Ellen O'Shaughnessy
Photo by: Tony Harman
New Look Buffs Open Season In Washington
September 14, 2025 | Women's Golf
BOULDER – A new year, a new team for the Colorado women's golf program.
The Buffaloes saw over half of their roster change from a year ago, with three players returning and four newcomers added. While Colorado head coach Madeleine Sheils is still getting to know this year's edition, there is a feeling of excitement on the course for the Buffaloes.
Colorado is set for its season debut at the Leadership and Golf Invitational beginning Sept. 15 at the Chambers Bay Golf Course in University Place, Wash.
"I've been so pleased with the start of the season," Sheils said. "This group is hard-working and really committed to being great teammates and bringing their best effort every day. It's been super fun to coach them, just in these three weeks, and I'm excited to get started in tournament play and see how the work we're putting in is starting to pay off."
Co-hosted by Seattle U and Washington, the 54-hole event begins with the first two rounds on Monday, followed by a final 18 holes on Tuesday, Sept. 16. Both days will feature a shotgun start, beginning at 9 a.m. MT.
Three of Colorado's five golfers in the lineup at Chambers Bay will be making their Buffaloes debut, including true freshmen Brenna Higgins and Teemapat Pateetin. Junior transfer Maya McVey is the third newcomer, bringing two years of top-level NCAA Division II experience as she looks to raise her level of competition.
Junior Carolyn Fuller and sophomore Ellen O'Shaughnessy round out Colorado's lineup for the week.
"Everybody has a unique history, background and level of experience," Sheils said. "Each one on this team has won at some level and that comes with golf knowledge. I know that I will be learning a lot about them and their games and their approaches this whole fall season. It really takes a lot of time to get to know a player and the way that they think and react and whatnot in different situations on the golf course. I'm going to definitely be doing a lot of learning about this team in the first five events."
The introductory resume of the Buffaloes' newcomers is intriguing to say the least. Higgins makes her collegiate debut, having won two Colorado individual state championships and four team titles at Valor Christian along with an appearance at the 2025 USGA Junior Girls Championship. Pateetin, a native of Thailand, is ranked 517th in the current World Amateur Golf Rankings and won a Thai Junior Tour title in July, which included a career-best round of 64.
McVey was a two-time Women's Golf Coaches Association All-Central Region pick at Central Missouri, helping the Jennies to a runner-up finish at the 2025 NCAA II championships.
As for the returners, they have proven to be able to hold their own as well.
Fuller arguably had the best summer of all the Buffaloes. She won the Colorado Golf Association Stroke Play championship and the Arizona U.S. Amateur qualifier and had top 20 finishes at the prestigious Southwest Amateur and the Irish Women's Amateur Open. Fuller, along with her new teammate in McVey, competed at the 2025 U.S. Women's Amateur, missing out on qualifying for the match play rounds by just two strokes.
O'Shaughnessy had the third-best freshman season by stroke average in team history at 74.83 over 23 rounds. Her Colorado career began at this very same Chambers Bay course, where she proceeded to shoot a 69 in her initial collegiate round at last year's Leadership and Golf Invitational.
O'Shaughnessy is ready to take that next step with lessons learned from last season in her back pocket.
"I learned so much over the whole of last year," O'Shaughnessy said. "I had some really good tournaments, some not so good ones, but I feel like you learn from them all.
"I remember really enjoying Chambers Bay. You have some good birdie opportunities, and there's some really testing holes that you have to be really careful on and really have your decision made on how you're going play it before in the practice rounds. The 36-hole day is really long day, so it's always good to have your plans set up in stone beforehand, which I think really helped me last year."
A links-style course, Chambers Bay will typically play just under 6,100 yards for a par 72. Colorado opened last season at this same event, finishing right in the middle of the pack, placing eighth out of 16 teams. The Buffaloes started out well, shooting 6-under par, 282 in the first round, which would stick as their second-best round of the season, before ending up at 20-over, 884 through 54-holes.
McVey and Fuller saw a similar course set up at the U.S. Women's Amateur, played at Bandon Dunes in Oregon this past August. Throw in the fall weather in the Pacific Northwest, and Chambers Bay will serve up its own unique challenges.
"Managing the wind and the conditions out there is a key, because it certainly can be rainy and windy," Sheils said. "So just remaining patient and positive, no matter the conditions. And then course management is a huge key out there too, because it's a links-style course where you can get all kinds of bounces, and you need to think about the clubs you were selecting, and how they react coming into greens and fairway landing zones."
The 2025 Leadership and Golf Invitational once again feature 16 teams, mostly from the western half of the country. For the first two rounds, Colorado will be grouped with San Diego State, Eastern Michigan and UC Davis. With the shotgun start, those groups will begin between the 10th and 13th tees at 9 a.m. MT.
