2 Colorado Christian University golfers selected for Genesis Invitational’s Collegiate Showcase, at which a berth in a 2025 PGA Tour event will be at stake
By Gary Baines – 2/7/2025
Two players from a Colorado-based college golf program will be on a big stage Monday, hoping to earn a spot on another big one.
Xavier Bighaus, a senior on the Colorado Christian University men’s squad that won an NCAA Division II national team championship last year, has landed a berth in the 2025 Collegiate Showcase at the Genesis Invitational by being named the event’s 2025 Pathway Player on Thursday. He’ll be joined in Monday’s tournament field — at Torrey Pines’ South Course in La Jolla, Calif. — by CCU teammate Sangha Park.
According to GenesisInvitational.com, the Pathway Player invitation is awarded annually to a collegiate golfer with a minority background who excels on the golf course and academically.
The winner of the Collegiate Showcase on Monday at Torrey Pines — where the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational will take place later in the week — will earn a spot into the PGA Tour’s Barracuda Championship, set for July 17-20 in Truckee, Calif.
In all, a dozen players are scheduled to compete in the Collegiate Showcase. Also in the field is Wyoming senior Jaren Calkins, from Lander, Wyo.
(Feb. 10 Update: Cole Rueck of Boise State went on to win the Collegiate Showcase for the second straight year on Monday, landing the Barracuda Championship berth.)
Bighaus is a senior from Melissa, Texas currently ranked No. 17 in the nation among Division II golfers. He won the individual title at the WWU Invitational on Oct. 1. Bighaus was part of the five-man CCU squad that defeated North Georgia in the NCAA Division II title match in May. He also won the Southwest Airlines Showcase, an all-star invitational, in November. He was the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference individual champion in 2023.
“It is a true honor to be able to represent my university in the Collegiate Showcase,” Bighaus said in a release. “I am extremely excited to have an opportunity to compete in an event with such a prestigious exemption on the line. I hope that my participation will help inspire more kids who look like me to compete at the highest levels of our sport.”
Park is a graduate student from South Korea who’s ranked No. 4 in the country in DII. He won the Dennis Rose Intercollegiate in October and posted three other top-3 finishes individually.
CCU is ranked No. 1 in the nation as a team in DII after winning team titles in all five of its fall tournaments.
Monday’s Collegiate Showcase also includes a competition in which teams featuring a college golfer and three other amateurs play in a best-ball, with the winning squad earning a $50,000 donation to the school’s golf program. Each of the dozen teams will consist of one college player and three other amateurs. The college golfers represent eight schools in all.
Among the previous Collegiate Showcase individual winners are Scottie Scheffler (2018, University of Texas), Sahith Theegala (2017, Pepperdine) and Will Zalatoris (2015, Wake Forest).
For more information about the Collegiate Showcase, 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