U.S. Women's Open amateurs: Kiara Romero, Maria Jose Marin finish inside top 10 at Riv
· Yahoo Sports
While Nelly Korda's triumph at Riviera Country Club might be the first, second and third talking points when reviewing the 81st U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera, there's an unquestionable narrative coming out of the year's second major championship about the future of the game being as strong as it has ever been.
And that's because five amateurs finished inside the top 34 on the leaderboard after 72 holes in Southern California, including a pair of top-10s from Oregon's Kiara Romero and Stanford's Maria Jose Marin (the reigning Augusta National Women’s Amateur winner) — the first time that's happened since 2005.
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Romero, the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world, was the low am this year, finishing T-6. Marin was one shot back, at 2 under, tied for eighth. Both are exempt to play at Inverness Club next year when the 2027 U.S. Women’s Open descends on Toledo, Ohio.
"Definitely wasn't easy," Romero told reporters Sunday. "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."
Amateurs had quite the showing this weekend at Riviera Country Club.
Golf Channel
Joining them on the leaderboard were Aphrodite Deng, Asterisk Talley and Farah O'Keefe.
Like Romero and Marin, Deng and Talley earned an additional LEAP point for finishing inside the top 25.
Deng, who finished even after four rounds, became the first Canadian to win the U.S. Girls' Junior Championship last year.
One year her senior, the 17-year-old Talley is heading to Stanford in the fall after making the cut at both major events she's played in this season. At the Chevron Championship in April, Talley finished T-49. She was T-22 this week.
O'Keefe, who finished 34th on the leaderboard, was named the the 2026 Annika Award recipient and became the NCAA individual champion at the end of May. The University of Texas junior did not finish outside the top 10 this season, edging out conference rival Marin (Arkansas) for top female Division I collegiate golfer.
"This is the biggest stage of golf and you never know what's going to happen," Marin told reporters after the final round.
"Now that it's done, I'm just really happy with how it ended," she added. "I never thought I was going to be top 10. If you told me at the start of the week you're going finish top 10 I would never believe it. And, yeah, I am just extremely happy how my golf is right now and really looking forward to the other tournaments that I have."
U.S. Women’s Open 2026 leaderboard: Final results and scores from RivieraHere’s a look at how the 2026 U.S. Women’s Open played out at Rivieria Country Club.