Colorado Golf Association Names Players of the Year

Jake Staiano, Keith Atkins, Chris Thayer and Kent Moore rewarded for outstanding 2017 performances.  By Jon Rizzi

 

Little to no mystery surrounded whom the Colorado Golf Association would name as its four 2017 players of the year.

You only had to look at the names atop the points list in each category—open, mid-am, senior and super-senior. The CGA rewarded the players who topped the season-long leaderboard, making the awards a foregone conclusion.

CLICK HERE to read about the CWGA Players of the Year

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Jake Staiano of Glenmoor Country Club earned the CGA’s Les Fowler Player of the Year. The Colorado State University junior amassed 1350 points, 346 ahead of Desert Hawk at Pueblo West’s Glenn Workman, and never finished lower than fifth in the eight events in which he played.

In the Colorado Amateur championship, Staiano finished second to Workman, a senior at the University of Wyoming who also edged Staiano to win the Wyoming Amateur and was named the Wyoming Golf Association’s 2017 Player of the Year.

Impressively, Staiano earned low-amateur honors in the CoBank Colorado Open, shooting a 15-under-par over the four-day event, finishing eighth overall after being tied for the lead after 57 holes. He carded an even-par 72 on Sunday, playing in the final group with eventual champion Jonathan Kaye and 2016 champion Neil Johnson.

At Columbine Country Club, Staiano qualified for his second U.S. Amateur. He also advanced to Sectionals at U.S. Open qualifying and the semifinals of the CGA Match Play.

For the third consecutive season, Chris Thayer earned the CGA’s Mid-Am Player of the Year honors. Thayer, who played collegiately at Northwestern and initially belonged to Denver’s Bear Creek Golf Club, now plays out of Walnut Creek Golf Preserve in Westminster.

Thayer won the 31st CGA Mid-Amateur Championship and tied for third among amateurs at the CoBank Colorado Open. His 875 points edged Lakewood Country Club‘s Jon Lindstrom by 30.

On the strength of three first-place finishes—the Aurora Senior Amateur and the senior divisions of the Collindale Invitational and Estes Park Labor Day Tournament—and no worse than fifth in seven other competitions, Keith Atkins of Windsor’s Highland Meadows Golf Course captured his first Senior Player of the Year award.

Atkins amassed 780.83 points, outscoring Ellis Owen of Flatirons Golf Course‘s 701.

No stranger to CGA awards, Kent Moore of Cherry Hills Country Club added the Super-Senior Player of the Year to his 1989 Les Fowler Player of the Year Award and two Senior Player of the Year Awards (2006 and 2014).

Moreover, the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame inductee captured the 2017 Super-Senior Match Play, giving him victories in eight different CGA championships, beginning with the 1973 Junior Match Play. Moore finished 58 points ahead of Robert Polk on the points list in the category open to players 61 years and older.

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