CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. – Three Oregon women’s golf standouts were announced as all-Americans by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) on Tuesday after leading the Ducks to the Big Ten Championship and a second straight trip to the national semifinals at the NCAA Championships.
Sophomore Kiara Romero was selected as a WGCA first-team all-American for the second year in a row, becoming the first two-time, first-team all-American in program history as well as the fourth Duck ever to receive multiple all-America honors.Freshman Suvichaya Vinijchaitham was honored as a WGCA second-team all-American, and sophomore Karen Tsuru received WGCA all-America honorable mention recognition. It is the second time in program history that Oregon has had multiple all-Americans in the same season, joining the 2021-22 team that finished as the national runners-up. Oregon has now had nine total players combine for 13 total all-America honors in its history. Since head coach Derek Radley took over in 2018-19, Oregon has had seven players combine for 10 all-America awards. The No. 2 ranked player in the country and No. 3 ranked amateur in the world, Romero followed up her historic freshman season in 2023-24 with an even better campaign as a sophomore. She shattered her own Oregon single-season record for scoring average with a stellar 69.91 mark, becoming the first Duck ever to average sub-70 in a season. She also broke her own program record for birdies with 138.Romero became the third Duck ever to win an individual conference championship, winning the Big Ten title with a 7-under 209. The San Jose native followed up that victory with a win at the NCAA Gold Canyon Regional with a 16-under 200, the second-lowest 54-hole score in Oregon history, while shooting the lowest round in program history with a 10-under 62 in round two. On the season, Romero earned two wins, four runner-up finishes, nine top-10 finishes and 11 top-20 showings in 11 tournaments. She was the top Duck on the leaderboard at the NCAA Championships in a tie for eighth at 5 under, breaking her own UO individual 72-hole scoring record from a year prior. In 32 rounds of stroke play, Romero shot par-or-better 26 times with 16 sub-70 performances. Vinijchaitham was terrific for the Ducks as a true freshman, playing in all 35 rounds of stroke play and finishing with a 71.46 scoring average that ranks third in UO single-season history, behind only Romero from 2024-25 and 2023-24. Vinijchaitham joined Romero in the individual top 10 at the NCAA Championships, tying for 10th at 4 under while finishing as the only Duck to shoot par-or-better in all four rounds.Vinijchaitham posted 20 rounds of par-or-better on the season with nine rounds in the 60s, and her 123 birdies are second in program history only to Romero’s 138 from this season. The Thailand native earned her first career win at the Alice & John Wallace Classic in the spring, and ended the year with eight top-10 finishes and 11 top-20 showings. Tsuru enjoyed a breakout sophomore season after earning a spot in Oregon’s lineup late in the season as a freshman in 2023-24. Tsuru maintained a 72.62 scoring average in 26 rounds while dealing with a back injury throughout the spring, earning a win at the Juli Inkster Invitational while posting four top-10 and five top-20 finishes. The native of Carlsbad, Calif., posted 12 rounds of par-or-better with nine rounds in the 60s, including a span of eight straight throughout the spring.
