Kiara Romero’s strengths have shown up at the most unexpected times at Chevron
HOUSTON – Everyone expects Kiara Romero to be a star whenever she joins the LPGA. You can see why on Thursday, just not at the times you’d expect.
The World No. 1 went out in the first round of the Chevron Championship and quickly rose to the top at Memorial Park. The 20-year-old Oregon Duck went 3-under and then holed his third shot on the par-5 14th to five feet for another birdie to get within the first lead. The hype surrounding the first title of the year began to build as Romero’s name rose up the leaderboard. The idea of the future arriving before the appointed time has its own momentum; there is a unique electricity created by the energy that strikes the earth. Romero is no stranger to controversy. You win a lot at the college level. She won the US Girls Junior and played in the final round of the 2025 Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
This was the category he seemed to be made for. Not because of his iron play, reliable putter or tee length. But because of what happened when he got up, the Chevron Championship leaderboard stopped.
On the par-3 15th, Romero’s shot missed the green short and went off. He had a blast but missed the par putt. Next came the long par-5 15th. Romero missed the tee shot, leaving him with more than 200 yards in the wind. With his father, Rick, watching from the tee, Romero is ready to hit the green. He stood on top of the ball, looked in his direction and repositioned his body, something he hadn’t done all round. It was a moment of uncertainty, which Team Romero noticed, and it ended with Romero hanging his way to the right and into the water.
Despite leaking oil in the main event, Romero didn’t dare. His head did not come down. His father will say that there is no need for “wasted energy.” If you hadn’t seen his ball landing in the middle of the pond, you would have no idea that things have to move quickly for the 20-year-old. Romero calmly walked away as if nothing had changed in the previous two holes. He played for 16 years and then retired at 17. His ball landed under a tree but his behavior did not change. Romero settled down, did his routine, and stopped the bleeding with a draw at 17. He missed a 6-footer on the par 18th to finish at 1 under but closed out his stay flowing with confidence.
“I feel like going back to knowing that my game has been good all day,” Romero said of his ability to reset and stay in the moment. “It’s not like one shot is going to change that. I think the back nine is tougher than the front nine, so I think just fighting that and going through the same way, the same game plan, the same mentality, is very important.”
Margins are vanishingly small at the professional level. The difference between racking up wins and grinding your card can be small. But almost all top players share something in common – an unwavering calmness that allows them to stop things from getting out of hand. Their focus is always on the next swing, not the one they just made.
Romero was preparing for these moments. Every college tournament he wins, every LPGA start he makes as a student is a building block on the road to where his game suggests he will be one day.
Perhaps none was bigger than last summer’s weekend at the US Women’s Open at Erin Hills. Romero won at Wisconsin and then earned the US Open in the third round when he shot a 12-over 84, which included a quadruple bogey, to die in the final round. It’s been a bit of a sweat for a player who isn’t used to taking deep rituals on the golf course. But Romero didn’t budge, and came back in the final round and shot a 5-under 67, the lowest final round by an amateur in US Women’s Open history. Strength and confidence is the point for him.
“I think the biggest thing I learned from that tournament was just knowing that I can come back from anything,” Romero said that Sunday at Erin Hills. “I feel like that third round was my worst round in almost ten years, but the next day I broke the record.
“So just knowing that there can be that great range of success, and like your game you can go from being the worst one day to the best the next, and that’s really how golf is. So it doesn’t like to define whether you’re having a bad day or not.”
Romero will be here one day soon.
He has already accumulated 14 LEAP points on the LPGA course for top novices to earn a card. He is six points shy of the 20 points that will earn him a spot on the LPGA. The cuts made this week will earn him another point. A top-25 finish will earn him two more points. It’s a matter of when, not if, Romero regularly competes with the best in the world.
But she already looks and feels like she belongs.
“Being out here and knowing the experience and kind of knowing what it’s going to be like and knowing the pressure of playing with the best players in the world and playing in front of the crowd and playing on TV, all those things, just knowing what’s coming and what’s going to be there, I think it’s very relaxing for me,” he said.
Romero finished his round by bogeying three of the last four holes. For many, that means a quick trip to the range to find a cure for what averted the big round. To him, it meant nothing at all. His bodyguard told him he was fine. He plays an imperfect game and is willing to accept that, for all his ability, he will make mistakes. He knows better than to waste his energy on what has already happened.
What’s important is what’s next, what’s in front of him. If Thursday was any indication, expectations are all.
