If Farah O’Keefe doesn’t earn the final two points she needs for an LPGA Tour card by March, don’t expect the Texas star to bolt early for the professional ranks.
She’s staying.
“I’m not going,” O’Keefe said. “I’m going to wait until it’s the right time. I want to win a team national championship before I do anything, so that’s kind of at the top of my mind right now.”
O’Keefe, the reigning Golfweek women’s college golf Player of the Year, made her intentions clear this week ahead of the Spirit International at Whispering Pines Golf Club in Texas. Professional golf remains the ultimate goal, but the Longhorn senior isn’t interested in cutting short a college career she's finding increasingly hard to imagine leaving.
“I want to play professional
golf,” O’Keefe said. “Bottom line is, I want to give it a shot. My dream since being a kid is to play on tour and win majors and do all that kind of stuff, and maybe beat some records along the way. I’m motivated in that respect.
“But whether I get my two points by the school year or if I have to wait until the end of the summer, it’s not really a big deal to me. You really only get to play amateur and college golf for a certain number of years, so I’m trying to enjoy every moment and soak it all in.”
Awards have followed Farah O'Keefe
O’Keefe has certainly made the most of those years in Austin.
She became the first Texas golfer to win Golfweek POY honors after a dominant 2025-26 junior season. O’Keefe won four times, highlighted by the NCAA Div. I women’s golf individual title. She also captured the Annika Award. She didn’t finish outside the top 10 all season and was beaten by only 37 players across 12 stroke-play events.
It was the kind of season O’Keefe once dreamed about but wasn’t sure would ever happen. And now she finds herself as the face of one of the nation's most elite golf programs, leading coach Laura Ianello's squad on the course, but also in mentoring and recruiting.
“I don’t think going into college I would have thought that I would have been that person,” she said. “I certainly dreamed about it, but I never really thought it was going to happen.”
Like most elite recruits, O’Keefe arrived at Texas with a long list of goals.
“As a freshman, you have all these goals,” she said. “You want to win an individual. You want to win as a team. You want to win an award. You want to win Big 12 Player of the Year. You want to do all these things as a freshman, and then you get thrown into the fire a little bit and it’s like, ‘Man, it’s a lot harder than it seems.’”
O'Keefe on cusp of LPGA card
Then everything began clicking. Now O’Keefe is close enough to LPGA status that the question is no longer whether professional golf is realistic, but when she wants to make the jump. Still, she isn’t obsessing over the remaining points.
“They always say the last point is the hardest one,” O’Keefe said. “It’s in the back of my mind, but I think it’s just going to be a byproduct of continuing to do what I’ve been doing.”
There is another reason she’s reluctant to rush. Texas was O’Keefe’s dream school long before she became the face of its women’s golf program, and the realization that her college career is nearing its end has begun to sink in.
She played her high school golf for Anderson High School, just a few miles northwest of the UT campus.
“The fact that I get to play for Texas is really a dream come true,” she said. “It’s starting to come to an end. It’s kind of sad. I was looking through my pictures yesterday, and it’s like, ‘Dang, this has been a good chunk of my life.’
“It’s been really special for me and for my family and everybody in my inner circle. Just to get to play at a dream school like that is really special.”
Growing up in Texas only strengthened that connection.
“Texas is kind of a one-of-one, in my opinion,” O’Keefe said. “Just the way they do things and the traditions and everything like that. It’s really cool to grow up as a fan and then play a sport for the school that you’ve been cheering on your entire life.”
Whispering Pines has been a treat
Her appearance at Whispering Pines offered another reminder of how much golf has given her. Despite growing up in the state, O’Keefe had never played the highly regarded course.
“When I got the call to come out here, it was a no-brainer,” she said. “Of course I wanted to get out here and enjoy the tournament and everything. But for me personally, my own agenda, I really wanted to see the golf course and play it a couple of times because it’s so well known everywhere in the world.”
At the Spirit International, O’Keefe said one of the best parts has been getting to know teammates Ethan Fang, Jack Turner and Anna Davis beyond the competition. Even during practice, the competitive side has come through.
“I think beyond the golf part, the four of us are just really cool people,” she said. “Ethan and I actually played together two years ago at the Palmer Cup. We were partners for the mixed portion, and it’s just really cool to come back and see how their games have developed and all that kind of stuff.
“Today we played a little game out there, and it came all the way down to the last hole. It’s just really fun to play around with them and have a good time, maybe not take it too seriously sometimes.”
O’Keefe has also been impressed by the talent around her.
“They’re all incredible ball-strikers. Their short games, if you just took our entire group and put them inside 100 yards, would be pretty incredible,” she said. “The guys hit it so far. Every time I play with collegiate-level guys or pros, it’s like, ‘God, I wish I could hit the ball 300 yards in the air.’ It’s pretty mind-boggling.”
Moments like those are part of why O’Keefe isn't in a hurry to move on. She knows the LPGA is where she wants to end up. She just doesn't believe getting there as quickly as possible has to come at the expense of finishing what she started at Texas.
“My goal for golf is just to get as good as I can get,” O’Keefe said. “If that’s playing on the LPGA Tour and maybe winning a couple majors, that’s great. But if it’s playing a couple years on Epson and then going into coaching, that’s totally great for me, too.
“I just love the game, and I love where it takes you.”
Tim Schmitt is the managing editor of Golfweek and the golf coordinator of the USA Today Network.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: At Spirit International, Farah O’Keefe has LPGA future in sight but Texas on her mind
