Looks like Asterisk Talley, the youngster from Chowchilla, Calif., took the momentum she built in a monster 2024 right along with her into the first weeks of 2025.
With a slice of the arctic chill that gripped the eastern half of the country making it all the way to central Florida Monday, Talley ripped off her third consecutive 3-under-par 68 to roll to a five-shot victory in the Hilton Grand Vacations Annika Invitational, presented by Rolex, a marquee event on the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) schedule, with a 9-under 204 total at Heathrow Country Club in Heathrow, Fla.
Talley is a Class of 2027 competitor. She was 15 for most of 2024. Not sure if she has turned 16 yet, but she is the equivalent of high school sophomore and is No. 17 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR).
It was March of last year when Talley gave us a glimpse of what was to come when she rolled to a six-shot victory in the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley Golf Club in Graniteville, S.C.
A couple of months later, Talley arrived on the biggest stage in women’s golf, the U.S. Women’s Open, presented by Ally, at Lanscaster Country Club and found herself on the leaderboard going into the weekend after opening with a 1-under 70 and matching par with a 71 in the second round. The 15-year-old was the darling of the crowds at Lancaster.
She backed off a little in the final two rounds with a 7-over 78 in the third round before closing with a 73. Still, Talley’s 12-over 292 total left her in a tie for 44th place and gave her a share of low-amateur honors.
Talley would go on to lose to Rianne Malixi in the final of both the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif. and the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla.
Malixi rolled to an 8 and 7 victory over Talley in the scheduled 36-hole final in the U.S. Girls’ Junior, but Talley made it a little closer, taking Malixi to the 34th hole in the U.S. Women’s Amateur final before falling, 3 and 2. It’s a remarkable achievement for anybody, let alone a 15-year-old, to survive the match-play gauntlet at either of those events to even get to the final.
But, to me, maybe the ultimate testament to Talley’s talent and poise way beyond her years came in the Curtis Cup Match at Sunningdale Golf Club in Berkshire, England late in the summer.
Great Britain & Ireland, without a win in the series since 2016, took a 7-5 lead into the Sunday singles. GB&I captain Catriona Matthew sent out the big gun, Lottie Woad, an English woman, No. 1 in the Women’s WAGR, winner of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship, in the leadoff spot.
United States captain Mehan Stasi nervelessly sent out the 15-year-old kid, Talley. And didn’t Talley, almost unbelievably, win the match 3 and 2. Nobody knows match play better than Stasi does and I’m sure she sensed in Talley the ability to block out everything but the next shot, the next hole.
GB&I survived that monumental upset to pull out a 10.5-9.5 victory, so Talley’s victory was overlooked by a lot of golf fans, but not by this Curtis Cup afficionado.
At Heathrow, Talley fell behind Clairey Lin, a Canadian who has made Palos Verdes Estates, Calif. her home base in the States, by a shot when Lin opened with a sparkling 4-under 67 Saturday. Lin is a Class of ’28 kid, so the equivalent of a high school freshman.
Talley got on a roll in Sunday’s second round, rattling off birdies at the seventh, eighth, 11th, 14th and 16th holes to get it to 5-under for the round. She made a couple of bogeys on the last two holes and had to settle for a 68, but she still took a two-shot lead over defending champion Natalie Yen of West Linn, Ore.
Yen, who plans to join the program at Southeast Conference power Texas A&M this summer, posted her second straight 2-under 69 in Sunday’s second round.
Talley, however, was just flawless in Monday’s final round. She made birdies at the eighth, 10th and 16th holes with nary a bogey on the card in a third straight 68.
Lin, who had fallen five shots behind Talley with a 3-over 74 in Sunday’s second round, closed with a 3-under 68 of her own to earn runnerup honors with a 4-under 209 total.
“I learned from Annika that golf doesn’t define us as people,” Talley told the AJGA website after posing with the World Golf Hall of Famer who has lent her name to this tournament at the trophy presentation. “We can go home after a tournament and learn from my game every week. If I played well, I can learn about what I did to make myself play well.”
