Riviera's Amateur Wave Is Not a Side Story at This U.S. Women's Open

Image: Birdie Report

The 2026 U.S. Women’s Open does not just have a good amateur subplot at Riviera.

It has an amateur problem for the pros, and that is much more interesting.

Official USGA championship notes and the LPGA’s June 2 field breakdown, both checked on June 4, 2026, show 24 amateurs in the field, including seven of the top 10 players in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking. That group is led by Kiara Romero, Farah O’Keefe, Maria Jose Marin, Asterisk Talley, Paula Martin Sampedro, Meja Ortengren, Aphrodite Deng, and more than a few other names who are way too good to be treated like decorative “future of the game” filler.

This piece is based on official USGA and LPGA materials checked on June 4, 2026, including the USGA’s championship notebook and player features plus the LPGA field breakdown. No pretending I camped out behind the Riviera range ropes collecting amateur whispers from college coaches.

This Is Not a Cute Side Layer

The USGA’s official notebook says the field includes:

• 24 amateurs
• 41 first-time U.S. Women’s Open competitors
• seven of the top 10 players in WAGR

That is a ridiculous amount of high-end amateur talent for one week, even by major-championship standards.

We already covered the broader field build in our Riviera field setup story and the late-ranking adds in our Rolex update piece. The part worth emphasizing now is that Riviera is not only getting deeper because more LPGA stars showed up.

It is getting weirder in the best way because a real chunk of the amateur game showed up too.

Kiara Romero Is the Cleanest Headliner

If you want the easiest amateur name to circle first, start with Kiara Romero.

The USGA lists Romero as the No. 1 WAGR player, and its June 2 feature on the Romero family says this is her third U.S. Women’s Open appearance. The same story notes she is coming off another huge Oregon season and staying in Los Angeles for next week’s Curtis Cup at Bel-Air.

That is not just a promising-player profile. That is a player with real big-week traffic already piling up.

Romero also has a local-ish feel that fits Riviera nicely. She is a California player, the course is in Southern California, and the week already has a bigger-than-normal sense of place. We leaned into that backdrop in our Riviera big-stage column, and Romero gives it an actual competitive hook.

Farah O’Keefe and Maria Jose Marin Make the Top End Even Better

The most useful thing about this amateur group is that Romero is not carrying it alone.

The USGA notebook lists Farah O’Keefe at No. 4 in WAGR and notes that the new NCAA individual champion also shared low-amateur honors at this year’s Chevron Championship. We already broke down how O’Keefe played her way into Riviera, but the current field context matters because she is now arriving as more than a nice college-golf story.

She is arriving as a legitimate “do not act surprised if she hangs around” name.

Then there is Maria Jose Marin, who the USGA says earned her place by winning the 2026 Augusta National Women’s Amateur with a record-low total. Add Asterisk Talley, Paula Martin Sampedro, Meja Ortengren, and Aphrodite Deng, and the whole thing starts looking less like one amateur hope and more like a real amateur wave.

The Romero Sisters Story Helps Too

There is also a more human angle inside the field that does not feel manufactured.

The USGA’s June 2 feature says Kiara and Kaleiya Romero will make their first major start together this week, with brother Kyreece on the bag for Kaleiya. It is the sort of story golf usually overplays into mush, but this one actually works because the competitive details are strong enough to hold it up.

According to the same feature:

• Kaleiya Romero has gone 7-for-7 in made cuts on the Epson Tour
• she has already posted three top-10 finishes
• she leads the circuit in strokes gained off the tee

That gives the family story some teeth. It is not just “how nice for everyone.” It is “there are two serious players here, and one of them is the No. 1 amateur in the world.”

This Is Why Riviera Feels Bigger Than a Standard Major Week

The easy version of this championship would be to frame it as:

• Jeeno Thitikul
• Nelly Korda
• Lydia Ko
• everybody else

That would also be lazy.

Riviera has a stronger field than that, a better venue than that, and a more interesting amateur layer than that. We already made the course case in our Riviera-not-just-nostalgia take. The field case is now just as strong.

The pros are still the headline. They should be. But a major gets better when the amateur names are good enough to hijack a few camera shots, a few leaderboard slots, and maybe a little weekend oxygen too.

Bottom Line

The 2026 U.S. Women’s Open field at Riviera includes 24 amateurs and seven of the top 10 players in WAGR, led by Kiara Romero, Farah O’Keefe, Maria Jose Marin, and Asterisk Talley.

That is not a side story.

It is one of the main reasons this championship feels deeper, sharper, and a lot less predictable than the usual “major week means the stars are here” summary.