Colorado University Athletics
Hunter Swanson drains a putt Wednesday en route to a final round 69.
Photo by: CUBuffs.com
Golfers Finish Fifth In Ka'anapali Classic by OUTRIGGER
October 29, 2025 | Men's Golf
Three Buffs Post Rounds In The 60’s To Wrap The Fall Season
LAHAINA, Maui – The University of Colorado men's golf team had a solid final round in little windier conditions than the previous two days, but held on for a fifth place finish in the 11th Annual Ka'anapali Classic by OUTRIGGER, the Buffaloes final tournament in the fall '25-26 season.
No. 21 Oklahoma cruised to its fourth straight title here, as with four players finishing in the top 14, the Sooners posted an incredible 63-under par team score of 789. A school record, it tied the fifth-best performance in relation to par in collegiate golf history, four of which have been recorded since April 2023.
The top six remained unchanged in the standings, as there was just a five-stroke differential between the schools. No. 59 TCU earned runner-up honors with a 51-under par 801 – which ranks 28th all-time in relation to par itself – followed by No. 40 Georgia (47-under 805), No. 58 Florida Gulf Coast (40-under 812), No. 39 Colorado (37-under 815) and No. 71 San Jose State (34-under 818).
The Buffaloes did drop into sixth place late – albeit it briefly – but all four players who scored for the Buffs birdied the par-5 first hole with San Jose's having just two do so, and thus were able to rally to finish the final round with an 11-under 273, matching SJSU. It added to the school record with its 11th straight subpar round as a team; CU is 123-under par during the streak. For the fall, the Buffs finished in the top five in all five events, with two runner-up and two third place finishes prior to Wednesday.
Senior Hunter Swanson and junior Ty Holbrook both tied for 14th after recording 10-under par 203 efforts on the 6,700-yard, par-71 Royal Ka'anapali golf course on the west side of Maui. It marked the 10th time in the Buff record book that two players finished at least 10 strokes under par in a tournament, the third time on a par-71 course.
Swanson bookended his fall, as after opening in Washington State's Palouse Collegiate with a 10-under 203, he recorded the same score here in Maui, closing this event with a 2-under 69. It marked the 17th time in 42 tournaments he has finished under par (with two even-par efforts), and by far was his best finish here in four tries. He birdied two of his first four holes and remained in red numbers the rest of the way, closing with four birdies and 12 pars opposite two bogeys, with his four bogeys overall tying for the seventh-fewest in the 120-man field. He had 16 birdies and 33 pars overall (with one double bogey), and played the par-4's the 12th-best in the field at 5-under. He was 6-under on the par-5's and 1-over on the par-3's. He is now tied for fourth all-time at CU with 37 rounds in the 60's after posting two here, with his 67 rounds of par or better now fifth.
Holbrook recorded his second bogey-free round here – the third of his career – as his pristine round featured seven birdies and 11 pars on his way to the 10-under par 203 performance. He had opened with a bogey-free 67 and posted an even-par round in-between. He played the par-4's at 7-under, tied for fourth-best in the field, also with his four bogeys tying for the seventh-fewest. Overall, he 14 birdies and 34 pars (and one eagle and one double bogey). He likely was one of the nation's most dominant players on par-5 holes this fall: with two more birdies and a par Wednesday, he had five birds and four pars here overall and for the fall, of the 57 par-5's he had two eagles, 37 birdies, 16 pars and two bogeys (or 39-under par).
Sophomore Parker Paxton finished with an even-par 71 for a 9-under 204 total, tying him for 18th – his fifth top 20 finish in as many efforts this fall. It did end his school record streak of 14 consecutive rounds under par, but did tie the mark for the most rounds of par or better in succession with 15, set by Dylan McDermott last year. He was 2-over par two-thirds of the way through his round, but rallied with two birdies down the stretch to keep the latter streak alive. His 19 birdies tied for the fifth-most overall, with 26 pars against eight bogeys and a double. He played the par-4's tied for the 12th-best with Swanson at 5-under, while his 7-under efforts on the par-5 holes tied for 14th (seven birdies, two pars on the nine).
First-year graduate transfer Jackson Rivera tied for 50th after closing with a 2-over 73; he finished with a 3-under 210 total, his best 54-hole score as a Buff. He led the Buffs in pars here with 36, tied for 11th-most in the field, to go with 11 birdies, six bogeys and a double. He was even or in the red on all par configurations, as he was 2-under on the par-5's, 1-under on the par-4's and even on the par-3's. Wednesday ended a run of seven straight rounds of par or better for the former USC golfer, as he closed with two birdies, 12 pars (for the third straight round) and four bogeys; he was 3-over after seven holes but settled down to finish out at 1-under.
