The 2024 Women's U.S. Open leaderboard features plenty of familiar names for golf fans.
Yuka Saso won the event back in 2021. Minjee Lee won it in 2022. Andrea Lee was a longtime top amateur in the nation.
And then golf fans will see an unfamiliar name: Asterisk Talley. It is not uncommon to see amateurs near the top of the leaderboard, but after Round 1, she was tied for fifth overall in the field. She shot just 1 over in Round 2 and fell to a tie for 11th on the board.
Talley is no ordinary amateur either. Many top amateurs are in college. She is in high school. Early high school, at that.
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Here's everything you need to know about Talley.
Who is Asterisk Talley?
Talley is a golfer currently competing in the 2024 Women's U.S. Open. She was an even par after the first day of the tournament, which tied her for fifth on the leaderboard, but went 1 over on Friday to fall to 11th.
Talley qualified for the Women's U.S. Open by going 5 under at the San Joaquin Country Club in Fresno, Calif., on May 6.
Talley's dad was told his daughter was good as early as 3 years old, and that was the time she had a coach, Yahoo Sports reported. She joined up with coach Mike Schy five years later, who has coached standout golfers, including Bryson DeChambeau.
"When she was eight and a half, she had this one tooth that stuck out funny in the front,"Schy said, per Yahoo Sports, "and yet when she started hitting balls, I literally thought I was talking to a 20-year-old."
How old is Asterisk Talley?
Talley is 15 years old, per her U.S. Women's Open profile page. She is the youngest player in the field.
She is only a high school freshman, but she has already made a major mark on the golf scene. In 2024, Talley claimed a win in the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley and placed eighth in the Augusta National Women's Amateur, and won the U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball title with Sarah Lim. She won the Rolex Girls Junior Championship in 2023 and competed in the 2023 Junior Solheim Cup.
When she was only 13 years old, Talley reached the Round of 16 at the U.S. Girls' Junior.
"I just need to like stay in my game," Talley said, per WJBF. "Because you can make the cut, you cannot, but it's just like you need to stay on the course you're on for now and stay focused, and then what comes it comes."
How did Asterisk Talley get her name?
Talley's mother, Brandii Talley, is Greek, and the name means, "little star," in Greek, per Yahoo Sports.
"Some people are like, wow, really cool name," Talley said, per Yahoo Sports, "and then some people are like, what the hell is that, and it's like, sorry, I didn’t choose it. You just live with it."
Brandii Talley told WJBF said the name is fitting because "we feel like she is" a little star.
"She seems pretty confident, she's always kind of level headed and calm and we're just super proud that she's here and it's very exciting," Brandii Talley said, per WJBF.
