The Oregon women’s golf team got off to a rough start to their 2025-26 season with a 3-2 loss to the Texas Longhorns on Sept. 17 at Shoreacres Golf Club in Illinois.
Sophomore Tong An and freshman Sophie Han secured the two wins for the Ducks early in the first two rounds.
“Not the result we were hoping for today, but this was a really great experience for our team this week,” Ducks head coach Derek Radley said to Go Ducks. “I’m looking forward to see how we respond from this and am excited to get back to practice and work on some areas where we can improve.”
Han was dominant on the links, winning the first eight holes before later securing a 5&4 win on the 14th hole. An battled with Texas’s Vivian Lu for almost the whole round before securing an eagle on the 17th hole to take the victory with one hole left.
The Longhorns turned things around after a grueling 18-hole battle was finally won by Angela Heo against Ducks’ sophomore Suvichaya Vinijchaitham. Vinijchaitham was only a hole behind for the whole round — and even birdied on 17 — but still could not pull out the win.
Texas tied things up after Lauren Kim took down freshman Shyla Singh in a 2&1 battle to set up the final round. Star junior Kiara Romero, who is currently the No. 1 ranked amateur golfer in the world, was taken down by Farah O’Keefe in a devastating 4-3 loss. As Oregon’s best golfer and one of the best collegiate golfers in the country, the Ducks lean on Romero in match play. When Romero loses, however, it’s usually much more difficult for the team to recover.
Romero recently placed 45th at the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open in May which was her first LPGA event. Her five under par score was a record for an amateur golfer at the Open.
She also recently won the Mark H. McCormack Medal which is awarded to the No. 1 ranked Women’s and Men’s players in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Previous winners of the award include 2023 Masters Champion Jon Rahm and 2025 Women’s PGA Championship winner Minjee Lee.
The Ducks will be heading up to Corvallis this weekend to take part in the Molly Collegiate Invitational. Oregon will look to gain back some much needed momentum as the push into their next big tournament in mid-October against Stanford.
Stanford was ranked No. 1 last season and was runner up in the national championship against Northwestern. A win against Stanford would be a massive step in the right direction for Oregon heading into the final tournament of the fall the following week.
The Ducks have so far fielded a young team with no seniors appearing in the matchup against Texas. Giving younger players like An, Vinijchaitham and Han an opportunity to compete in these early fall tournaments is going to be key in order to prepare for the Big Ten Championship in late April.
Any team that wants a chance at a conference or national title needs depth which was lacking in the recent loss to Texas. Picking up early wins means nothing if your upperclassmen can’t pull away in the closing rounds. The Ducks will still bring this momentum into the rest of the fall season and they’ll use Romero as their spark going forward.
