HOUSTON — Every time Chiara Romero joins the LPGA, everyone expects her to be a star. We found out why Thursday, and it wasn’t the moment we expected.
The No. 1 amateur in the world was eliminated in the first round of the Chevron Championship and quickly moved up the leaderboard at Memorial Park. After coming out at 3 under, the 20-year-old Oregon Duck closed his third shot to 5 feet on the par-5 14th for birdie and moved within one of the early lead. Buzz about the year’s first major began to build as Romero’s name rose up the leaderboard. The idea that the future will arrive ahead of schedule has its own significance. There is a unique kind of electricity produced by the potential that overwhelms the world. Romero is no stranger to controversy. she wins a lot At the university level. She won the U.S. Women’s Junior Championship and qualified for the final round of the 2025 Augusta U.S. Women’s Amateur.
This seems like the stage she was made for. It’s not because of her natural iron play, reliable putter, or tee shot length. However, due to what happened during her rise, the Chevron Championship leaderboard stalled.
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On the 15th par-3, Romero’s tee shot missed the green and came up short. She chipped up but missed the par putt. Next is the long par 5 15th. Romero hit the stripe with his tee shot, and with the wind helping, he had just 200 yards remaining. As his father, Rick, watched from the rope line, Romero readied his shot at the green. She stood over the ball, looked at the target, then changed her body position, something she did not do during the round. It was a moment of uncertainty that ended with Team Romero realizing it and Romero missing his approach to the right and dangling into the water.
Despite suffering an oil leak at a major tournament, Romero remained undaunted. Her head never lowered. Her father would say there is no need for “wasted energy.” If I hadn’t witnessed her ball drop into the middle of a pond, I wouldn’t have imagined that things were moving so quickly for the 20-year-old. Romero calmly progressed through the past two holes as if nothing had changed. She made bogey on 16 and struggled off the tee on 17. Her ball fell under the tree, but her attitude did not change. Romero steadied himself, went through the process, and stopped the bleeding with a par on the 17th. He missed 6 feet on the 18th to finish 1 under, but still ended his stay full of confidence.
“I want to get back to what my game was good all day,” Romero said of his ability to reset and stay in the moment. “It’s not going to change in one shot. I think the back nine is definitely harder than the front nine. So I think it’s really important to fight through it and get through it with the same swing, same game plan, same mindset.”
At the professional level the margins are negligible. The difference between racking up wins and trying hard for your cards can be negligible. But almost all great players have something in common. It’s the unwavering calm that can stop things from spiraling out of control. Their focus is always on the next swing, not the one they just made.
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Romero has been preparing for this moment. Every time she wins a college tournament, every time she starts on the LPGA as an amateur, her game lays the groundwork for where she will someday reach.
Perhaps no tournament was bigger than the U.S. Women’s Open held at Erin Hills over a weekend last summer. Romero qualified in Wisconsin and shot a 12-over 84, including a quadruple bogey, in the third round of the U.S. Open, falling to last place and winning. It was gut-wrenching for a player not used to making deep cuts on the golf course. But Romero remained unfazed and returned for the final round, posting a 5-under 67, the lowest final round by an amateur in U.S. Women’s Open history. Resilience and confidence are important to her.
“I think the biggest thing I learned from that tournament was knowing that you can bounce back no matter what,” Romero said of Sunday at Erin Hills. “That third round was definitely the worst round I’ve had in about 10 years, but I broke the record the next day.
“So just knowing that there’s a huge range of success and just like in the game you can go from being at your worst one day to being at your best the next and that’s what golf is really about. So I don’t like to define myself by whether I have a bad day or not.”
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Romero will also be here soon.
She has already earned 14 LEAP points, a pathway for the LPGA’s top amateurs to earn a card. He is six points away from the 20 points that would earn him a spot on the LPGA. If he decides this week, he will get more points. If you finish in the top 25, you will earn an additional 2 points. The question is not if Romero will regularly face the best players in the world, but when.
But she already looks and feels like what she deserves.
“Just coming out here and knowing the experience, knowing what it’s going to be like, knowing the pressure of playing against the best players in the world, playing in front of a crowd, playing on TV, just kind of knowing what’s going to happen and what’s going to happen, I think it’s definitely a lot more comfortable for me,” she said.
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Romero finished the round with bogeys on three of the last four holes. For many, that means a quick trip to the range to find an antidote to getting sidetracked by a great round. To her, it meant nothing. Her swing told her it was okay. She plays imperfectly and has come to accept that despite her talent, she will make mistakes. She knows it’s better to waste energy on something that has already happened.
All that matters is what happens next, what’s in front of her. If Thursday is any indication, that’s all there is to wait.
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