It was a scene that would have been highly unlikely to play out most years at the CGA Amateur:
The winner sinks his final putt of the tournament, then walks toward the back of the green, where he scoops up his young daughter in a victorious, heartfelt moment.
But that’s what happened last month at Eisenhower Golf Club’s Blue Course as 29-year-old Colin Prater shared his victorious celebration with 21-month-old daughter Blake.
At a time when the great majority of winners of the CGA Amateur are in their early 20s — or are even teenagers in the case of 2010 champion Wyndham Clark, 16 at the time — having a 29-year-old champion is indeed unusual.
In fact, Prater is the oldest winner of the CGA Amateur in 25 years — since Rick DeWitt won at age 42 in 1999.
But that was hardly the only such unusual feat the player from Cherokee Ridge Golf Course accomplished with this victory. To wit:
— Prater became the first three-time winner of the CGA Amateur in over 50 years, since Bob Byman — the U.S. Junior Amateur champion in 1972 — prevailed in three straight CGA Ams, in ’71, ’72 and ’73. For the record, another player who went on to win on the PGA Tour, three-time U.S. Open champion Hale Irwin, also was a three-time CGA Amateur champ (1963, ’64 and ’65).
Although records aren’t complete for the championship that dates back to the 1930s, among the other three-time winners of the event are Babe Lind, Jim English Sr., Les Fowler, Bob Clark Sr., and Claude Wright (actually a four-time champ). One thing all of them have in common: They’re Colorado Golf Hall of Fame inductees.
— Prater won by six strokes on Aug. 4 over 2024 CGA Match Play champion Matthew Wilkinson, a Colorado State University golfer who plays out of Lone Tree Golf Club. That’s the largest margin of victory in the CGA Am since — wait for it — Prater in 2020 (also six strokes). Prior to that, the last one with a bigger victory margin was Kane Webber, who won by seven in 2003.
All in all it was quite a performance by Prater, who lives about 20 minutes from Eisenhower GC and says he has played the Blue Course “hundreds” of times over the years.
And the fact that the win came nine days after Prater’s wife, Madi, gave birth to their second daughter, Logan, and a couple of months after he qualified for and competed in the U.S. Open, made it an abundance of riches for the science teacher at Cheyenne Mountain High School.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “I know it’s cliché, but I’m so much right now about making memories. And this is just another one of those. It’s so cool. Ever since my daughter (Blake) was born (in October 2022), it feels like every single win is more special, right?”
Adding to the memory were so many family members, friends and acquaintances being on hand as it played out. Just to name a few, that included Prater’s grandparents, parents, oldest daughter and college coach (Phil Trujillo). And a high school buddy and fellow Cheyenne Mountain assistant golf coach Cole Anderson caddied for him at Eisenhower.
“It’s kind of like almost in (my) backyard, right?” Prater said. “I’m very lucky and fortunate to have that support group. They’re always there when I need them. It was really cool to have all that support.”
With him playing some top-notch golf and having an advantage with all his experience at Eisenhower, perhaps what was printed on the front of the cap he wore during the final round said a lot: “Sunday Swagger”.
And Prater backed it up with not only his victory, but the six-stroke winning margin. He took a six-stroke lead into the final day and he was up by eight at the turn. Wilkinson cut the deficit to five down the stretch, but that was as close as it got on the final day.
In the end, Prater and Wilkinson matched 1-under-par 71s on Sunday, with Prater ending up at 19 under for the week and Wilkinson at 13 under. Then it was another big gap back to third place as University of Colorado golfer Ty Holbrook of Colorado National Golf Club and Adam Duncan from NCAA Division II national team champion Colorado Christian University tied for the No. 3 spot at 9 under. Duncan closed with a 66 and Holbrook with a 67. 2021 CGA Player of the Year Chris Thayer of CommonGround Golf Course and incoming Boise State golfer Reese Knox shared fifth place at 7 under.
“I have to take my hat off to Colin this week. He played really well,” said Wilkinson, who was trying to sweep the CGA’s two open-age majors in 2024. “I knew (my chance to win) was pretty slim just because of how well Colin is playing.”
