Kiara Romero and Rianne Malixi will square off in Saturday’s 36-hole championship match of the 74th U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at the U.S. Air Force Academy Eisenhower Golf Club’s Blue Course.
Romero, 17, of San Jose and the No.3 seed, knocked out 2022 runner-up and 2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball champion Gianna Clemente, 15, of Estero, Fla., 2 up, in the second of the two semifinal matches on Friday afternoon. Malixi, 16, of the Philippines, eliminated Leigh Chien, 17, of Irvine, 4 and 2, in the other semifinal.
An incoming University of Oregon freshman and the 2020 Junior Tour of Northern California Girls' Player of the Year, Romero avenged a 2-and-1 defeat to Clemente in the Round of 16 of last year’s U.S. Girls’ Junior at The Club at Olde Stone in Bowling Green, Ky.
“I knew going into today I would have to play good, especially against Gianna, she's a great player,” said Romero, who finished third in the 2022 Girls Junior PGA Championship. “I can't really control what she's going to do. I just focused on my game and tried to hit as many greens and fairways as I could and take it from there.”
The match turned on the 15th hole when Romero rolled in a 20-foot birdie putt to tie the match. One hole later, Clemente, who is No. 40 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking®, topped her second shot on the 562-yard, par-5. Her third from 210 yards out came up short of the green and she failed to get up and down for par, ending a string of 47 holes without a bogey. Romero managed a two-putt par to take a 1-up lead.
“Yeah, that putt on 15, the long one, that's what really got me in,” said Romero. “It got me back to even. Then the next hole I just kept going with it and I got a lot of confidence coming into the last few holes.”
Both players missed the green on the 183-yard, par-3 17th, resulting in matching bogeys. Then on 18, needing to win the hole, Clemente’s approach stopped 30 feet short of the flagstick, while Romero stuffed her approach to 6 feet. When Clemente missed, Romero calmly converted her fifth birdie of the match.