars, then converted a 20-foot birdie on No. 4 to go 4 up. Salome never cut the deficit to less than 3 up from there on out. In Thursday morning’s quarterfinals, Higgins defeated Maddie Makino of Parker, 2 and 1.
“I’m really happy (to make the finals) because I just I love match play, and I love this tournament, and it’s one of my favorite ones that we play in,” the Valor Christian High School graduate said. “So it just means a lot that I made it to the finals because I’ve been working hard on a lot of swing changes, and it’s fun to see it kind of come together a little bit.”
At one point during the semifinal match, Higgins was 3 under through eight holes en route to a 1-over-par performance through the 15 holes she played against Salome. All in all, it was a very solid performance, especially given that Higgins had never seen Flying Horse North before Thursday morning.
“My caddie and I were talking about a practice around, and we did not have that,” she said. “So I think it probably would have helped us because we kind of got it figured out for the second round.”
CGA WOMEN’S MATCH PLAY
At Flying Horse North in Colorado Springs
QUARTERFINALS THURSDAY
Rylee Salome, Los Lunas, N.M. def. Peyton Landon, Fort Collins, 2 and 1
Elle Higgins, Centennial, def. Maddie Makino, Parker, 2 and 1
Henly Wilson, Colorado Springs def. Lilie Cohen, Parker, 1 up
Zoe Bar-Or, Greenwood Village def. Ashleigh Wilson, Highlands Ranch, 2 and 1
SEMIFINALS THURSDAY
Elle Higgins, Centennial def. Rylee Salome, Los Lunas, N.M., 5 and 3
Henly Wilson, Colorado Springs def. Zoe Bar-Or, Greenwood Village, 2 up
18-HOLE FINAL FRIDAY
Elle Higgins, Centennial vs. Henly Wilson, Colorado Springs
For all the results, CLICK HERE.
As has been the norm in recent years, CommonGround Golf Course hosted the pod-play portion of both the Match Play and the Women’s Match Play Monday through Wednesday — plus the men’s round-of-16 matches.
Meanwhile, the Thursday and Friday venue for the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals, Flying Horse North, is hosting a CGA championship for the first time. But FHN was home last September to the Colorado PGA Professional Championship, the CPGA’s top tournament.
The fields for the Match Play championships started out at 64 players on the men’s side and 32 on the women’s.
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