Most of the Colorado women’s golf team were not yet teenagers, or had just reached that milestone, when the Buffaloes last qualified for the NCAA Regionals.
That drought is finally over.
On Monday, CU returns to postseason play at the NCAA Waco Regional, as the Buffs earned an NCAA bid for the first time since 2018. It is the first NCAA appearance in two seasons under head coach Madeleine Sheils.
“I think itap really cool to be part of a team that has really grown the last three years that I’ve been here,” CU junior Carolyn Fuller said. “To see and hear that stat, that itap the first time in (eight) years we’re going to regionals, is super cool. I think all of us are really excited, and it just defines the work and all of the time that we’ve put in over the season.”
Despite a rough finish at the Big 12 tournament, the Buffs are seeded ninth in the 12-team regional, which will be held at the Ridgewood Country Club. The top five teams, along with the top individual not afilliated with those teams, will advance to the NCAA Finals following the three-round regional. It will be the ninth regional appearance for CU, which has advanced to the finals twice (2012 and 2018).
The Buffs haven’t played at Ridgewood, and Sheils said Sunday’s scheduled practice round will prove critical to the Buffs’ chances this week.
“Itap everybody’s first time seeing the golf course. We get one day to learn it,” Sheils said. “We’ve gotten better at that as the year has gone on. We have to make sure we have a good preparation day, and then itap really about continuing to focus on the process and the small things that each person can control. They each have their own process goals, and we need to put our attention there. Itap so easy when you’re close to the finish line at the end of the season to be thinking way too big.
“We can’t control what other teams are doing. You can’t control your team score from the sixth fairway. Itap just continuing to take it shot by shot.”
The Buffs’ ascension back into a spot at the NCAA regionals began last fall, when CU posted the best fall scoring mark in team history with a stroke average of 73.29. That momentum carried into the spring, as the Buffs posted a spring scoring average of 75.44 that ranks fourth all-time.
The Buffs managed to record that mark despite an uncharacteristic showing that resulted in a last-place finish at the Big 12 final, but the Buffs are confident that effort was an anomaly that won’t impact this week’s effort at the regional.
“I think something that our team does really well is when things don’t work out, we always find something to learn from it,” said Fuller, who leads the Buffs with a spring scoring average of 74.00. “If you’re failing, you’re learning. Thatap kind of how I see it. I think the team does a good a really good job of that, those next couple days following a bad event, especially the Big 12. All we really did the next couple days after that was just a lot of reflecting, looking at our stats. That is one of those weeks where you just have to put it in the back of your memory and just do what you need to do to prepare for the next event. I think we’ve done a really good job of that.”
Notable
The weather forecast for Waco, Texas, calls for potential thunderstorms Monday, with clear and sunny conditions in the 80s for the second and third rounds Tuesday and Wednesday. … No CU player has Division I NCAA postseason experience, but junior Maya McVey, a transfer from Central Missouri, was the individual runner-up at the Division II Central Regional last year. … Sheils competed in the 2012 NCAA regionals when she was a player at Nebraska.
