When Maria José Marín walked onto the first tee at the Evian Championship this summer, the 21-year-old Colombian already knew what to expect. The greens would be unpredictable, the pin positions merciless, and every mistake magnified. It was her second taste of major championship golf, following a gritty performance earlier at the U.S. Women’s Open.

“After the U.S. Open, I had pretty high expectations,” Marín says. “At the end of the day, it’s a major championship and it’s always going to be hard. But making the cut, sharing that week with my dad on the bag, it was amazing.”

For Marín, who plays collegiate golf at Arkansas and currently sits 8th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, the real education wasn’t just in the results. It was in the details: the way established tour pros recovered from the rough, the way they refused to let one bad swing snowball into another.

“One of the biggest things I saw was how incredible their short games are,” she explains. “The rough around the greens was grass I wasn’t used to. I’d just try to get the ball out. But the pros? They make it look so easy. They don’t make two mistakes in a row.”

The majors also exposed a different kind of gap: the distance. “We’re used to playing 6,200 or 6,300 yards in college. Those courses were 6,600, 6,700. Suddenly you’re hitting long irons into greens instead of an 8-iron.”

That, she says, was a revelation. The other was mental. “They’re always competing for money, for their cards. We’re not. That toughness is something I need to build if I want to get to that level.”

Two months earlier, Marín had stood on the 18th green at Omni La Costa in Carlsbad, California, facing a putt to win the NCAA Division I Women’s Individual Championship. It was the defining win of her young career, the moment she joined the company of Razorback greats Maria Fassi and Stacy Lewis, both former champions.

“I think it’s one of the biggest wins I’m ever going to get,” she smiles. “Since I got into college, I knew I wanted to win that tournament. I thought it might be in my junior or senior year, but to do it now, it means so much.”

Marín had finished third as a freshman at the same venue. She loves La Costa’s North Course for its precision demands — “I like narrow courses,” she says. “You have to hit it there, and then there.” In the 2025 championship she used that comfort to her advantage, shooting a sparkling third-round 65 (-7) to vault into the lead, then holding her nerve in the final round despite fierce pressure from two of the best players in college golf, Florida State's #1 ranked Mirabel Ting and Kelly Xu of Stanford.

“When you start with a birdie on the first hole, you just know it’s going to be a good day,” Marín recalls. “Then on nine, I made a really long birdie putt on one of the hardest holes. That’s when I thought, okay, I think I got it.”

What stood out at La Costa was her putting. After grinding on seven- and eight-footers in practice with Arkansas Head Coach Shauna Taylor after day two, she was nearly flawless on the greens on the final two days. “Sometimes I’d close my eyes and imagine myself in the situation, saying, ‘You need to make this putt,’” she remembers. “By the last round, I wasn’t thinking about technique anymore. Just about making putts.”

In Colombia, her victory reverberated. Golf remains a niche sport in her country, but for a nation that has produced only a handful of global figures in the game — Camilo Villegas, Sebastián Muñoz, and Marín’s own childhood idol, Mariajo Uribe — her achievement was symbolic. “I feel the support,” she confirms.

Marín’s story begins in Cali, Colombia, where golf was less an elite career path than a family tradition. Her father was a decorated amateur, her mother a club player. They met during a tournament and by the time Maria was two, she was swinging a club.

“I used to watch my dad grind on the range,” she says. “I’d be there six hours, hitting ball after ball. That work ethic came from him.”

Her competitive fire emerged early, sharpened by Colombia’s junior circuit and the friends she made traveling to tournaments across South America. But when it came time to pick a college, the process was, in her words, “a bumpy one.” Arkansas called first. She was just 15.

“When I visited, I saw The Blessings course, the facilities, the coaching staff,” she recalls. “I knew it was going to challenge me, but it was also going to prepare me for anything.” She felt instantly at ease with Coach Taylor and Assistant Coach Mike Adams. “Shauna has this fiery attitude. Mikey’s calm. They like to win, and I like to win. It’s a good combination.”

Her family also valued the sense of trust. “My parents felt like they could leave me with them, like a second family,” Marín says. The presence of Spanish-speaking teammates sealed the decision.

The choice has paid off. Beyond victories, Arkansas has given her a blueprint for discipline. Her 2024 LPGA debut came at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, where she played alongside Fassi and Lexi Thompson. After opening with a 6-under round, Fassi told her: “You just proved you’re made for this.”

Her next challenge will come next week with trying to win The Blessings Collegiate individual title for the third year in a row. Last year set a tournament scoring record of 11 under par at the Razorbacks’ home event.

Yet for all this momentum, Marín is resisting the pressure to turn professional early. “Some people say, ‘You need to turn pro now.’ I don’t think that’s the move. I still have more to learn. I want to finish my four years, get my degree, and develop as a player.”

What makes Marín’s rise compelling is not just her scores but her conviction about the kind of legacy she wants to leave. She sees herself not only as a competitor but also as a bridge for Colombian golf.

“When I first played Augusta as a teenager, that was when everything changed,” she says. “The support from Colombia was crazy. Since then, kids come up to me for advice. That’s what I want — to be there for them, to show them it’s possible.”

She also wants to guard against the pitfalls of overwork. A knee injury cut short her 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur run at the semi-final stage. “My body said no more,” she admits. “That taught me the importance of recovery.”

Her goals are straightforward: improve her distance, sharpen her short game, strengthen her mental edge. But they’re also deeper. “Of course I want to win majors and be one of the best in the world. But I also want to inspire younger generations in Colombia. I want them to see me and say, ‘I can do that too.’”

For now, though, her focus is on Fayetteville, balancing schoolwork with long hours on the practice range. Her drive remains insatiable, even as her accomplishments multiply.

“It feels good to be part of history,” she said. “But I’m not done. I want to keep writing my story.”