KAILUA-KONA, Hawai'i – The Colorado women’s golf team finished seventh in their last tournament of the fiscal year at the Nanea Invitational in Hawaii on Wednesday.
Despite sitting at fifth place after shooting par in the first round, the Buffs scored 7-over and 12-over in the final two rounds, pushing them two spots lower on the final leaderboard.
Freshman Ellen O’Shaughnessy and Syndey Givens were the highest Buffs on the podium, sitting in ties at No. 20 and No. 27 respectively. O’Shaughnessy tied for the best round by any Buff at the tournament in the first round with a 1-under. She went on to shoot par in the second and 3-over in the third round, giving her a total score of 2-over 221.
Givens has been one of the two highest Buffs on the individual leaderboard in every tournament this year except for the Leadership and Golf Invitational, CU’s first tournament of the season. The freshman continued to lead Colorado despite scoring higher than usual. Givens shot 1-over 74 in both of her first two rounds and finished the final round with a 2-over 75. This was only the second time she failed to shoot a round under par in a tournament, the first time being her inaugural three rounds as a collegiate athlete.
Junior Morgan Miller played her best round of the tournament on Monday, shooting 1-over. The Texas native went on to shoot a 3-over in her final two rounds, landing her tied at No. 33 on the leaderboard with a score of 7-over 226.
The only senior on the team, Maria Eidhagen Harrouch, tied at No. 40 on the podium, her lowest ranking this year. Harrouch was consistent throughout the tournament, scoring 4-over in the first and third round and shooting 3-over in the second round. Despite the low placing in Hawaii, Harrouch has had four of her five best Division I tournament scores this year.
Carolyn Fuller rounded out the Buffs’ quintet. The sophomore matched O’Shaughnessy’s stellar first round, scoring 1-under 72. Unfortunately for Fuller, she could not keep her score low enough to contribute to the Buffs’ team score. The second round tied her worst scoring round of the year at 9-over. Fuller wrapped up the tournament with a 5-over in the final round, landing her tied at No. 46 with a total score of 13-over 232.
The Buffs tournament score of 19-over 895 was four strokes higher than the fifth place score of 15-over, held by Oregon State and California.
No. 1-ranked Stanford took home the trophy in Hawaii, scoring 26-under 850, nine strokes less than second place Arizona State and 14 less than third place Texas.
The powerhouse out of northern California had three golfers place in the top four individual scores of the tournament.
The Buffs have competed against four of the seven top teams in the nation in their last two tournaments. Competing against the best allows Colorado to observe the habits of high caliber teams and implement them into their routine heading into the spring.
The Buffs have three months to continue to practice and improve before competing in the Collegiate Invitational at Guadalajara on January 31, 2025.
Cover photo by Brent DePaepe/CUBuffs.com
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