The most important day of Kiara Romero’s golfing life was also one of her worst. Romero shot 84 during the third round of the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open, including three double bogeys and a ghastly 8 on the par-4 15th hole at Erin Hills.
Romero, a San Jose native and then a rising junior at Oregon, felt something stronger than frustration: embarrassment. “I was playing like a mess,” she says, “and was worried what the fans were thinking of me. I was worried they would think that I didn’t belong.”
Of course she belonged—Romero is a former U.S. Girls’ Junior champ and had been a first-team All-American as a freshman and sophomore. Anyway, she didn’t hit a single ball after the 84, instead retiring to her hotel room to watch Grey’s Anatomy. She thought about her older brother and sister, both college golfers who have always been her biggest fans. She commiserated with her caddie/college coach Derek Radley, with whom Romero shares a strong Christian faith.
She realized, saying, “I needed to find my purpose.” On Sunday, Romero focused on carrying herself with confidence and feeling grateful that she was playing on such a grand stage.
She birdied the second hole and began to feel more like herself, or, more accurately, a better version of herself. She birdied the fourth, then the ninth, the 12th, the 13th, and the 15th!
When she finally ran out of holes, Romero had shot 65, the lowest round ever by an amateur at the Women’s Open.
“To go from the highest score of the day to the lowest of the day was an incredible learning experience,” Romero says, and she’s been on a tear ever since, averaging 68.5 per round for Oregon during the Fall 2025 season. Romero, the NCGA’s 2024-25 Women’s Player of the Year, has always been dead set on making it to the LPGA, but, post-Erin Hills, she now has a broader perspective. “I think about the LPGA a lot,” Romero said. “I would love to have that lifestyle. Golf has always been my favorite thing to do. But I don’t stress about it anymore. If it’s God’s plan for me, it’ll happen. If not, there are other things out there for me.”
A social science major with a concentration in business, Romero’s backup plan is a career in marketing. She is already a great spokesperson for the Oregon Women’s Golf program. She raves about the facilities and the family atmosphere, and in Romero’s case that is quite literally true: her brother Kyreece is on Oregon’s men’s team. They eat lunch together every day and often find ways to compete against each other in practice settings. “The whole men’s team treats me like a little sister,” she says.
Her actual big sis, Kaleyia, recently completed her playing career at Pepperdine. “We were raised with no electronics, no TV, no video games, nothing,” says Kiara. “We had to keep each other entertained, and that mostly meant playing as many sports as we could. We all got into golf at the same time and fell in love with the game. We would play for something every day—ice cream, whatever. Growing up, my number one goal was just to beat them.” These grudge matches played out at Santa Teresa Golf Club and Coyote Creek Golf Club in San Jose.
Kaleyia played softball, and her bat speed translated into clubhead speed; she still hits it farther than her kid sis, but in trying to keep up, Kiara developed into a stellar ballstriker.
Recent cameos versus the pros have shown Kiara that upgrading her short game will be the key to succeeding at the next level. “I’m working hard on it,” she says. “I’ve learned a lot just watching the pros — the shots they hit, and how they practice.”
This summer, Romero will have more opportunities to test herself against the best, with exemptions into the U.S. and British Women’s Opens that came courtesy of winning the McCormack Medal, presented to the male and female players who top the World Amateur Golf Ranking at season’s end.
This year she will also tee it up in the Curtis Cup and the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Romero will be a favorite at Augusta after a strong showing in 2025. Predicting golf scores is always a crapshoot, but here’s a safe bet: expect more 65s than 84s from this talented and poised star-in-the-making.
Carmel Valley resident Alan Shipnuck’s 10th book, Rory: The Heartache and Triumph of Golf’s Most Human Superstar, is due out in April.
