BOULDER –The Colorado women’s golf team is in a position this week that only a select few programs get to experience throughout the season, heading into a tournament while building off a win.
Fresh off their first team trophy in eight years, achieved at the Ram Classic nine days ago, the Buffaloes will carry that momentum into this weekend’s Ron Moore Intercollegiate, Oct. 3-5, at the University of Denver Golf Course in Highlands Ranch. The 54-hole event will feature three single rounds of 18 holes Friday through Sunday.
Spirits are high, and confidence is soaring even higher for the Buffaloes, who shot 12-under-par to claim a seven-stroke win in the rain-soaked Ram Classic. But more importantly for the long haul, the win gave Colorado its own internal justification that the team is doing the right things on the practice range and out in competition.
“It’s early in the season and there’s a lot of golf left to be played, but what was great about the win was it felt like it validated our process,” Colorado head coach Madeleine Sheils said. “So we’re continuing to stick to the same process, practicing a bunch of short game, getting better at putting, and just giving in the effort to do our best.”
There are similarities in the setup at the DU Golf Course and Ptarmingan in Fort Collins, with very scoreable holes, but also challenging ones that require a lot of focus.
“We need to play the par 3s well this week,” Sheils said. “A couple of them are pretty tough and we’ll be able to separate ourselves from the field if we perform well on those while at the same time taking advantage of some of the scorable par 5s.”
Colorado brings the same starting lineup as it did at the Ram Classic, among those is freshman Brenna Higgins, a Centennial, Colo., who will be playing in her backyard this week.
Higgins has had a great start for the Buffaloes with a 74.00 stroke average through five rounds, tying for sixth at the Ram Classic, with the help of a 4-under 68 in the first round.
“I feel really good, I’m in a good headspace too,” Higgins said. “The first two tournaments, Chambers Bay (Wash.) was a hard course in general, but I knew where I needed to improve. And then CSU felt good too, I just felt like things were clicking. My game’s in a good place right now.”
Higgins is one of three Buffaloes who finished in the top 10 at the Ram Classic. Junior Maya McVey tied for fourth at 4-under at the Ram Classic and is the Buffaloes’ top golfer through five rounds with a 72.8 stroke average. Junior Carolyn Fuller tied for 10th highlighted by a career-best round of 65 in the second round which was the best in the field.
Vanessa Ngo and Teemapat Pateetin will round out the team lineup for the Buffaloes. Sophomore Ellen O’Shaughnessy will play the event as an individual.
Colorado is one of 15 teams at the Ron Moore Intercollegiate, which features primarily regional competition, but some interesting outside teams such as Vanderbilt from the SEC and Clemson from the ACC. The Buffaloes will pair with Clemson and New Mexico in Friday’s first round, with those groups beginning from the No. 1 tee at 8:30 a.m.
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