Women's Golf team climbs the rankings

The CU women’s golf team has easily had the best year in the history of the program. Climbing the rankings to number 11 in one major poll, the team is grabbing the attention of the Pac-12 and the rest of the nation.

The team’s high ranking is due in large part to the three tournament wins that they racked up in Hawaii, Arizona and Washington.

Anne Kelly has been the coach of the CU women's golf team for 15 seasons. 14 years of hard work have finally come to fruition this year in what has been in many ways a historical year for the program.

“Its a lot of fun to be honest, but we've had talented players on this team especially for the last few years, and its nice to see it all come together this year,” Said Kelly.

The CU women's team sends out five players every tournament in which the top four scores of the team are combined for the team total. The team managed a whopping 31 stroke victory in Arizona at the clover cup. That marked the largest tournament victory in the history of the CU program.

“In No way did I expect us to do as well as we are doing, and our rankings to be showing from our good play… we're hitting our peak as a team when we need it,” said Emily Talley, the senior leader of the women’s team.

Sophomore Alex Stewart is on her way to setting the all-time season stroke average for any player, which currently sits at 73.78 (about 1 and a half strokes above par).

“When I first got here the program was young and the scores weren't that good, and if everybody broke 80 that was fantastic, and now we have players breaking 70 on a regular basis and winning top level tournaments,” said Kelly.

If CU is able to place in the top eight during the NCAA west regional final, it will be the first time in school history that the team qualifies for the NCAA championship tournament held in Franklin, Tennessee.

The Buffs stand a good chance to qualify for the championship especially because the west regional will be played at Colorado National Golf Club, which happens to be the home course for the team. That tournament will take place May 10th through the 12th.