How this amateur improved her third-round score by 17 shots and set a U.S. Women's Open record

Kiara Romero had no idea she was making history. She was just freewheeling it at Erin Hills on Sunday at the U.S. Women’s Open. After a brutal Saturday where she shot 84, Romero found herself at the bottom of the leaderboard. Instead of feeling defeated, Romero saw it as an opportunity.

“I think just knowing that I was literally in dead last kind of freed me up into knowing I had absolutely nothing to lose and just playing my game,” Romero said after the round. “Knowing I've been playing some good golf. I made the cut to get here, I knew I had it in me and I just tried to stay patient and put that round behind me.”

Her open mindset worked. The 19-year-old shot 67 in the final round, which is the lowest final round an amateur has ever shot at the U.S. Women’s Open.

“That's pretty amazing,” Romero said once she was made aware of her record-breaking performance, “knowing the round I had yesterday and coming off that and flipping it around and just changing everything, the mindset and all the negativity, just flipping it around and going out there and knowing I can shoot a low round.”

With no one in front of them, Romero’s group was able to move quickly. Romero, who won the 2023 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, slid into a good rhythm and kept it throughout the day. She only missed two fairways and three greens on Sunday. It was a completely different experience from how she felt on the course on Saturday.

“Everything was just coming to me. I could read the greens and I knew what club I was hitting,” Romero said. “Yesterday, all those things were just a mystery to me. It was like I've never played golf before. Just happens I guess.”

Romero, who just finished her sophomore year at the University of Oregon, tied for eighth place two weeks ago at the NCAA Championship in California. She also tied for seventh at the Augusta National Women's Amateur in April. One of her biggest assets is the ability to make turning a negative mindset into a positive one sound like a simple thing. But it’s not. Being able to truly let go of a bad round is not something to underscore. By leaving that 84 behind, she gave herself the freedom to have a new round, unassociated with what had happened the day before.

“I'm just really proud of the way I flipped it around and just stayed patient with it. Making the cut and then shooting like one of the worst rounds in the past few years was pretty tough,” said Romero, one of six amateurs to make the cut this week in Wisconsin. “I was like, you know what? I'm just going to go for it, hit it at every pin, and just see what happens.”

What happened was historic.