photo by: Kansas Athletics

Kansas women's golf coach Lindsay Kuhle

Fresh off its best season in program history, the Kansas women’s golf team has begun to reload in advance of the 2025-26 campaign and on Tuesday announced the signing of a pair of accomplished transfer golfers.

Jillian Fatkin will enter as a sophomore after playing one season at Queens (NC), while Zoe Pinillos will be a junior and previously competed at Augusta. Both were first-team all-conference selections this past year at the Division I level.

Fatkin, as a freshman, she was a three-time ASUN golfer of the week, as well as her team’s leader in stroke average at 74.19. She won the Royals’ first-ever individual title at the Division I level at the Babs Steffens Invitational and briefly set a record for her school’s best 54-hole performance.

“Jillian is perfect for our program here at KU and what we are building,” head coach Lindsay Kuhle said in a press release. “I am confident that Jillian will come in and make a major impact on our program. She is athletic, competitive and has a strong growth mindset to improve and get better.”

She is originally from Oak Island, North Carolina, and was also her high school’s first individual 3A state champion. Kuhle called her a “proven winner.”

“We feel that her freshman year at Queens was very successful, and she will bring in a lot of confidence and experience to our program,” Kuhle said.

Pinillos will do the same; she didn’t compete in her first season, but as a sophomore, she won the Southland Conference title was the league’s golfer of the year. She finished 36th as she shot 7-over in regional competition in Norman, Oklahoma.

“Zoe will bring in winning experience at the college level, a strong work ethic, short game, coachability, and competitiveness that is extremely valuable on our team,” Kuhle said in a release. “We can’t wait for Zoe to join our family and continue to work hard to help our team compete at the highest level.”

Well-placed transfer additions have been key to the Jayhawks’ success in recent years under Kuhle. For example, among this year’s group of four graduating seniors, Lauren Clark came to KU in 2022 after one season at LSU, and Lily Hirst spent the first half of her career at Incarnate Word. Hirst won an individual title this year and Clark at one point claimed three in a row.

Johanna Ebner and Jordan Rothman also exhausted their eligibility following the memorable season, which included individual and team victories at regional competition in Columbus, Ohio, and a berth in the national championship event. Lyla Louderbaugh, who claimed that individual title, is expected to return, along with other key contributors like Amy DeKock and Ebba Nordstedt.

The Jayhawks also have two freshmen coming in besides their transfers in Marieke Ebens, who has represented the Netherlands internationally, and Kinslea Jones, a Maize native who once shot the lowest round in state of Kansas history at a 13-under 58.