U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

June 7, 2026

Kiara Romero

The Riviera Country Club

Flash Interview

Q. We have Kiara Romero after a 3-under par 68. You're the low am of the U.S. Women's Open presented by ally. What are you feeling right now?

KIARA ROMERO: Yeah, I feel like I'm just really proud of myself after the week that I just had. Definitely wasn't easy. This course played unbelievably hard and took a lot of brain power out there for sure.

But I'm just really proud of how my game has grown these past few years.

Q. Coming down the stretch on holes No. 16 and 17 you had great birdies there. What were your emotions going towards those final few holes?

KIARA ROMERO: I feel like I definitely felt a little bit of everything. A little bit nervous, a little excited. But I just tried to stay very present in the moment and just try to be as calm as I could and try not to look at the leaderboard too much even though I kind of knew where I was at going into the day.

Q. Looking at this leaderboard there are a lot of major winners, major champions up there, how does it feel to see your name so close up to the top as an amateur?

KIARA ROMERO: It definitely gives me a lot of confidence. I feel like I haven't played that very many professional events and last year in the Women's Open I made the cut and then played really bad on the Saturday round and then Sunday I played really good and I think that Sunday round when I shot like 67 it kind of showed me that I can compete with these girls.

So I kind of came out here this week with a lot of confidence, just knowing that anything could happen and tried to just give it my best effort.

Q. I would imagine Nelly Korda is an athlete that you've looked up to as a young American player. How cool was that moment standing next to her on the green at the us Women's Open?

KIARA ROMERO: Yeah, it was unbelievable. I feel like when I was really little she was one of the golfers that I really looked up to, even before she became No. 1 in the world, long before that actually.

Just because me and my sister both play golf and my sister competed this week as well, and so we both looked up to the Korda sisters. They were our idols growing up. So that moment was really cool.

Q. Any of those emotions you can describe when you heard your name called out as low am and she's standing on the green as the champion?

KIARA ROMERO: I was just so excited. I mean, it's kind of one of those moments you always dreamed of as a kid and kind of seeing it come true it's like kind of hard to believe sometimes, yeah.

Q. You earned quite a few points in the LPGA LEAP amateur pathway; get two more this week and obviously Curtis Cup is on your schedule next. How excited are you to potentially reach that 20 point threshold as you inch incrementally closer to earning LPGA Tour status?

KIARA ROMERO: Yeah, it's been something I've been working towards this whole year, starting with the McCormack Medal last August. That's where I kind of jumped up in the points system.

So, yeah, I feel like these last few years have been unbelievable I've been just trying to work as hard as I can and also like that definitely does put pressure, so I try not to think about it at all and just come out to these tournaments just trying to have fun and enjoy it while I'm out here and. Yeah, when I'm at home working hard, that's when I'm thinking about it.