HOUSTON – Farah O’Keefe loves to talk. To anybody really. She’s a self-described “open book,” and hanging out with the media after a round is a good thing, she says, because she enjoys it.
The University of Texas junior has spent quite a bit of time talking to scribes this week as she’s currently in a share of third at the LPGA’s first major of the season, seven back of leader Nelly Korda. Only one amateur has ever won an LPGA event – Catherine Lacoste at the 1967 U.S. Women’s Open. O’Keefe opened with rounds of 68-69 in her Chevron Championship debut at Memorial Park.
O’Keefe has dreamed of winning a major – 20 of them to be exact – since she sat down at the kitchen table after playing poorly at a U.S. Kids event around age 10 and typed up a list of life goals on her mom’s computer.
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“The first one was to win on the U.S. Kids golf tour, like really, really small,” she said. “Then they got progressively bigger. I’ve kind of edited that list over time, and now there is like national champion, earn my card. But I didn’t really know enough about the LPGA, so one of the bullet points is earn your card through the Web.com Tour when that was a thing. I left that up there because I thought it was funny.”
Farah O’Keefe of the United States looks on from the third green during the first round of The Chevron Championship 2026 at Memorial Park Golf Course on April 23, 2026 in Houston, Texas.
So far, only three things on the list have been scratched out: win a U.S. Kids event, make it to U.S. Kids Golf Junior World Championship and get a scholarship.
Some of the list is non-golf stuff, like buy a truck and a big house.
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She remembers clearly when the competitive drive started to kick in: She’d shot 95 in a junior tournament, finishing sixth out of seven girls, and she was giddy about it. Her dad started driving her around the golf course at 8 p.m. that night and asked, “Do you want to be a middle-of-the-pack social golfer? Or do you want to stack trophies? If you want to play socially, you can stop playing tournaments right now.”
“I was like, got it, loud and clear,” recalled O’Keefe. “I’m going to try to stack some trophies.”
Currently the No. 4-ranked amateur in the world, O’Keefe is making a strong case for college player of the year this season. In 10 starts, she has 10 top-10 finishes with three wins and eight top 5s.
But first, there’s a big weekend ahead.
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“I think I put win 20 majors on there when I was 10 years old because I knew it was more than Jack,” said O’Keefe. “So I was like, yeah, I want to be the winningest ever. Seems unattainable now that I’ve played in a couple majors, but yeah, you know, dream big and then if you come up short, still pretty good.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Chevron Championship 2026: Amateur Farah O’Keefe contending at LPGA major
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