Junior Brandon Knight carded a final round 3-under 68, his best round of the three here in finishing with an even-par 213 total, vaulting him up 29 spots in the standings into a tie for 67th. He had an eagle – his fourth of the season and ninth of his career – with four birdies and 10 pars in the final round; he had 11 birdies and 31 pars overall with the eagle, opposite nine bogeys and two doubles. He opened strong with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 6 and 7 and then eagled the 485-yard, par-5 ninth to get back in the red, but played the back nine a 3-over. He was able to get back to even for the tourney with birdies on No. 1 and his final hole, No. 5.
Freshman Tyler Long competed here as an individual (his scores did not count toward CU's team total); he closed with a second 3-under 68 here for a 5-under 208 score, his college-best 54-hole score –and tied for 37th. He wrapped things with an eagle – his third of the fall – five birdies and nine pars, and for the week, he had the eagle, 15 birdies, 30 pars, five bogeys, two doubles and a triple. He played the par-5's the best at 6-under, the par-4's even and the par-3's at 1-over. His second round 1-over 72 ended a streak of eight straight rounds of par or better – seven of the subpar variety – both of which tied school records for freshmen.
"Overall, another nice event," head coach Roy Edwards said. "We did a good job today of staying in the round despite not playing our best. Our team always competes and that is such an underrated and important characteristic to have. It was another very strong event from Parker. He has had an incredible fall -- every round of par or better is just amazing. It won't be the last time he breaks CU records as he is a special one.
"Ty was much more like himself today, shooting a bogey-free 65 on the toughest day of the three was definitely impressive," he added. "Hunter was the same, it was his best performance here of the four times he played here. Both finishing 14th was good for them. Brandon bounced back nicely as did Tyler, 68's today were good scores, too."
Oklahoma's Ryder Cowan claimed medalist honors with a 20-under par 193 score, as he had an eagle and 21 birdies and only three bogeys for the week. That edged TCU's Sam Udovich, who finished a stroke back with a 19-under 194 total; he had 21 birdies and just two bogeys and played his last 39 holes all at par or better.
All in all, the fall was good," Edwards said. "Our consistency was right there, though I am surprised we didn't win an event or two. But to finish with a head to head record of 68-10-2 shows this team is capable of some big-time golf. We're definitely looking forward to the spring and to what else this team can accomplish."
The Buffaloes have the next three-and-a-half months off but will return to action in The Prestige at PGA West in LaQuinta, Calif., next February 16-18.
NOTES: Mostly sunny skies prevailed throughout the round, with the temperature hovering around 81 degrees and the trade winds gusting from 10-14 miles per hour … Colorado loves this tournament almost as much as Oklahoma does –the Sooners were on fire here – as four of CU's top 14 tournament scores in relation to par (54 holes) have now been recorded here (2021, 2022, 2024, 2025) … The average score for all 360 rounds was 70.81 (a high of 71.73 in the final round, compared to 70.47 for the first and 70.22 for the second) … There were 66 players who finished under par and six others that were even-par with 213 scores … Oklahoma and Georgia placed four in the top 20, while CU and TCU had three each … The seven-toughest holes for the event, in order, were Nos. 18, 10, 5, 8, 16, 13 and 15; during the last round, TCU played those the best (+4), followed by Georgia (+5), CU and Florida Gulf Coast (+6) and Oklahoma (+9); over the three rounds, the Sooners scorers were 2-under on those holes, CU's were 9-over … The five CU scorers played the par-4's at 17-under (fourth; Oklahoma and Florida Gulf Coast led at 21-under), the par-5's at 25-under (seventh; OU and FGCU also led at 36-under) and the par-3's at 10-over, 15th in the field (Oklahoma topped the list at 6-under) … Colorado tied for the eighth-most eagles (3; five teams had five), had the fourth-most birdies (71; Oklahoma had 83), the seventh-most pars (160; Kansas had the most with 182), the fifth-fewest bogeys (31; OU had just 22) and had the seventh-fewest double-bogeys or worse (6, Georgia and FGCU had two) … Colorado had three eagles here, now with 17 this season (by seven different players) – that's already over halfway to challenging the team record of 30 set last year … CU polished off the fall season with its 14th subpar round out of 15 played; the school best of 29 subpar rounds was set last year, with 