Amateurs
California teens Asterisk Talley and Sarah Lim win the U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball
Chris Keane
Asterisk Talley and Sarah Lim, California teenagers, lost only a single hole in the championship match as they defeated Nevadans Gracie McGovern and Brynn Kart, 4 and 2, to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship Monday at Oak Hills Country Club in San Antonio.
Talley, 15, and Lim, 17, lost the second hole to go 1-down, then squared the match at six when Lim holed a 20-foot birdie putt, the first of three straight birdies that staked them to a 2-up lead. They matched pars with their opponents over the next five holes before closing out the match with birdies at 14 and 16.
“I feel like our putts just haven't been going in,” Talley said. “Like it's always been on the edge, like super close. It's always been good every time, like we've been having gimmes. But I feel like that was the first long putt that she made. I think it gave us hope for the match and gave us more confidence for the rest.”
They acknowledged that fatigue was setting in, given that they had played a semifinal match in the morning, defeating Lauren Slatton and Savannah Cherry, 3 and 2.
“I think we were definitely feeling it a little bit when we made the turn,” Lim said, “but I feel like we got to 12-ish and I got a rush.”
As for the victory itself, both players described it as “crazy.”
“It’s kind of crazy, but I'm super excited,” Lim, from Saratoga, Calif., said. “We weren't expecting … well, she probably was. We came here to win, but it's kind of crazy that we actually won.”
Talley, from Chowchilla, Calif., said that they weren’t necessarily playing their best golf, “but today we really focused during the finals and we were locked in,” she said. “I don't know how to explain it. It's just super crazy. I'm speechless about it.”
Talley is in the midst of a busy May. On May 6, she qualified for the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open. From May 8-10, she participated in the U.S. Junior Team training camp in Atlanta. She then won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, after which she was taking a redeye flight to New Jersey to compete in the LPGA’s Mizuho Americas Open that beings on Thursday at Liberty National Golf Club. Oh, and this was after an April that saw her be the youngest player in the field at the 2024 Augusta National Women's Amateur, then making the cut.