The win also earns Talley a return trip to central Florida in a couple of weeks for the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, the event that opens the season on the LPGA Tour, at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club.
The AJGA calls it Talley’s LPGA Tour debut, although I would argue that her U.S. Women’s Open appearance at Lancaster last spring would qualify as her debut appearance in a professional event.
The win in the Annika Invitational also exempts Talley to the Otter Creek Championship, an Epson Tour event, in the summer.
Gahui Kim, a South Korean who has made Howey in the hills, Fla. her home base in the States, got herself into contention with a 2-under 69 in Sunday’s second round and matched par in the final round with a 71 to finish three shots behind Lin in third place with a 1-under 212 total. Kim is a Class of ’26 entry.
Yen, who was Talley’s closest pursuer through two rounds, struggled a little in the final round, closing with a 4-over 75 as she ended up in a tie for fourth place with Amber Lee, a Class of ’29 kid – the equivalent of an eighth-grader – from Alta Loma, Calif., each landing on even-par 213.
Lee matched par in the opening round with a 71 and added a 1-under 70 in Sunday’s second round before finishing up with a 1-over 72.
Michelle Xing, a Canadian who plans to join the program at Big Ten power UCLA in the summer of 2026, finished two shots behind Yen and Lee in sixth place with a 2-over 215 total. After opening with a 1-under 70, Xing added a 2-over 73 in Sunday’s second round before closing with a 1-over 72.
Gianna Clemente of Estero, Fla. has been such a good player for so long, you forget that she’s only a Class of ’26 kid, just a year older than Talley and nearly Talley’s equal in the WAGR at No. 20.
Clemente headed a powerhouse trio that included France’s Sara Brentcheneff, who is No. 79 in the WAGR, and Alice Ziyi Zhao, a native of China whose home base in the States is Irvine, Calif., tied for seventh place at 3-over 216, a shot behind Xing.
Clemente was coming off a third-place finish in The Sally, the unofficial Orange Blossom Tour event that wrapped up earlier this month at Oceanside Country Club in Ormond Beach, Fla.
Clemente lost to Talley in the semifinals of last summer’s U.S. Girls’ Junior at El Caballero in a summit meeting of America’s top junior stars and finished in a tie for fifth place in last spring’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
Clemente was the picture of consistency at Heathrow, registering three straight 1-over 72s.
Brentcheneff is a Class of ’25 competitor. Can’t find anything that says she’s coming here to play college golf. In the Annika Invitational, Brentcheneff climbed up the leaderboard with a final round of 2-under 69. Brentcheneff struggled a little in the opening round with a 4-over 75 before adding a 72 in Sunday’s second round.
Ziyi Zhao burst onto the scene by getting a share of medalist honors in qualifying for match play in the 2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Chambers Bay at age 13 and she’s still, like Talley, just a Class of ’27 kid.
Ziyi Zhao matched par in the Sunday’s second round with a 71 after opening with a 1-over 72. She finished up with a 2-over 73.
Rounding out the top 10 in the Annika Invitational was a trio of players tied for 10th place at 4-over 217, including Clara Ding, another Class of ’29 kid who is a native of China using Canada as her North American base, Kellyn Black of Greensboro, Ga. and Lily Peng, a Class of ’27 entry from San Ramon, Calif.
Ding finished in a tie for third place in the Citrus Golf Trail Ladies Invitational, which wrapped up on New Year’s Eve at the Sun ’n Lake Golf Club’s Deer Run Course in Sebring, Fla. Ding struggled in the opening round with a 4-over 75 at Heathrow, but improved in each of the final two rounds, posting a 1-over 72 in Sunday’s second round and getting it into red figures in the final round with a 1-under 70.
Black, who plans to join the program at SEC power Auburn in the summer of 2026, opened with a 1-over 72 and struggled to a 4-over 75 in Sunday’s second round before finishing strong with a 1-under 70 in the final round.
After opening with a 3-over 74, Peng signed for a 1-over 72 in Sunday’s second round before matching par in the final round with a 71.
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