State Title on the Line

The CGA Amateur begins on Thursday, and there are several players riding high heading into the 72-hole championship at Pinehurst Country Club in south Denver:

— There’s Kyler Dunkle of The Club at Pradera, the 2016 CGA Player of the Year who finished ninth overall and was low-amateur in last week’s CoBank Colorado Open. The University of Utah golfer has also qualified for this month’s U.S. Amateur.

— There’s Colorado State University golfer AJ Ott of Ptarmigan Country Club, who won the 2018 CGA Match Play, has qualified for the U.S. Amateur and finished 19th in the Colorado Open. Ott is ranked No. 156 among the world’s amateur golfers.

— There’s former University of Denver golfer Chris Korte of Littleton, who’s won both the CGA Match Play (2017) and the CGA Amateur (2015) and just finished 22nd against a packed field at the Pacific Coast Amateur at The Olympic Club in San Francisco.

And those are just a few of the most notable players scheduled to compete at Pinehurst. Eighty-four golfers will be in the field, which will be cut to the low 40 and ties after two rounds. A champion will be decided on Sunday at Pinehurst, which has most recently hosted the CGA Amateur in 2013 and 2008.

Also set to compete at Pinehurst are U.S. Amateur qualifier Coby Welch, a University of Northern Colorado golfer; Pac-12 Conference runner-up and CGA Western Chapter champion Ross Macdonald, a University of Colorado golfer; 2016 CGA Amateur winner Colin Prater of The Broadmoor Golf Club; Griffin Barela of Bear Creek Golf Club, a University of Wisconsin golfer who placed 15th in the Colorado Open; University of Mississippi golfer Josh Seiple from Castle Pines Golf Club; Jon Lindstrom of Lakewood Country Club and Chris Thayer of Walnut Creek Golf Preserve, winner of five CGA Mid-Amateurs between them; and 2015 CGA Match Play champion Nick Nosewicz of Meadow Hills Golf Course.

For Thursday’s pairings at Pinehurst, CLICK HERE.