Following a slow start to the new year, No. 3 Oregon women’s golf pulled away with a second place finish at the Chevron Collegiate with star junior and No. 1 amateur Kiara Romero taking home the winners trophy.

Romero won her fifth tournament as a Duck, a new program record. She finished with a score of 11 under par, four strokes ahead of second place. This dominant showing is her first win for Oregon since the NCAA Gold Canyon Regional in May  2025.

The first round started off strong for Romero and Karen Tsuru who finished six under and three under respectively. Tsuru’s strong performance in the first round was unexpected with her returning from injuries suffered last year. She was the preseason Big Ten golfer to watch ahead of this season as well as a member of the Golfweek preseason All-America third team. 

Tong An boasted a  solid start as well with a first round score of one under par, but things got worse for the Ducks when Sophie Han and Darae Chung finished with scores of two and four over par respectively.

Romero’s first round dominance with nine birdies catapulted her ahead of Arkansas’s Maria Jose Marin who looked like she would pull away after a four under first round. 

The second round of play yielded mixed results with Romero and Tsuru both ended  two under, remaining ahead of the pack. An and Han slipped further down after finishing two over with Chung sliding farther with another four over finish. 

Romero was only one stroke ahead of Texas State’s Grace Quintilla at the end of the first day of play. Quintilla had the best second round performance in the tournament with a score of six under, with seven birdies to boot. 

In the final day of play, the Ducks flew past the competition to fight their way back to second place with a three under and one under performances from Romero and An. Tsuru, Han and Chung would all finish even on the day. 

An’s bounce back after her final round pushed her to 20th place, finishing even on par. Although it’s not her highest finish recently, it is one of her better performances as of late after finishing three over in her last outing.

Tsuru finished seventh with a score of five under, a strong finish given that this is her first tournament since the National Championship in May 2025. Her return could be just what the Ducks need as they continue to push for title contention. 

The next outing for Oregon will be the inaugural Game Above Sports Invitational at the Rolling Hills Country Club in California. The tournament will field 11 teams with multiple teams in the top-100 rankings.