Asterisk Talley’s remarkable season continued this week at Oak Hills Country Club, and this time she brought a friend along for the ride. Talley, 15, of Chowchilla and the defending Junior Tour of Northern California Girls' Player of the Year, teamed with fellow Northern Californian Sarah Lim, 17, of Saratoga, to capture the 9th U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship.
The dynamic duo won a pair of matches on a hot Wednesday in southwestern Texas, including a 4-and-2 decision in the 18-hole final over Brynn Kort, 16, of Henderson, Nev., and Gracie McGovern, of Paradise Valley, Ariz.
Talley becomes the second-youngest player to win this title; she’s just two months older than fellow U.S. National Junior Team member and 2023 champion Gianna Clemente. The high school freshman’s great golf began last summer with her triumph in the Rolex Girls Championship, a major invitational on the American Junior Golf Association circuit. She also was a member of the 2023 U.S. Junior Solheim Cup Team.
This year, Talley began with a triumph at the prestigious Junior Invitational at Sage Valley in March and followed with an eighth-place finish at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Nine days ago, she qualified for the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open Presented by Ally before going to the inaugural U.S. National Junior Team camp at the Atlanta Athletic Club and flying directly to Texas on Friday in time to get in one practice round at Oak Hills, an A.W. Tillinghast design that has previously hosted the Texas Open, a PGA Tour Champions event and the 2001 U.S. Junior Amateur.
“It's crazy just knowing that I'm on the [U.S. National Junior] Team and now I'm a [USGA] champion,” said Talley, who is No. 86 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR®. “I don't know how to explain it. It's just super crazy. I'm speechless about it.
“It's been a crazy year already and we're not even halfway through. I'm just excited for what's to come, and I'm not going to let this [title] overcome my thoughts. I'm just going to keep practicing and working hard.”
Lim, who has verbally committed to attend Princeton University in 2025, doesn’t possess the same golf résumé, but the No. 2,454 player in the WAGR did post a pair of fifth-place finishes in AJGA events prior to the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball. Living three hours from each other, the two became friends from sharing the same coach, Mike Schy, the longtime instructor to two-time USGA champion Bryson DeChambeau, and by playing in the same junior tournaments. It was Lim who first contacted Talley last year about trying to qualify.
“We came here to win, but it's kind of crazy that we actually won,” said Lim. “We play our local [Northern California] tournaments. Just from there on [we had a partnership].”
Qualifying won’t be in their future as both are now exempt into the 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., and the U.S. Girls’ Junior at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif., as well as the next 10 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Balls.
What Talley and Lim Receive As Champions
- A gold medal
- Custody of the U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball Trophy for one year
- 10-year exemption from qualifying for U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball (provided side remains intact)
- Exemption for each player into 2024 U.S. Women's Amateur at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla.
- Exemptions into the 2024 U.S. Girls' Junior at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif.
- Their names inscribed on a plaque recognizing all 2024 USGA champions that will reside in the Hall of Champions at the USGA Golf Museum & Library in Liberty Corner, N.J.