S-15: Winner of 2026 NCAA Division I Women's Individual Championship

The University of Texas junior will make her third U.S. Women's Open start after winning the 2026 NCAA Division I Women's Individual Championship at Omni La Costa Resort's North Course on May 25 by two strokes over 2025 U.S. Women's Amateur champion Megha Ganne. O'Keefe had tried to qualify in late April in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., less than 24 hours after earning low-amateur hoors at The Chevron Championship, in Houston. O'Keefe wound up as the second alternate, but she got a rare "mulligan" at the NCAAs, winning her fourth event of the season. She was the Southeastern Conference's Player of the Year for the second time in three years. Last fall, O'Keefe helped the USA capture the Espirito Santo Trophy as champions of the Women's World Amateur Team Championship in Malaysia. Earlier this spring, she was named to the 2026 USA Curtis Cup Team that will take on Great Britain & Ireland at Bel-Air Country Club a week after the U.S. Women's Open. O'Keefe, the runner-up in The Women's Amateur Chamiponship last summer, is a member of the USGA Elite Amateur Program. O'Keefe made the cut in the 2025 U.S. Women's Open at Erin HillsAmerica by the Women's Golf Coaches of America. She competed in the 2022 LPGA Tour's Volunteers of America event, tying for 56th. O'Keefe qualified for the 2022 U.S. Girls' Junior, advancing to the first round of match play, and advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2023 championship, losing to eventual runner-up Rianne Malixi. In the 2024 U.S. Women's Amateur, O'Keefe reached the Round of 16. She also tied for seventh in the 2022 Texas Women's Open and won the 2022 Texas University Interscholastic League (UIL) state individual title. She graduated high school a semester early in January of 2023 to early enroll at Texas, but she did not compete during the spring season. O'Keefe was the runner-up in the 2025 Southeastern Conference Championship, one of seven top-10 results this season for O'Keefe. O'Keefe comes from an athletic family as her father, Michael, is a former professional tennis and rugby player. Her mom, Marlene, owns a black belt in taekwondo.