University of Oregon Duck Kiara Romero tied for seventh at The Standard Portland Classic, a performance that is her new career-best result on the LPGA Tour and has earned the 19-year-old two more points in the LPGA Elite Amateur Pathway.

Romero was competing on a sponsor invitation this week at Columbia Edgewater Country Club and kicked off her third-ever LPGA Tour appearance with a 5-under 67, a first-round effort that saw her make two bogeys and seven birdies, four of which came in a five-hole stretch on holes 10 through 14.

The 2023 U.S. Girls’ Junior winner backed that strong start up with a 3-under 69 on Friday, during which she made one bogey, two birdies and an eagle on the par-5 12th hole to move up one position on the leaderboard, going from T12 to T11 with 36 holes remaining in Portland. Saturday was a bit of a rollercoaster for Romero, but the young talent managed to break even after recording three bogeys and three birdies on day three to ultimately post a 72 and share 25th before teeing it up on Sunday.

Romero then threw everything she had at Columbia Edgewater on day four, firing a near-perfect 8-under 64 in the final round of what was her first start in a non-major LPGA Tour event, carding one bogey and a whopping nine birdies to finish with a 72-hole total of 16-under and tie for seventh in her tournament debut at The Standard Portland Classic.

“It feels great to play really well in my first LPGA event,” Romero said. “Gives me a lot of confidence going into the school year, and just that it's like an hour away from the University of Oregon that I go to, all the Ducks fans are out here, so we had a big crowd and a lot of people cheering me on, so it meant a lot to put a good week up.”

The T7 showing also earns Romero two more points in the LPGA Elite Amateur Pathway, a new program the LPGA debuted in 2025 that gives high-level amateur athletes an opportunity to qualify for Tour membership via a points system that’s weighted based on their achievements as an am.

Romero had collected four points earlier in the week by winning the Mark H. McCormack Medal on Aug. 13, an honor given at the same time every year to the leading female and male athletes in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, an award that raised her LEAP tally to 11 points.

With the addition of the two points she received for her top-10 showing in Portland, Romero now has a total of 13 LEAP points and is seven points away both from meeting the 20-point threshold required to qualify for LPGA Tour membership and becoming the second athlete to earn status through the program, alongside Englishwoman Lottie Woad.

She had secured her previous seven points by winning the U.S. Girl’s Junior in 2023 (1 point), participating as a member of the United States Team in both the 2024 and 2025 Arnold Palmer Cups (2 points), making the cut at the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally at Erin Hills (1 point) and for reaching the top four or five spot, top two or three spot and top spot in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (3 points).

“I know it's a super tough thing to accomplish if you get those 20 points,” Romero said when asked what it meant to earn two more LEAP points at the Portland Classic. “I'm definitely trying my best to see how it works. This week, I definitely got a few points on the board, so that's good. I'm just really excited for the future and what we have going on for the next few years.”

Romero’s immediate future now includes a berth in the CPKC Women’s Open at Mississaugua Golf and Country Club in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, a spot she has earned also as a result of her top-10 finish at The Standard Portland Classic.

If she elects to play, the California native will have the opportunity to secure even more LEAP points with either a top-40 finish, which will give her one point, or a top-10 finish, which will see Romero collect two points.

Amateur Kiara Romero Earns Two LEAP Points with T7 Finish at Portland Classic

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