CU women end 8-year drought as they claim team title at rain-shortened Ptarmigan Ram Classic, where Coloradan Brenna Higgins posts top-10 individual showing; Colorado Mesa men make it 2 team wins in 2 tournaments
By Gary Baines – 9/23/2025
It’s not often that two Colorado-based college golf programs post team victories on the same day in the Centennial State.
But it happened on Tuesday as the University of Colorado women notched an NCAA Division I tournament victory, while the Colorado Mesa University men did likewise at a Division II event.
— Ptarmigan Ram Classic: The University of Colorado women recorded their first team victory in golf in eight years and the first of the Madeleine Sheils head-coaching era.
The Buffs led the Ptarmigan Ram Classic after two rounds at Ptarmigan Country Club in Fort Collins, and when Tuesday’s third round was canceled due to the rain, CU was declared the champion based on 36-hole scores.
The CU women’s last team title before this week was the Gonzaga Coeur d’Alene Resort Collegiate Invitational in September 2017, when Anne Kelly coached the team. She retired in May 2024, with Sheils taking over the program.
At Ptarmigan, thanks largely to an 11-under-par first round, the Buffs finished at 12 under for 36 holes — seven strokes better than runners-up Cal State Fullerton and Cal Poly. Host Colorado State (15 over par) placed 10th in the 13-school field.
CU put three players in the top-10 individually, including freshman Brenna Higgins from Centennial. Junior Maya McVey (4 under par) tied for fourth out of 77 players, while Higgins (-3) was sixth and junior Carolyn Fuller (-1) was 10th.
McVey (65-75) finished two strokes behind co-champions Foong Zi Yu of UNLV and Taylor Baker of Cal Poly. Higgins, a two-time Colorado girls state high school individual champion and a member of the inaugural Team Colorado junior elite team, posted rounds of (68-73). And Fuller, the 2025 CGA Women’s Stroke Play champion, carded scores of 78-65.
For all the scores from the Ptarmigan Ram Classic, CLICK HERE.
— San Juan Intercollegiate: The Colorado Mesa men’s team recorded its second team victory in two tournaments as the Mavericks won the San Juan Intercollegiate, which CMU co-hosted with Fort Lewis at The Bridges Golf & Country Club in Montrose.
A week after prevailing in the season-opening Travis Roy Memorial Invitational, Colorado Mesa scored a five-stroke victory in Montrose.
CMU, ranked No. 19 nationally in the Division II men’s coaches’ poll, finished at 24 under par for three rounds. All five Maverick players on the “A” team placed in the top 20 in the 62-man field, with senior Timmy Cavarno (70-65-69) leading the way with a third-place showing. Luis Palomo of West Texas A&M (-16) claimed the individual title by two.
Meanwhile, 2024 NCAA Division II champion Colorado Christian (-8) finished fifth out of 12 schools, while Colorado School of Mines (-1) was seventh and Fort Lewis (even) was eighth.
For all the results from the San Juan Intercollegiate, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com