CARLSBAD – When she was in fifth grade, Farah O’Keefe wrote a list of 30 life goals and stuck it on her bedroom wall.

One of them was to win an NCAA individual golf title.

“I get to go scratch that off,” O’Keefe said.

The Texas junior figured out the daunting North Course at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa, shooting in red numbers all four rounds for a 12-under total that put her two strokes ahead of reigning U.S. Amateur champion Megha Ganne of Stanford on Monday afternoon.

She becomes the third women’s champion from Texas and the first since 1997.

Not bad for a walk-on.

O’Keefe grew up in Austin, not far from the UT campus, and spent her childhood playing golf … and anything else involving a ball. She played basketball, tennis, soccer, flag football, even street hockey in her family’s cul-de-sac. She has an unorthodox 10-finger grip on the club and admits to being a “feel” player more concerned with making the golf ball do what she wants than how she does it.

She also has a carefree attitude that serves her well when it doesn’t do what she wants.

Like on the par-4 14th hole Monday, when her usual left-to-right ball flight with the driver went in the opposite direction and sailed into a hillside abutting the fairway.

“I had a decent lie, but I didn’t know there was literally no (soft) ground under my ball,” O’Keefe said. “I took a swipe at it, and I hit (the) hosel first and it went straight (across the fairway) into the hazard. … That’s golf. Sometimes you hit it on the face, sometimes you hit it on the little curvy part and it makes it go really far right.

“I’m not going to sweat it.”

She took a penalty stroke, then put a 55-yard pitch within 12 feet … then made the putt to save bogey. That dropped her to 10-under and cut her lead to one as Ganne, playing three holes behind her, mounted a charge.

But O’Keefe got pars on 15 and 16, then birdied 17 and 18 to leave no doubt. Ganne was standing on the 16th tee, maybe 100 yards from the 18th green, when O’Keefe’s birdie putt dropped and she pumped her fist.

Her 12-under winning score was the same as the two previous winners at La Costa: Arkansas’ Maria Jose Marin from Colombia and Texas A&M’s Adela Cernousek from France.

“I really wanted to figure out this golf course,” O’Keefe said. “It was bugging me.”

Last year, she finished 1-over and tied for 20th. In 2024, 12-over and tied for 53rd.

That was a vast improvement from when she came to the Longhorns out of high school. She was in the 500s in the world amateur rankings, which helps explain why she had no other college offers.

“The Texas coaches (back) then took a chance on this local kid,” said Longhorns coach Laura Ianello, who inherited O’Keefe when she arrived in Austin two years ago. “It was a big gamble.”

As a freshman, O’Keefe was the Big 12 Player of the Year and quickly was put on scholarship.

Now she’s an NCAA champion.

Said Ianello: “If you find women who are super athletic, they have power, they have force, they have really good technique, yet they love to compete and love the game and have a good demeanor and they’re kind, that’s a good recipe.”

O’Keefe won’t have much time to celebrate. Texas also survived the cut from 15 to eight in the team competition, which transitions from stroke play to match play with Tuesday morning’s quarterfinals.

Stanford and USC made it as the first and second seeds, as expected. Arkansas, with 2025 NCAA champion Maria Jose Marin, is third. O’Keefe and Texas are fourth.

The big surprise of the week is the Longhorns’ quarterfinal opponent: Eastern Michigan, led by Oceanside twins Jasmine and Janae Leovao.

The Eagles entered the week ranked 27th nationally and, while a nice story, were given little chance of advancing to Tuesday, much less surviving Sunday’s cut from 30 to 15. But their aggregate score in Monday’s fourth round was 4-under, best of the day and three better than top-ranked Stanford.

“It’s great and all,” O’Keefe said of her individual title, which got her a spot in the U.S. Women’s Open that barely eluded her in qualifying earlier this month. “But the job’s not done. I want to win a team national championship. I want to bring a natty home to Austin.

“It would be the highlight of my life.”

One more thing to scratch off the list.