The Buffaloes saw over half of their roster change from a year ago, with three players returning and four newcomers added. While Colorado head coach Madeleine Sheils is still getting to know this year's edition, there is a feeling of excitement on the course for the Buffaloes.
Colorado is set for its season debut at the Leadership and Golf Invitational beginning Sept. 15 at the Chambers Bay Golf Course in University Place, Wash.
"I've been so pleased with the start of the season," Sheils said. "This group is hard-working and really committed to being great teammates and bringing their best effort every day. It's been super fun to coach them, just in these three weeks, and I'm excited to get started in tournament play and see how the work we're putting in is starting to pay off."
Co-hosted by Seattle U and Washington, the 54-hole event begins with the first two rounds on Monday, followed by a final 18 holes on Tuesday, Sept. 16. Both days will feature a shotgun start, beginning at 9 a.m. MT.
Three of Colorado's five golfers in the lineup at Chambers Bay will be making their Buffaloes debut, including true freshmen Brenna Higgins and Teemapat Pateetin. Junior transfer Maya McVey is the third newcomer, bringing two years of top-level NCAA Division II experience as she looks to raise her level of competition.
Junior Carolyn Fuller and sophomore Ellen O'Shaughnessy round out Colorado's lineup for the week.
"Everybody has a unique history, background and level of experience," Sheils said. "Each one on this team has won at some level and that comes with golf knowledge. I know that I will be learning a lot about them and their games and their approaches this whole fall season. It really takes a lot of time to get to know a player and the way that they think and react and whatnot in different situations on the golf course. I'm going to definitely be doing a lot of learning about this team in the first five events."
The introductory resume of the Buffaloes' newcomers is intriguing to say the least. Higgins makes her collegiate debut, having won two Colorado individual state championships and four team titles at Valor Christian along with an appearance at the 2025 USGA Junior Girls Championship. Pateetin, a native of Thailand, is ranked 517th in the current World Amateur Golf Rankings and won a Thai Junior Tour title in July, which included a career-best round of 64.
McVey was a two-time Women's Golf Coaches Association All-Central Region pick at Central Missouri, helping the Jennies to a runner-up finish at the 2025 NCAA II championships.
As for the returners, they have proven to be able to hold their own as well.
Fuller arguably had the best summer of all the Buffaloes. She won the Colorado Golf Association Stroke Play championship and the Arizona U.S. Amateur qualifier and had top 20 finishes at the prestigious Southwest Amateur and the Irish Women's Amateur Open. Fuller, along with her new teammate in McVey, competed at the 2025 U.S. Women's Amateur, missing out on qualifying for the match play rounds by just two strokes.
O'Shaughnessy had the third-best freshman season by stroke average in team history at 74.83 over 23 rounds. Her Colorado career began at this very same Chambers Bay course, where she proceeded to shoot a 69 in her initial collegiate round at last year's Leadership and Golf Invitational.
O'Shaughnessy is ready to take that next step with lessons learned from last season in her back pocket.
"I learned so much over the whole of last year," O'Shaughnessy said. "I had some really good tournaments, some not so good ones, but I feel like you learn from them all.
"I remember really enjoying Chambers Bay. You have some good birdie opportunities, and there's some really testing holes that you have to be really careful on and really have your decision made on how you're going play it before in the practice rounds. The 36-hole day is really long day, so it's always good to have your plans set up in stone beforehand, which I think really helped me last year."
A links-style course, Chambers Bay will typically play just under 6,100 yards for a par 72. Colorado opened last season at this same event, finishing right in the middle of the pack, placing eighth out of 16 teams. The Buffaloes started out well, shooting 6-under par, 282 in the first round, which would stick as their second-best round of the season, before ending up at 20-over, 884 through 54-holes.
McVey and Fuller saw a similar course set up at the U.S. Women's Amateur, played at Bandon Dunes in Oregon this past August. Throw in the fall weather in the Pacific Northwest, and Chambers Bay will serve up its own unique challenges.
"Managing the wind and the conditions out there is a key, because it certainly can be rainy and windy," Sheils said. "So just remaining patient and positive, no matter the conditions. And then course management is a huge key out there too, because it's a links-style course where you can get all kinds of bounces, and you need to think about the clubs you were selecting, and how they react coming into greens and fairway landing zones."
The 2025 Leadership and Golf Invitational once again feature 16 teams, mostly from the western half of the country. For the first two rounds, Colorado will be grouped with San Diego State, Eastern Michigan and UC Davis. With the shotgun start, those groups will begin between the 10th and 13th tees at 9 a.m. MT.
Players Mentioned
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