The University of Colorado men’s golf program has been busy on and off the course, and the latest summer update shows a team that kept piling up academic recognition while also logging results across amateur and pro events around the world.
The classroom numbers jump off the page first. CU’s men’s golf team posted a 3.851 spring GPA, its highest since tracking began in 1996.
That also marked 21 of the last 22 semesters with a GPA above 3.0. The team’s cumulative GPA climbed to an all-time high of 3.239.
Three Buffs landed on the Big 12 Conference’s Spring Honor Roll: Michael Fang, Parker Paxton and Jackson Rivera. Tyler Long was named to the Academic All-Big 12 Rookie Team, and Rivera also picked up Academic All-District honors from the College Sports Communicators on its At-Large team. Rivera is a first-year graduate student majoring in Organizational Leadership.
Graduation also brought a notable milestone in May, when Hunter Swanson earned his degree from the Leeds School of Business. He became the 43rd senior out of 43 under coach Roy Edwards to graduate from CU.
On the competition side, Ty Holbrook, Brandon Knight and Swanson traveled to Great Britain in June for the British Amateur. Holbrook was the only one of the three to advance from stroke play, tying for 23rd at 4-under 140 on the Royal Liverpool and West Lancashire courses before falling in his first match on the first extra hole to New Zealand’s Yuki Myla. Knight finished just outside the cut line by two strokes at 2-under 144, tying for 92nd, while Swanson tied for 132nd at 2-over 146 in the 288-man field.
Casey Kosney turned in a strong run of summer starts, beginning with a tie for second in the Sacramento City Amateur at 6-under 138, one shot behind the leader. He also tied for fifth in the 11th Annual Carolinian Amateur with a 3-under 213 in Buies Creek, N.C., then tied for fourth with a 4-under 68 to qualify for the 95th South Carolina Amateur Championship, set for July 23-26 in Sumter. Kosney also earned medalist honors in Carolinas Open qualifying with a 5-under 67, and he qualified for the South Carolina Match Play Championship in August.
Paxton had a big result closer to home, winning the Saltwater Classic Pro-Am by 13 shots with a 14-under 202 at Riverton Country Club. His older brother Easton also won the pro division flight by seven shots. Paxton followed that with a third-place finish in the Wyoming State Amateur, posting a 7-under 209 and finishing five strokes off the lead.
Fang, who announced he is transferring to UT-Arlington after his sophomore season at CU, did not make the cut in the Southwestern Amateur. He opened with an 89 but bounced back with a second-round 77, the best improvement by anyone in the 90-man field.
Among the incoming and future Buffs, Gavin Amella had one of the most impressive summer showings. The Castle View High School product tied for seventh in the stroke-play portion of the CGA Junior Championship at 2-under 138, then ran the table in match play, winning five straight matches to capture the title.
That run also earned him a spot in the U.S. Junior Amateur, scheduled for July 20-25 in Bethlehem, Pa.
Colt Farrow added another strong summer line to his résumé at Andover Central in Kansas. He earned Kansas 5A All-State honors for the fourth time, along with four All-Metro and four All-League nods, even though Kansas rules kept him from defending his state title after he played in an outside AJGA event before the state meet. Farrow tied for 16th in the AJGA Team TaylorMade Invitational with an even-par 210, and when the PGA Americas stopped in Wichita last week, he caddied for Justin Biwer.
Asher Whitaker, who announced in early June that he is transferring to CU from Oklahoma with two years of eligibility remaining, missed the cut by three shots at the Dogwood Invitational in Atlanta, finishing at 1-over 217.
The alumni group kept producing, too. Jeremy Paul tied for third on the final day of May at the Korn Ferry Tour’s UNC Health Championship in Raleigh with an 8-under 270.
Yannik Paul rebounded from three straight missed cuts on Tour to tie for eighth in the Blot Play9 in Pleneuf, France, finishing at 7-under 273 and carding a final-round 64, the best score of the day. He’s in the field for this week’s DP Tour stop, the BMW Invitational in Munich.
Justin Biwer has made a steady push since qualifying for the PGA Tour Americas this spring. He made the cut in all six events on the South American leg, sits 24th in the point standings, and is positioned to play the full 15-event schedule as the tour heads north into Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.
His best finish so far came in Colombia, where he tied for fifth at 8-under 273 and spent time near the top of the board. He missed the cut in the weather-shortened event in Wichita last week, and his next stop is the Korn Ferry event at TPC Colorado in Berthoud.
Freddy Eisenbeis won the Madaëf Golfs Open in Morocco in late April, finishing at 10-under 206 to claim his first Pro Golf Tour title. A birdie on the last hole sealed it, and he’s added three other top-16 finishes this year. Dylan McDermott also logged a pair of top-20 results on the GPro Tour in North Carolina, tying for 16th in the Woodlake Open and tying for 13th in the Kannapolis Open.
The latest World Amateur Golf Rankings, released July 1, list Holbrook at No. 517, Knight at No.
556, Paxton at No. 1142, Rivera at No.
1369, Whitaker at No. 1246 and Long at No. 1806.
Kosney and incoming freshmen Amella and Farrow are not yet ranked.
Looking ahead, Amella, Biwer, Swanson, Derek Fribbs ('13) and Tucker Clark ('25) will be among the players trying to qualify Monday, July 6, for the Korn Ferry Tour’s The Blue Championship at TPC Colorado in Berthoud. That tournament runs July 9-12. Several current and former Buffs will also tee it up in the 62nd Colorado Open from July 23-26 at Green Valley Ranch CC.
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