As it was, Prater proved once again that he’s among the top amateurs in the state — whether that includes college golfers or not. Three CGA Amateur titles speak for themselves.
The win marked Prater’s sixth CGA championship overall as the former University of Colorado-Colorado Springs golfer has claimed three CGA Amateurs, one Match Play and two Mid-Amateur titles
“It’s really cool to have three,” Prater said. “Obviously now I’m going to joke that the Am is my favorite (CGA championship) — because I’ve got three of them, right? But I think (these later ones) mean more because they’re the most recent and because I’m getting older. And because I’m still showing I can play with the big boys in the state. It’s bad to say, but I kind of like to think of myself as one of those too. If I bring my ‘A’ game, I don’t think I can get beat (in events of this caliber). There’s that balance between cockiness and confidence.”
Prater went into the final round with a chance at matching or breaking what is believed to be the 72-hole record for the CGA Amateur — 24 under, set two years ago by Connor Jones. After a front-nine 33 on Sunday, Prater stood at 21 under. But that was as far in the red as Prater would go as he went 2 over for his final nine holes.
“That was the goal (to get to 24 under); I would have loved to average 6 under a day, and I was (on that pace through three rounds),” he said. “Then golf kind of stepped up and smacked me in the mouth. I was just really playing for par (down the stretch), which is probably why I made some silly, dumb bogeys.
“But I hit a lot of really good golf shots today and shot 1 under. It was playing tough. You saw it on the back nine. The wind was swirling on every hole. We really didn’t know where it was coming from, where it was going. It was just here, now it’s over there. I was a little bit perplexed at time. Just to shoot under par today was a hell of a round.”
Wilkinson’s chance at the title largely came to an end at the par-5 11th, a hole where a player of his length and ability can readily make birdie or even eagle. After he carded a birdie and Prater a bogey at No. 10 to leave the lead at six, the CSU golfer pulled his tee shot far left at 11, and his ball ended up pretty much in the midst of a large bush. He eventually opted to try to chip out further to the left — as that was his best option to set himself up to get back into the fairway. But he advanced his second shot about 2 feet before chipping further sideways a few yards with his third. After making it out to the fairway with shot 4, Wilkinson recorded a double-bogey 7 on one of the easier holes on the course.
“I birdied 10 and Colin bogeyed, so I was within six again,” Wilkinson said. “You never know what can happen on the back nine. I hit that one over there (on 11) — I was like ‘ohhh.’ That’s not where you want to hit it. It was probably the worst swing I made all week.
“I’m disappointed to lose but if you would have told me I would shoot 13 under this week, I would have been pretty happy with that. I didn’t have my best stuff today, but I fought.”
And finishing first in the CGA Match Play and runner-up in the CGA Amateur in 2024 certainly isn’t half-bad.
“I was pretty happy with how everything went this summer,” said Wilkinson, who won’t tee it up in big-time competition again until the CSU season begins. “I played well in pretty much every tournament. I had a couple of seconds, a couple of firsts, so I felt it was a pretty good summer.”
As for Prater, he scratched his four-year itch for the CGA Amateur, having now won the championship in 2016, ’20 and ’24.
“Let’s hope I can maybe get another one before then, but pretty much I’m a lock for 2028,” Prater said with a laugh.
At this point, Prater is pinching himself given how well this summer has gone for him, with the U.S. Open berth, the addition of his second daughter and now his third CGA Amateur victory. And there’s still most of five months more left in the year.
“2020 was a spectacular summer for me in the golf world (sweeping the CGA Match Play and the Amateur and being low amateur in the Inspirato Colorado Open),” Prater said. “2022 was really special as well because I won my first (CGA) Mid-Am and 10 days later our daughter (Blake) is born. This year, with the U.S. Open, Logan being born nine days ago and now this, it’s stupid, but I’m almost making more memorable summers. That’s not how it’s supposed to normally go.”
For all the scores from the CGA Amateur, 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