25 in 2017-18 the second-most … In Roy Williams Era at CU (20th season), the Buffaloes now have 252 subpar rounds; in the school's history before his arrival, Colorado had just 84 … CU's scorers this fall were an impressive 166-under par … Colorado's eight players have combined to play 105 this fall – 80 have been par or better (66 subpar, 14 even) with 44 rounds in the 60's – leading to a team stroke average of 70.39 – the best in school history (last year's team had set the record of 70.53) … Parker Paxton lowered his team leading stroke average to 68.80, tied for the second-best fall average in school history; for the first time three players ended the fall with sub-70 numbers: Hunter Swanson's 69.73 average is the fifth-best and Brandon Knight's 69.93 the sixth-best … Overall, seven players had sub-72 averages for the fall (the previous high was six), with five having sub-71 numbers (easily topping the old best of two); all are in the red in SCIRP (stroke count in relation to par) … Tyler Long wrapped his first semester by recording the second-best fall stroke average by a freshman – 70.60 – Justin Biwer set the record, 70.07 in '21-22, when Dylan McDermott posted the previous second-best of 71.33. Long recorded 11 rounds out of 15 of par or better … For the fall, the final fifth-man scoring average was 73.2, while the fourth-man number is a very healthy 71.3 … Colorado was 14-4 here against Division I competition, giving it a final fall record of 68-10-2 (.863) for the five events; it finished 33-14-7 mark in single rounds here, ending the fall at 181-43-11 (.94).
No. 21 Oklahoma cruised to its fourth straight title here, as with four players finishing in the top 14, the Sooners posted an incredible 63-under par team score of 789. A school record, it tied the fifth-best performance in relation to par in collegiate golf history, four of which have been recorded since April 2023.
The top six remained unchanged in the standings, as there was just a five-stroke differential between the schools. No. 59 TCU earned runner-up honors with a 51-under par 801 – which ranks 28th all-time in relation to par itself – followed by No. 40 Georgia (47-under 805), No. 58 Florida Gulf Coast (40-under 812), No. 39 Colorado (37-under 815) and No. 71 San Jose State (34-under 818).
The Buffaloes did drop into sixth place late – albeit it briefly – but all four players who scored for the Buffs birdied the par-5 first hole with San Jose's having just two do so, and thus were able to rally to finish the final round with an 11-under 273, matching SJSU. It added to the school record with its 11th straight subpar round as a team; CU is 123-under par during the streak. For the fall, the Buffs finished in the top five in all five events, with two runner-up and two third place finishes prior to Wednesday.
Senior Hunter Swanson and junior Ty Holbrook both tied for 14th after recording 10-under par 203 efforts on the 6,700-yard, par-71 Royal Ka'anapali golf course on the west side of Maui. It marked the 10th time in the Buff record book that two players finished at least 10 strokes under par in a tournament, the third time on a par-71 course.
Swanson bookended his fall, as after opening in Washington State's Palouse Collegiate with a 10-under 203, he recorded the same score here in Maui, closing this event with a 2-under 69. It marked the 17th time in 42 tournaments he has finished under par (with two even-par efforts), and by far was his best finish here in four tries. He birdied two of his first four holes and remained in red numbers the rest of the way, closing with four birdies and 12 pars opposite two bogeys, with his four bogeys overall tying for the seventh-fewest in the 120-man field. He had 16 birdies and 33 pars overall (with one double bogey), and played the par-4's the 12th-best in the field at 5-under. He was 6-under on the par-5's and 1-over on the par-3's. He is now tied for fourth all-time at CU with 37 rounds in the 60's after posting two here, with his 67 rounds of par or better now fifth.
Holbrook recorded his second bogey-free round here – the third of his career – as his pristine round featured seven birdies and 11 pars on his way to the 10-under par 203 performance. He had opened with a bogey-free 67 and posted an even-par round in-between. He played the par-4's at 7-under, tied for fourth-best in the field, also with his four bogeys tying for the seventh-fewest. Overall, he 14 birdies and 34 pars (and one eagle and one double bogey). He likely was one of the nation's most dominant players on par-5 holes this fall: with two more birdies and a par Wednesday, he had five birds and four pars here overall and for the fall, of the 57 par-5's he had two eagles, 37 birdies, 16 pars and two bogeys (or 39-under par).
