Sunday, February 1
Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.
All Day
University of Oregon
vs
Therese Hession Regional Challenge
Ducks Open Spring At Familiar Site
01/31/26 | Women's Golf
PALOS VERDES ESTATE, Calif. - The No. 3 ranked Oregon women's golf team will kick off its 2026 spring season on Sunday at the Therese Hession Regional Challenge at Palos Verdes Golf Club.
The Ducks open their spring schedule in Palos Verdes Estates for the fourth consecutive year, and they won the tournament in back-to-back years in 2022 and 2023. Oregon will be one of five top-10 ranked teams and one of nine top-25 ranked schools in the 16-team field, with 18 holes of stroke play set for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
2026 Therese Hession Regional Challenge
Sunday, Feb. 1 - Wednesday, Feb. 3
Palos Verdes Golf Club | Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.
16 Teams | Par 71, 6,017 Yards
Format: Three rounds of stroke play, 18 holes each day
The Field
#2 USC, #3 Oregon, #6 Florida, #7 Texas A&M, #9 Pepperdine, #11 Texas, #13 Arizona State, #18 South Carolina, #23 UCLA, California, Kansas, Miami (Fla.), Ohio State, SMU, San Jose State, UNLV
How to Follow
Live scoring for the Therese Hession Regional Challenge will be available on Scoreboard Live, and live updates will be provided on Twitter at @OregonWGolf.
Strong Fall For the Ducks
Coming off a trip to the national semifinals at the NCAA Championships for the second year in a row, the Ducks got their 2025-26 season off to a good start with a solid showing during the fall. Oregon placed in the top four in all four fall tournaments, including a win at the prestigious East Lake Cup and runner-up showings at the ANNIKA Intercollegiate and the Stanford Intercollegiate. Oregon put together a tremendous 35-5-0 competitive record in the fall while combining to shoot 12-under par, headlined by a 14-under 838 at the Stanford Intercollegiate.
East Lake Cup Champs
After earning a spot at the famous East Lake Cup thanks to a second straight top-four finish at the NCAA Championships last spring, the Ducks made the most of their opportunity and got some revenge in the process. Oregon earned the No. 1 seed in stroke play after finishing the shortened round of stroke play at the top of the leaderboard, and the Ducks booked their ticket to the championship match with a 3-2 win over Florida State. The title match was a rematch of the 2025 NCAA Championship semifinals against reigning national champion Northwestern, and the Ducks avenged their loss from May with a dominant 4-1 victory to earn their first-ever East Lake Cup title and the 12th tournament win under head coach Derek Radley. Kiara Romero, Sophie Han and Suvichaya Vinijchaitham all went 2-0 in match play to lead the Ducks to victory.
Kiara Romero - Best in the World
Already arguably the greatest player in program history, junior Kiara Romero enters the spring season as the No. 1 ranked amateur women's golfer in the world. Romero is the first two-time, first-team all-American in Oregon history after earning the honor in each of her first two seasons, and she is the reigning Big Ten Women's Golfer of the Year after winning the individual conference title and leading Oregon to the Big Ten team championship last spring. Romero has shot par-or-better in 59 of her 73 rounds as a Duck while posting 30 rounds in the 60s, and she is tied for the program record with four career wins after winning the Big Ten and NCAA Gold Canyon Regional individual titles last season. In 25 stroke-play tournaments as a Duck, Romero has four wins, seven runner-up finishes, 19 top-10 finishes and 24 top-20 showings
Romero Racking Up The Records
Not even through three full seasons, junior Kiara Romero has rewritten the Oregon women's golf record book. The San Jose native has broken the program single-season records for both scoring average and birdies in each of her first two seasons, shattering her own records for both with a 69.91 scoring average and 138 birdies in 2024-25. Romero also owns the single-season records for par-3 (2.95, 2023-24), par-4 (3.99, 2024-25) and par-5 (4.63, 2024-25) scoring, and she fired the lowest individual round in program history last season with an astounding 10-under 62 in the second round of the NCAA Gold Canyon Regional. Romero's career scoring average of 70.18 is on pace to shatter the current program record of 72.82 held by Briana Chacon, and she is tied for the all-time record with four career wins. Romero is also just two birdies away from becoming the eighth Duck all-time to reach 300 career birdies, and her seven career eagles are just one shy of matching the Oregon record. So far, Romero owns four of the 15 lowest individual rounds ever by a Duck as well as four of the 10 lowest 54-hole individual totals, including a 16-under 200 at the NCAA Gold Canyon Regional last year that was the second-lowest 54-hole score in Oregon history.
Radley Signs Two, Hut Earns LPGA Status
Oregon's roster for the spring season looks a little different than it did in the fall. Suvichaya Vinijchaitham, a second-team all-American as a freshman in 2024-25, is no longer with the Ducks after advancing through LPGA Q-School and earning her LPGA Tour Card. Derek Radley turned to the transfer portal to offset the loss of Vinijchaitham, signing Houston transfer Annika Yishiyama to the spring roster. Radley also signed Princeton transfer Catherine Rao, but Rao will be eligible to compete for the Ducks starting in the fall of 2026.
Numbers to Know
-12 - Oregon combined to shoot 12-under par in stroke play during the fall season, headlined by a 14-under 838 at the Stanford Intercollegiate.
2 - Kiara Romero enters the spring just two birdies away from becoming the eighth player in program history to reach 300 career.
3 - The Ducks are looking for their third all-time win at the Therese Hession Regional Challenge, having won in both 2022 and 2023.
12 - Oregon closed the fall season with a win at the prestigious East Lake Cup, the 12th win under eighth-year head coach Derek Radley.
