Colorado native and former JGAC Player of the Year Hunter Swanson begins final semester of college golf at CU by notching another top-10 finish
By Gary Baines – 2/18/2026
Time is winding down regarding college golf for Hunter Swanson, the Colorado native, in-state high school graduate (Northfield), longtime Green Valley Ranch Golf Club mainstay and now University of Colorado senior.
This week, Swanson started his final semester in the collegiate ranks in strong fashion by tying for eighth place individually out of a 120-player field at The Prestige in La Quinta, Calif.
After two rounds, Swanson was still in contention for his first individual college title as he sat four strokes out of the lead. But after roughly half the field started the final round on Wednesday, that round ultimately was canceled due to high winds, with the 36-hole scoreboard going down as final.
With that, Swanson notched his second top-10 individual finish of the season and the ninth top-10 of his college career. He went 72-69 at the Greg Norman course at PGA West, leaving him at 1 under par overall, four back and champion Aiden Krafft of Oregon.
Swanson, who will turn 22 years old next month, has five more regular-season tournaments left in his college golf career, then the Big 12 Championships and possibly NCAA regionals and national championships.
Swanson, a former two-time Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado boys player of the year, teamed with Wes Erling to win the CGA Four-Ball title last May. He’s helped CU advance to the NCAA national championship tournament twice as a team so far during his career. He’s currently ranked No. 311 nationally among NCAA Division I men’s golfers.
Team-wise on Wednesday, No. 46-ranked CU placed 16th out of the 24-team field after struggling on day 1. Colorado State, led by Coloradan Charlie Doyle, ended up 24th, with Stanford claiming the title.
For all the scores from The Prestige, 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