Workman Wins 81st CGA Amateur

Glenn Workman of Desert Hawk at Pueblo West certainly lived up to his surname in the 81st Colorado Golf Association Amateur Championship.

The senior-to-be at the University of Wyoming put in a workman-like effort to make birdies on two of the final three holes at the Sonnenalp Club in Edwards and win the event by two strokes.

Workman carded a final-round 69 to finish at 6-under 278, two shots clear of Mountain West Conference rival Jake Staiano of Colorado State University and Glenmoor Country Club. Two weeks ago, Staiano was low amateur in the CoBank Colorado Open, playing in the final group on Sunday with eventual champion Jonathan Kaye.

The win marked the first time the same player had won both the Wyoming State Amateur and Colorado State Amateur in the same year. In June, the 21-year-old Workman eked out a one-stroke victory at Laramie’s Jacoby Golf Course, shooting a 10-under 203 to become the Wyoming Amateur champion.

At Sonnenalp, Workman led at end of each of the first three rounds but felt the breath of his competitors on his neck all day Sunday.

By the 16th hole, Staiano, whom Workman led by four shots when the the final round began, had closed to within one shot. So had the University of Denver’s  Isaac Petersilie.

On 16, however, Workman drained a knee-knocker for a birdie, while the other two made pars.

A clutch sand save on the par-3 17th kept Workman two shots clear of Staiano, who, like Workman, would birdie the par-5 18th. Petersilie would take third, a shot behind Staiano, who fired a 4-under 67 on Sunday.

Workman celebrated his first CGA Championship on the same course that Kevin Stadler won the 2002 Colorado Open and Brandt Jobe took the CGA Stroke Play Championship (as the Colorado Amateur Championship was then known).

He won’t be playing in the U.S. Amateur, which takes place August 14-20 at Riviera Country Club (with Bel-Air as the supporting course). Staiano, along with CSU teammates A.J. Ott and Parathakorn “Poon” Suyasri, qualified and will be competing.

See the full leaderboard from the CGA Amateur.