Quick-rising CU junior Carolyn Fuller wins CGA Women’s Player of the Year award, while Kris Franklin earns Senior POY honors for 6th time, and Ella Scott named top girls competitor
By Gary Baines – 11/12/2025
(EDITOR’S NOTE: ColoradoGolf.org is publishing stories on the CGA’s Players of the Year. Today’s edition focuses on the female POYs, with an article on the male Players of the Year having appeared on Sunday.)
Carolyn Fuller grew up in Phoenix, but for good reason she’s certainly taken a shine to Colorado.
After all, Fuller plays her college golf at the University of Colorado — and it’s hard not to like looking at the Flatirons in Boulder. But beyond that, she’s accomplished quite a bit in the Centennial State in the last four months. That includes winning the 78th CGA Women’s Stroke Play in July, and posting top-10 college finishes at the Ron Moore Intercollegiate in Highlands Ranch and at the Ptarmigan Ram Classic at Ptarmigan Country Club in Fort Collins.
And largely on the strength of her Women’s Stroke Play victory, qualifying for her first U.S. Women’s Amateur, and making the cut in the Inspirato Colorado Women’s Open, Fuller recently was named the CGA open-age Women’s Player of the Year for 2025.
Fuller becomes the third CU golfer in the last six years to be named the CGA WPOY, following in the footsteps of Morgan Miller (2023) and Kirsty Hodgkins (2020).
Fuller is one of three female players of the year for 2025 recently chosen by the CGA. The others are Kris Franklin (Senior POY) and Ella Scott of Castle Rock (Girls POY).
Here are some of the 2025 competitive highlights for the three CGA female players of the year:
Fuller captured the hardware at the CGA Women’s Stroke Play at Eisenhower Golf Club.
— Carolyn Fuller of Phoenix, a CU Junior (CGA Women’s Open-Division Player of the Year): When Fuller was notified she had been selected the CGA Women’s Player of the Year, she admits she was a little taken aback.
“I was pleasantly surprised — and a little shocked,” the left-hander said recently.
Indeed, such an honor wasn’t on Fuller’s radar. But the way she’s performed in the second half of the year certainly made her a worthy candidate.
“I’m honored to receive the award,” she said. “It’s special because me being a CU golfer and coming to this state and playing in such well-run tournaments by the CGA and being a part of this community up here. It’s pretty cool and exciting.”
Prior to Fuller’s two-shot victory at the CGA Women’s Stroke Play at Eisenhower Golf Club in July — where boyfriend and fellow CU golfer Hunter Swanson of Superior caddied for her — Fuller didn’t appear in the women’s World Amateur Golf Rankings. After that win, she entered the rankings at No. 3,082. Now, she’s No. 271 on the list. In the latest Scoreboard women’s Division I individual college rankings, she checks in at No. 129.
“The summer was really good and positive for me,” said Fuller, who tied for seventh in the Irish Women’s Amateur in late June. “Qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Am, it’s always something I’ve wanted to do. That was pretty exciting. But it was also exciting that I hadn’t had a win in a while, so to get one under my belt over the summer (at the Women’s Stroke Play) was special. Also I’m proud how I’ve consistently held up in the college season. Getting two top-10s, a top-15 and a top-20 was something I had (as) a goal.”
Fuller earned medalist honors in a U.S. Women’s Am qualifier — winning by two strokes in Phoenix on July 10. At the Amateur itself, she struggled in the first round with a 78, but bounced back with a 69 in the second, falling a couple of strokes shy of advancing to match play.
“That was exciting to be able to go to and experience,” Fuller said of the Women’s Am. “I tried to make a good run in the second round to bounce back from the first.”
In the college season, Fuller has built on her summer success. A season after posting a stroke average of 75.3 at CU, she’s cut three strokes off that norm, with a team-leading 72.14 so far in 2025-26.
Beyond her strong individual play at CU, she helped the Buffs post their first team victory in eight years — coming at the rain-shortened Ptarmigan Ram Classic.
“First of all I just love my team,” Fuller said. “The team chemistry this year is really good. It’s fun to see all of us doing well — especially enjoying each other while we’re doing it. I love playing on the team. It’s a lot of fun.”
Fuller is no stranger to playing on successful teams. In her freshman year of high school, her Phoenix-based Pinnacle H.S. squad not only captured a state title, but went on to win a High School Golf National Invitational championship at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina in 2020. Fuller said four players from that Pinnacle team went on to play NCAA Division I golf.
Kris Franklin has won the last four CGA women’s senior majors.
— Kris Franklin of Westminster and The Ranch Country Club (CGA Women’s Senior Player of the Year): The CGA Women’s SPOY honor is hardly a new one for Franklin, a former pro and a member of the well-known Hoos golf family in Boulder. She now has six to her name — all coming since 2018. The only person with more is Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Kim Eaton, with eight.
It was another dominant year in the women’s senior ranks for Franklin as she swept the senior majors — the Stroke Play and Match Play — for the third time in a single season, having previously accomplished the feat in 2019 and ’24. Since the beginning of last year, she’s claimed the titles in four straight CGA women’s senior majors for the second time in her career.
Overall, Franklin has won five CGA Senior Stroke Play titles and four Senior Match Plays, giving her 13 CGA/CWGA victories, with the last dozen coming in the last seven years. This year, she also competed in the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, arguably the most prestigious event in women’s senior golf, for the fourth time.
Also in 2025, Franklin received an award — in the golf Masters category — from the Sportswomen of Colorado, based on her play last year.
Ella Scott’s victory at the CGA State Junior was one of many highlights for her in 2025.
— Ella Scott of Castle Rock (CGA Girls Player of the Year): Even though she still has more than a year and a half left of high school, Scott put together a 2025 season that proved she’s a player with which to be reckoned at the junior level. Her list of victories this year included the CGA State Junior — which features a combined stroke play/match play format — and the Class 5A individual title as a Valor Christian sophomore.
Besides that, she led Valor Christian to the 5A high school team championship and won the girls 16-18 Colorado regional qualifying final for the Notah Begay III junior golf championships.
Scott also earned a spot in the U.S. Girls’ Junior and narrowly missed advancing to match play there as she lost out in a playoff.
Scott also recently was named to the Team Colorado junior elite squad — part of the USGA national development program — for the second time. She represented Colorado at the Girls Junior Americas Cup competition. Also, she posted two top-5 girls finishes in Colorado-based AJGA events — second at the AJGA Colorado Springs Junior and fourth at the Wyndham Clark presented by the CGA — and recorded an eighth-place showing at an out-of-state AJGA tournament in early May.
For all that and more, Scott was recently named the 2025 female Future Famer by the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame.
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