Colorado Christian University men’s golf team — winner of 7 of its last 9 tournaments, including all 3 this season — No. 1 in first Div. II National Collegiate Golf Rankings, by a lot
By Gary Baines – 10/18/2024
Perhaps it’s fitting that the Colorado Christian University men’s golf team will wrap up the fall portion of its schedule in Hawaii, a place many people consider to be paradise.
After all, the Cougars’ start to the season couldn’t have gone much better, so to finish the fall in an ideal place seems appropriate.
Five months after CCU won the men’s NCAA Division II national title to become the first Colorado-based college program to claim a national team championship in golf, the Cougars haven’t missed a beat.
Not only have they won their first three tournaments of the year, but the margins of victory have been remarkable — 57 strokes at The Writz at Mile High, 3 at The National Preview, and 26 at the WWU Men’s Invitational.
This is particularly notable now because first ratings of the season from the National Collegiate Golf Ranking System in men’s Division II were just released. And in the “average weighted points” category — which determines where a program falls in the rankings — CCU leads No. 2-ranked North Georgia by 44.16 points. To put that into perspective, the 23rd-ranked team in DII, Henderson State, trails No. 2 North Georgia by less points than that (43.91). (Not surprisingly, CCU is also ranked No. 1 by college coaches.)
Individually in the DII National Collegiate Golf Rankings, Colorado Christian players occupy the top two spots (Sungyeop Cho is No. 1 and Adam Duncan No. 2) along with No. 15 (Sangha Park), No. 17 (Xavier Bighaus) and No. 25 (Bradley Mulder). Duncan, Cho and Bighaus have earned individual victories so far this season. Cho also posted a top-10 finish in the prestigious Asia Pacific Amateur.
Dating back to April 1, the Cougars have earned seven team titles in their last nine tournaments — an amazing run of success at the college level, given that those tourneys have featured anywhere from 7 to 20 teams in the field. And that run includes the national title on May 25, when CCU defeated then-top-ranked North Georgia in the championship match.
Next up for CCU are two tournaments next week on the Big Island in Hawaii — in Waimea Monday and Tuesday, and Waikoloa Village Oct. 25-26.
CCU isn’t the only Colorado-based men’s team in the top 20 in the DII National Collegiate Golf Rankings as Colorado Mesa in Grand Junction sits at No. 11.
Meanwhile, in men’s Division I, the University of Colorado is ranked 33rd nationally and Colorado State 50th. And in women’s DI, three Colorado-based schools are in the top 100, with CU 73rd, the University of Denver 80th and Colorado State 97th.
To view all the National Collegiate Golf Rankings, 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