The Ducks open their spring schedule in Palos Verdes Estates for the fourth consecutive year, and they won the tournament in back-to-back years in 2022 and 2023. Oregon will be one of five top-10 ranked teams and one of nine top-25 ranked schools in the 16-team field, with 18 holes of stroke play set for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
2026 Therese Hession Regional Challenge
Sunday, Feb. 1 - Wednesday, Feb. 3
Palos Verdes Golf Club | Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.
16 Teams | Par 71, 6,017 Yards
Format: Three rounds of stroke play, 18 holes each day
The Field
#2 USC, #3 Oregon, #6 Florida, #7 Texas A&M, #9 Pepperdine, #11 Texas, #13 Arizona State, #18 South Carolina, #23 UCLA, California, Kansas, Miami (Fla.), Ohio State, SMU, San Jose State, UNLV
How to Follow
Live scoring for the Therese Hession Regional Challenge will be available on Scoreboard Live, and live updates will be provided on Twitter at @OregonWGolf.
Strong Fall For the Ducks
Coming off a trip to the national semifinals at the NCAA Championships for the second year in a row, the Ducks got their 2025-26 season off to a good start with a solid showing during the fall. Oregon placed in the top four in all four fall tournaments, including a win at the prestigious East Lake Cup and runner-up showings at the ANNIKA Intercollegiate and the Stanford Intercollegiate. Oregon put together a tremendous 35-5-0 competitive record in the fall while combining to shoot 12-under par, headlined by a 14-under 838 at the Stanford Intercollegiate.
East Lake Cup Champs
After earning a spot at the famous East Lake Cup thanks to a second straight top-four finish at the NCAA Championships last spring, the Ducks made the most of their opportunity and got some revenge in the process. Oregon earned the No. 1 seed in stroke play after finishing the shortened round of stroke play at the top of the leaderboard, and the Ducks booked their ticket to the championship match with a 3-2 win over Florida State. The title match was a rematch of the 2025 NCAA Championship semifinals against reigning national champion Northwestern, and the Ducks avenged their loss from May with a dominant 4-1 victory to earn their first-ever East Lake Cup title and the 12th tournament win under head coach Derek Radley. Kiara Romero, Sophie Han and Suvichaya Vinijchaitham all went 2-0 in match play to lead the Ducks to victory.
Kiara Romero - Best in the World
Already arguably the greatest player in program history, junior Kiara Romero enters the spring season as the No. 1 ranked amateur women's golfer in the world. Romero is the first two-time, first-team all-American in Oregon history after earning the honor in each of her first two seasons, and she is the reigning Big Ten Women's Golfer of the Year after winning the individual conference title and leading Oregon to the Big Ten team championship last spring. Romero has shot par-or-better in 59 of her 73 rounds as a Duck while posting 30 rounds in the 60s, and she is tied for the program record with four career wins after winning the Big Ten and NCAA Gold Canyon Regional individual titles last season. In 25 stroke-play tournaments as a Duck, Romero has four wins, seven runner-up finishes, 19 top-10 finishes and 24 top-20 showings
Romero Racking Up The Records
Not even through three full seasons, junior Kiara Romero has rewritten the Oregon women's golf record book. The San Jose native has broken the program single-season records for both scoring average and birdies in each of her first two seasons, shattering her own records for both with a 69.91 scoring average and 138 birdies in 2024-25. Romero also owns the single-season records for par-3 (2.95, 2023-24), par-4 (3.99, 2024-25) and par-5 (4.63, 2024-25) scoring, and she fired the lowest individual round in program history last season with an astounding 10-under 62 in the second round of the NCAA Gold Canyon Regional. Romero's career scoring average of 70.18 is on pace to shatter the current program record of 72.82 held by Briana Chacon, and she is tied for the all-time record with four career wins. Romero is also just two birdies away from becoming the eighth Duck all-time to reach 300 career birdies, and her seven career eagles are just one shy of matching the Oregon record. So far, Romero owns four of the 15 lowest individual rounds ever by a Duck as well as four of the 10 lowest 54-hole individual totals, including a 16-under 200 at the NCAA Gold Canyon Regional last year that was the second-lowest 54-hole score in Oregon history.
Radley Signs Two, Hut Earns LPGA Status
Oregon's roster for the spring season looks a little different than it did in the fall. Suvichaya Vinijchaitham, a second-team all-American as a freshman in 2024-25, is no longer with the Ducks after advancing through LPGA Q-School and earning her LPGA Tour Card. Derek Radley turned to the transfer portal to offset the loss of Vinijchaitham, signing Houston transfer Annika Yishiyama to the spring roster. Radley also signed Princeton transfer Catherine Rao, but Rao will be eligible to compete for the Ducks starting in the fall of 2026.
Numbers to Know
-12 - Oregon combined to shoot 12-under par in stroke play during the fall season, headlined by a 14-under 838 at the Stanford Intercollegiate.
2 - Kiara Romero enters the spring just two birdies away from becoming the eighth player in program history to reach 300 career.
3 - The Ducks are looking for their third all-time win at the Therese Hession Regional Challenge, having won in both 2022 and 2023.
12 - Oregon closed the fall season with a win at the prestigious East Lake Cup, the 12th win under eighth-year head coach Derek Radley.
Players Mentioned
Kiara Romero | NCAA Regional Preview
Tuesday, April 29
Suvichaya Vinijchaitham | NCAA Regional Preview
Tuesday, April 29
Derek Radley | NCAA Regional Preview
Tuesday, April 29
Derek Radley: "We try and share on each others' success."
Tuesday, May 14
