The Colorado women’s golf team, ranked No. 48 nationally, made a strong recovery during the second round of the Arizona Thunderbird Intercollegiate at Tucson Country Club. After a difficult start in the first round, the Buffaloes are now tied for fifth place with Texas Tech at 21-over par as they head into the final day of competition.
The second round was suspended due to darkness on Monday evening, leaving seven teams—including Colorado—with two players each who must finish their last hole Tuesday morning before play continues with the third and final round.
Stanford leads the tournament at 5-under par after completing both rounds, followed by Baylor at 9-over and Arizona at 11-over. BYU holds fourth place at 13-over.
Colorado initially found itself in tenth place after shooting 20-over-par in the first round. The team responded by adding just one stroke in the nearly completed second round, moving up five spots in the standings.
“It was a really great comeback today,” said Colorado head coach Madeleine Sheils. “We were disappointed in the poor start; the course played harder than expected; it was much firmer. We had some early misses that played more penalizing than they did in the practice round. After a few of those, we were just a little shaky for the rest of that round, but I’m so proud of the way they fought back.
“Golf is such a mental game. It’s amazing how you can shoot two such different numbers all within the same day. But sometimes just being able to get out a fresh score card, physically turn the page to the next round, that is what you need.”
Junior Carolyn Fuller helped drive Colorado’s improvement in her afternoon performance. After posting a 5-over 77 in her first round, Fuller is one hole away from potentially achieving her fifth sub-70 round this season and is currently tied for 14th overall at 2-over par. Her highlights included three birdies in her first five holes and an eagle on a par-5 where she reached within twelve feet on her second shot and sank her putt.
Fuller commented on her team’s effort: “I’m very proud of the resilience our team showed for the second round,” she said. “We realized it was playing more difficult in the morning and all had a very good attitude for a long day and kept grinding.”
Sophomore Ellen O’Shaughnessy sits at 3-over par and improved by three strokes between rounds. Freshman Teemapat Pateetin rebounded from an opening-round score of 81 to play even par through almost all of her second round.
Other Buffaloes contributing include Vanessa Ngo (tied for 41st) and Maya McVey (tied for 49th), with Sheils anticipating a scoring correction that could improve McVey’s standing once scores are finalized.
Stanford’s Andrea Revuelta leads all individuals at nine-under-par after two rounds, holding a five-shot advantage going into Tuesday’s final play.
Colorado will be grouped with Texas Tech, Grand Canyon, and Seattle University when competition resumes Tuesday morning.