Sophomore Parker Paxton finished with an even-par 71 for a 9-under 204 total, tying him for 18th – his fifth top 20 finish in as many efforts this fall. It did end his school record streak of 14 consecutive rounds under par, but did tie the mark for the most rounds of par or better in succession with 15, set by Dylan McDermott last year. He was 2-over par two-thirds of the way through his round, but rallied with two birdies down the stretch to keep the latter streak alive. His 19 birdies tied for the fifth-most overall, with 26 pars against eight bogeys and a double. He played the par-4's tied for the 12th-best with Swanson at 5-under, while his 7-under efforts on the par-5 holes tied for 14th (seven birdies, two pars on the nine).
First-year graduate transfer Jackson Rivera tied for 50th after closing with a 2-over 73; he finished with a 3-under 210 total, his best 54-hole score as a Buff. He led the Buffs in pars here with 36, tied for 11th-most in the field, to go with 11 birdies, six bogeys and a double. He was even or in the red on all par configurations, as he was 2-under on the par-5's, 1-under on the par-4's and even on the par-3's. Wednesday ended a run of seven straight rounds of par or better for the former USC golfer, as he closed with two birdies, 12 pars (for the third straight round) and four bogeys; he was 3-over after seven holes but settled down to finish out at 1-under.
Junior Brandon Knight carded a final round 3-under 68, his best round of the three here in finishing with an even-par 213 total, vaulting him up 29 spots in the standings into a tie for 67th. He had an eagle – his fourth of the season and ninth of his career – with four birdies and 10 pars in the final round; he had 11 birdies and 31 pars overall with the eagle, opposite nine bogeys and two doubles. He opened strong with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 6 and 7 and then eagled the 485-yard, par-5 ninth to get back in the red, but played the back nine a 3-over. He was able to get back to even for the tourney with birdies on No. 1 and his final hole, No. 5.
Freshman Tyler Long competed here as an individual (his scores did not count toward CU's team total); he closed with a second 3-under 68 here for a 5-under 208 score, his college-best 54-hole score –and tied for 37th. He wrapped things with an eagle – his third of the fall – five birdies and nine pars, and for the week, he had the eagle, 15 birdies, 30 pars, five bogeys, two doubles and a triple. He played the par-5's the best at 6-under, the par-4's even and the par-3's at 1-over. His second round 1-over 72 ended a streak of eight straight rounds of par or better – seven of the subpar variety – both of which tied school records for freshmen.
"Overall, another nice event," head coach Roy Edwards said. "We did a good job today of staying in the round despite not playing our best. Our team always competes and that is such an underrated and important characteristic to have. It was another very strong event from Parker. He has had an incredible fall -- every round of par or better is just amazing. It won't be the last time he breaks CU records as he is a special one.
"Ty was much more like himself today, shooting a bogey-free 65 on the toughest day of the three was definitely impressive," he added. "Hunter was the same, it was his best performance here of the four times he played here. Both finishing 14th was good for them. Brandon bounced back nicely as did Tyler, 68's today were good scores, too."
Oklahoma's Ryder Cowan claimed medalist honors with a 20-under par 193 score, as he had an eagle and 21 birdies and only three bogeys for the week. That edged TCU's Sam Udovich, who finished a stroke back with a 19-under 194 total; he had 21 birdies and just two bogeys and played his last 39 holes all at par or better.
All in all, the fall was good," Edwards said. "Our consistency was right there, though I am surprised we didn't win an event or two. But to finish with a head to head record of 68-10-2 shows this team is capable of some big-time golf. We're definitely looking forward to the spring and to what else this team can accomplish."
The Buffaloes have the next three-and-a-half months off but will return to action in The Prestige at PGA West in LaQuinta, Calif., next February 16-18.
