CGA championship/USGA qualifying schedule starts with a flurry over the next 3 weeks
By Gary Baines – 4/23/2026
It’s mid-spring, and for top-level competitive golfers with aspirations of winning CGA titles and/or qualifying for USGA championships, it’s go time.
Next week marks the first USGA qualifying tournament of 2026 in Colorado, and the first CGA championship. And by mid-May, five USGA qualifiers and two CGA championships will be in the books.
Here’s a brief preview of those events that fall at the very beginning of a 2026 season that will feature 25 CGA championships/tournaments and 17 USGA qualifiers in the Centennial State:
— U.S. Senior Open Local Qualifying April 27 at CommonGround Golf Course in Aurora — The U.S. Senior Open qualifying is now a two-stage affair, with those most of the 15 golfers who advance from this qualifier moving on to final qualifying June 3 at the Country Club of Colorado in Colorado Springs. Lest anyone forget, the 2025 U.S. Senior Open was contested at The Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs, where World Golf Hall of Famer Padraig Harrington claimed the title.
Among those set to compete at CommonGround are Colorado Open champions Jonathan Kaye (winner of two PGA Tour events), Brian Guetz and Scott Petersen. Colorado Golf Hall of Famers Kent Moore and Robert Polk, along with former Colorado Senior Open champion Doug Rohrbaugh and three-time CGA Senior Player of the Year Steve Ivan also are in the field.
For the U.S. Senior Open Local Qualifying pairings, CLICK HERE.
— CGA Four-Ball May 1-3 at RainDance National and Highland Meadows in Windsor — A total of 104 two-person teams will tee it up the first two days — alternating courses for those rounds — before the final day is set solely at RainDance.
2025 champions Hunter Swanson and Wes Erling won’t return to defend their title, and the winners the previous two years (Jimmy Makloski and Parker Edens) aren’t entered either. But two-time CGA Match Play champion Nick Nosewicz, who was on teams that claimed Four-Ball titles in 2019 and ’22, is scheduled to tee it up this time, partnering with two-time CGA Player of the Year Pat Grady. Nosewicz’s winning partner from 2022, Cole Nygren, will pair up with Collin Engelhardt next week.
Among those also in the field are several members of the Team Colorado elite junior squad — partners Miles Kuhl and Brayden Forte, Ash Edwards and Gavin Amella, and Nicholas Brooks and Austin Hunt.
For CGA Four-Ball pairings, CLICK HERE.
— U.S. Open Local Qualifying May 5 at Walnut Creek and Collindale, and May 7 at Thorncreek — Like U.S. Senior Open qualifying, this is a two-stage process, with top finishers at U.S. Open locals moving on to the final stage of qualifying. Most 36-hole final-stage qualifiers are scheduled for June 8, but there are also ones on May 18 and 25. As has been the case for more than a decade, none will be held in Colorado.
Among the top players scheduled to compete in locals at Collindale are Sam Saunders, AJ Ott, Jake Staiano, Tristin Goodwin, Ty Holbrook and Pat Grady. At Walnut Creek, the field includes reigning Colorado Open champion Jim Knous, Connor Jones, Geoff Keffer, Kane Webber and Caine Fitzgerald. At Thorncreek there’s Hunter Swanson, Derek Tolan, Brandon Knight, Tyler Long, Jimmy Makloski and Ben Lanting.
For a list of competitors, click on the following: COLLINDALE, WALNUT CREEK, THORNCREEK.
— U.S. Women’s Open Qualifying May 12 at Walnut Creek — This is one of just three Colorado-based qualifiers that lead directly to berths in USGA open championships. (The others are the U.S. Senior Open and the U.S. Senior Women’s Open.) In this case, it’s a 36-hole qualifier, with 54 competitors vying for berths into the U.S. Women’s Open, set for Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif., June 4-7. (The number of qualifiers from Walnut Creek hasn’t been announced, but two from the Colorado qualifier last year advanced.)
A number of LPGA Tour regulars — and former regulars — will tee it up, including one-time winner Natalie Gulbis. Numerous top college competitors and golfers from Colorado will be in the field as well.
For the list of competitors for the USWO qualifying, CLICK HERE.
— CGA Senior Four-Ball May 12-14 at the Broadlands — This event, for players age 55 and older, will feature 52 two-man teams.
Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Jon Lindstrom and partner Richard Bradsby, the 2025 CGA Senior Player of the Year, will defend their title. (The two have also won two open-age CGA Four-Ball championships together.)
Also scheduled to compete next month are Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Robert Polk and Bill Fowler, Steve Ivan and Bruce Hogg, Dave Delich and Chris Carlson, Victor Minovich and Ed Kerr, John Hornbeck and Robin Bradbury, and Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Kent Moore and CGA executive director Ed Mate.
Polk has won the Senior Four-Ball a record-tying five times, including three with Fowler.
For the Senior Four-Ball field, CLICK HERE.
Colorado Golf Journal 