A League of Their Own

There’s never been a better time to be a junior golfer in Colorado.

Ed Mate

Pictured above: Junior golfers Isaac Petersilie (left) and AJ Ott (right)

When I first started playing golf at Denver City Park Golf Course in the late 1970s, competitive junior golf in Colorado consisted of three regular tournaments—The Denver Post Tournament at City Park, the CGA Junior Match Play and Junior Stroke Play—and a couple of other events like the Insurance Youth Classic and the Optimist Junior World. 

In 1982, the Colorado Golf Association (CGA) started a series of one-day tournaments called the “Stockton-Geiberger Series” named after Dave Stockton (who was affiliated at the time with Beaver Creek Golf Club) and Al Geiberger (who was attached to the Keystone Ranch Golf Course). Then, in 1984, the CGA and the Colorado Section of the PGA formed the Colorado Junior Golf Association (CJGA). Under the aegis of the CGA, the CJGA provided youths with a steady increase in competitive playing opportunities. 

This year saw the dawn of a new era in junior golf in Colorado with the launch of the Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado (JGAC)—a partnership founded by the CGA and the Colorado Section of the PGA. This new endeavor has everyone in the golf community “JGAC’d” (pronounced “jacked”) for junior golf—including Ryder Cup Captain Davis Love III, who appeared with six-time Solheim Cup player Dottie Pepper, PGA of America CEO Pete Bevacqua, USGA President Diana Murphy, Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Ann Finke and other golf luminaries in a video on the Alliance’s website, juniorgolfcolorado.org.

Adding to the tremendous opportunities available for Colorado’s emerging players is the partnership between the JGAC and the country’s preeminent competitive junior golf organization—the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA). Last June the AJGA brought the AJGA Hale Irwin Colorado Junior to Colorado, marking the first AJGA event in the state since 2012. This year’s AJGA Hale Irwin Colorado Junior tournament will take place June 6-9 at Highlands Ranch Golf Club.

Junior golfer Mary Weinstein putts

Junior Golf has certainly come a long way in the last 30 years. Between the new JGAC, AJGA, CHSAA (which oversees all high school championships) and assorted junior tournaments throughout the state, there are more than 200 competitive playing opportunities available this year for Colorado junior golfers.

The JGAC will have a Junior Tour (for boys with a handicap index below 8.1 and girls with one below 14.1) and a Junior Series (divided by age groups for players with higher handicaps). It’ll be great to see the beginners improve over the season and the more accomplished boys (among them, Jackson Solem, Davis Bryant, Coby Welch, Isaac Petersilie and AJ Ott) and girls (such as Caroline Jordaan, Mary Weinstein, Erin Sargent, Amy Chitkoksoong and Charlotte Hillary) gunning for each other in the four majors, including the newly created, season-ending Junior Tour Championship at Cherry Hills Country Club October 8-9.

Above: Coby Welch

The first-ever Junior Tour champions will be crowned then. Who will they be? The JGAC’s inspiring “Are you next?” tagline suggests unlimited possibility for the thousands of boys and girls who now have competitive opportunities that didn’t exist 35 years ago.
I would love to be 15 again!

Amy Chitkoksoong

Davis Bryant

Ed Mate is executive director of the Colorado Golf Association.

This article appeared in the May 2016 issue of Colorado AvidGolfer.

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