NOTES: Mostly sunny skies prevailed throughout the round, with the temperature hovering around 81 degrees and the trade winds gusting from 10-14 miles per hour … Colorado loves this tournament almost as much as Oklahoma does –the Sooners were on fire here – as four of CU's top 14 tournament scores in relation to par (54 holes) have now been recorded here (2021, 2022, 2024, 2025) … The average score for all 360 rounds was 70.81 (a high of 71.73 in the final round, compared to 70.47 for the first and 70.22 for the second) … There were 66 players who finished under par and six others that were even-par with 213 scores … Oklahoma and Georgia placed four in the top 20, while CU and TCU had three each … The seven-toughest holes for the event, in order, were Nos. 18, 10, 5, 8, 16, 13 and 15; during the last round, TCU played those the best (+4), followed by Georgia (+5), CU and Florida Gulf Coast (+6) and Oklahoma (+9); over the three rounds, the Sooners scorers were 2-under on those holes, CU's were 9-over … The five CU scorers played the par-4's at 17-under (fourth; Oklahoma and Florida Gulf Coast led at 21-under), the par-5's at 25-under (seventh; OU and FGCU also led at 36-under) and the par-3's at 10-over, 15th in the field (Oklahoma topped the list at 6-under) … Colorado tied for the eighth-most eagles (3; five teams had five), had the fourth-most birdies (71; Oklahoma had 83), the seventh-most pars (160; Kansas had the most with 182), the fifth-fewest bogeys (31; OU had just 22) and had the seventh-fewest double-bogeys or worse (6, Georgia and FGCU had two) … Colorado had three eagles here, now with 17 this season (by seven different players) – that's already over halfway to challenging the team record of 30 set last year … CU polished off the fall season with its 14th subpar round out of 15 played; the school best of 29 subpar rounds was set last year, with 25 in 2017-18 the second-most … In Roy Williams Era at CU (20th season), the Buffaloes now have 252 subpar rounds; in the school's history before his arrival, Colorado had just 84 … CU's scorers this fall were an impressive 166-under par … Colorado's eight players have combined to play 105 this fall – 80 have been par or better (66 subpar, 14 even) with 44 rounds in the 60's – leading to a team stroke average of 70.39 – the best in school history (last year's team had set the record of 70.53) … Parker Paxton lowered his team leading stroke average to 68.80, tied for the second-best fall average in school history; for the first time three players ended the fall with sub-70 numbers: Hunter Swanson's 69.73 average is the fifth-best and Brandon Knight's 69.93 the sixth-best … Overall, seven players had sub-72 averages for the fall (the previous high was six), with five having sub-71 numbers (easily topping the old best of two); all are in the red in SCIRP (stroke count in relation to par) … Tyler Long wrapped his first semester by recording the second-best fall stroke average by a freshman – 70.60 – Justin Biwer set the record, 70.07 in '21-22, when Dylan McDermott posted the previous second-best of 71.33. Long recorded 11 rounds out of 15 of par or better … For the fall, the final fifth-man scoring average was 73.2, while the fourth-man number is a very healthy 71.3 … Colorado was 14-4 here against Division I competition, giving it a final fall record of 68-10-2 (.863) for the five events; it finished 33-14-7 mark in single rounds here, ending the fall at 181-43-11 (.94).
| BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS |
| T14. | Hunter Swanson | 70-64-69—203 |
| T14. | Ty Holbrook | 67-71-65—203 |
| T18. | Parker Paxton | 69-64-71—204 |
| T37. | *Tyler Long | 68-72-68—208 |
| T50. | Jackson Rivera | 70-67-73—210 |
| T67. | Brandon Knight | 73-72-68—213 |
| INDIVIDUAL LEADERS |
| 1. | Ryder Cowan, Oklahoma | 64-62-67—193 |
| 2. | Sam Udovich, TCU | 65-64-65—194 |
| 3. | Jase Summy, Oklahoma | 62-67-66—195 |
| 4. | Nolan Harper, Florida Gulf Coast | 70-63-64—197 |
| T5. | William King, Kansas | 68-65-66—199 |
| T5. | Avinash Iyer, San Jose State | 67-67-65—199 |
| TEAM STANDINGS |
| 1. | Oklahoma | 263-258-268—789 |
| 2. | TCU | 267-266-268—801 |
| 3. | Georgia | 273-263-269—805 |
| 4. | Florida Gulf Coast | 273-267-272—812 |
| 5. | COLORADO | 276-266-273—815 |
| 6. | San Jose State | 276-269-273—818 |
| 7. | Kansas | 281-269-275—825 |
| 8. | Southern Illinois | 275-275-276—826 |
| T9. | North Florida | 272-274-282—828 |
| T9. | East Tennessee State | 281-276-271—828 |
| 11. | Connecticut | 281-275-277—833 |
| 12. | Boise State | 273-285-279—837 |
| T13. | Gonzaga | 276-288-278—842 |
| T13. | Wyoming | 285-267-290—842 |
| 15. | Indiana | 280-274-289—843 |
| 16. | Hawai'i | 276-282-287—845 |
| 17. | Sacramento State | 276-288-284—848 |
| 18. | CSU Northridge | 291-278-303—872 |
| 19. | UC Irvine | 288-286-301—875 |
Players Mentioned
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