Colorado Christian men's golf team, May 23, 2025. (Photo courtesy of CCU)
As the defending NCAA Division II men’s golf national champions, the Colorado Christian University Cougars weren’t sneaking up on anybody this year. They entered last week’s tournament as the No. 1 team in the nation, boasted the top-ranked golfer in D-II (Adam Duncan), and then won stroke play for the first time in program history, which advanced them to the match play final rounds.
After taking out Oklahoma Christian 3.5-1.5 in the quarterfinals, then North Georgia 4-1 in the semifinals, CCU found itself right back in the national championship match, facing West Florida. And after each team’s five players finished their round on Friday, there was still no winner.
>> Subscribe to Sports Spectrum Magazine for more stories where sports and faith connect <<
But after one playoff hole, West Florida pulled out a one-stroke victory for the program’s third national title.
The tough defeat for CCU, however, will not be how the Cougars remember the 2025 season. A year after claiming the first national championship in CCU athletics history, this year’s squad established itself as one of the country’s elite. The team collected 10 straight tournament victories, won its first NCAA Regional title, and featured the four top-ranked D-II golfers at one point.
“Despite the tough result to close the year, this team will go down in history as one of the best to ever play at CCU as their humble and Christ-glorifying mentality led them to incredible success throughout the memorable season,” said the team’s season-ending press release.
That “Christ-glorifying mentality” stems from a team Bible study every Friday at 9 a.m., when a Denver-area representative from College Golf Fellowship — the same organization that helps organize Bible studies on the PGA Tour — meets with the CCU team in Lakewood, Colorado. Together they’ve been studying different sections of the Bible though a CGF study guide tailored for college golfers.
“It’s been really awesome for our team,” senior Xavier Bighaus told Sports Spectrum. “Every single person is in a different place in their faith and so it’s really important for us to maybe start with something that’s really basic, the foundations, and then go from there.”
CCU’s Adam Duncan (Photo by Will G MacNeil/CCU)
By developing their personal relationships with Christ, the CCU golfers know their identity and worth isn’t tied to anything that happens on the golf course.
“We’re competing for Christ’s glory and I think that’s the most important thing,” Duncan told Sports Spectrum. “It’s like we get to play a different game than other teams get to play. They’re all about, ‘Did we win or lose? We have to do this.’ … It doesn’t have to be that way for us. This can be an amazing accomplishment that we give our everything to, that we work really hard to accomplish, because that’s what we’re called to do. But it doesn’t have to be the end-all, be-all of us as people, of us as a team and of us as a school.”
A senior from Bakersfield, California, Duncan made attending a Christian college one of his top priorities. He began his walk with the Lord when he was invited to a Christian summer camp and found himself asking a lot of questions to a camp counselor. That counselor ended up inviting Duncan to attend church with him, and soon thereafter he committed his life to Christ. Duncan now says he tries to live by 2 Timothy 2:13, which reads, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”
“In the Christian walk, there are lots of times where we’re unfaithful to the message we’re proclaiming and we believe, just in the way we live our lives,” Duncan told Sports Spectrum. “We don’t live perfectly, so having a God that is faithful when we’re unfaithful — because that’s His character and that’s His nature — is encouraging and something I’ve definitely clung to.”
CCU’s Xavier Bighaus (Photo by Will G MacNeil/CCU)
For Bighaus, who’s from Melissa, Texas, he began his journey with the Lord around the age of 9, when his parents started an orphanage in Kenya.
“It was a really eye-opening experience for me,” Bighaus said. “… I never really understood how grateful I should be for the things that I have, just here in America in general.”
He later attended church champs in high school that helped him become “really interested in the Lord and the things that He’s doing in my life.” What God’s doing now, in Bighaus’ final year of college, is teaching him to be strong and courageous.
“There’s a lot of things that are happening to myself and other people on our team where at times it could maybe be overwhelming,” Bighaus said. “So just understanding that the Lord is with me and that He can guide me through the hard times and through the great times too.”
The Cougars certainly experienced great times in 2025, but ended with a hard result. Back-to-back championship match appearances, though, have established them among the elite Division II programs. CCU will seek to run it back in 2026, but will try to do so without three of the five players who competed at the national championships.
>> Do you know Christ personally? Learn how you can commit your life to Him. <<
RELATED STORIES:
– WHAT’S UP PODCAST: David Ford – North Carolina Tar Heels Golfer
– SS PODCAST: Alabama golf coach Jay Seawell on living in the present
– North Carolina men’s golf team wraps up historic fall fueled by faith
– Scottie Scheffler tries ‘to live like Jesus’ as he celebrates 3rd major title
– SS PODCAST: LPGA Tour pro Rose Zhang on humility, identity in Christ
