Welcome to this week’s Golf Insider, everyone!
At 17-years-old, Asterisk Talley is a household name in women’s amateur and junior golf. In April, we witnessed her final-round lead at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur melt away easier than a Georgia peach ice cream sandwich. But then, four months later, she won the 2026 U.S. Women’s Amateur.
On Sunday, Aug. 9, Asterisk Talley defeated Anna Iwanaga 8 and 6 in the 36-hole final match of the U.S. Women’s Amateur at The Honors Course. She cruised through stroke play and her first few rounds of match play, but when she met 14-year-old Maggie Ma in the quarterfinals, it was a bit of a different story. Ma pushed Talley to 19 holes, marking the first time Talley had seen all 18 holes (and more) during one of her matches.
After another rout in the semifinals against Lily Peng, Talley headed to the final match with everything on the line and nothing but confidence on her shoulders. We may have been thinking of her runner-up finish at Augusta in April, but for Talley, that wasn’t even in the back of her mind. She was present, she was ready, and this time, she wasn’t going to take a consolation prize.
Talley settled in after the first nine holes of the final match. After losing the par-4 9th hole to go 1-down to Iwanaga, Talley didn’t lose another hole for the rest of the match. She stormed out to a 3-up lead after the first 18 holes. You’d hardly know that Talley was 6-up through 28 holes of the final match because she was still playing as if she didn’t have the lead.
“I didn’t really want it to get too close toward the end, so I was just trying to play my best golf all day,” Talley said after her victory.
She even paged Dr. Chipinski on the 29th hole of the match with a three on the par-5 11th. Did Talley need a chip-in eagle? No. Did she do it anyway to go 7-up with seven holes to play? You bet.
What does it mean for Talley now? I’ll let her sum it up.
“I think it pretty much completes my amateur career,” Talley said.
“I mean, this is one of the biggest events to ever win, so I think this is just going to be the top of my list from now on.”
After a runner-up finish at the 2024 U.S. Women’s Am, heartbreak at Augusta this year and a grueling few months that included a few LPGA Tour major appearances, this win was a relief. Talley could finally breathe, finally say she won one of the big ones. But she made it look completely effortless. Talley had an air of calm confidence about her the whole week, which is quite different than what we saw at Augusta. This could have been the match play effect.
“I mean, when you only have to play against one player and you’re playing the same conditions the whole time you don’t really have to worry about anyone else,” Talley said of the match play format.
“I think it’s better to stay in the moment.”
With a bright future at Stanford ahead of her, it looks like she’ll have several more opportunities to redeem herself in the Peach State. Talley will also probably take a few individual collegiate wins to her name as well. Who knows: we may even see her repeat at the Women’s Am. It’s certain that we’ll be hearing even more of Talley’s name in the next few years and beyond.
If I needed to remind you, she’s 17 years old. Skratch’s Addie Parker says that Talley is another indication of the extreme depth of young, “relentlessly talented” women we have in the game. And it really is evident week after week. Parker also brings this up: in the same week, we had 17-year-old Anna Huang win her fourth title on the Ladies European Tour to become the youngest ever four-time winner on that tour. The talent across the amateur and professional women’s golf spaces right now is truly stellar.
See you next week to catch back up with the LPGA Tour. Until then, golf fans.
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This week in women’s golf
LPGA News
Featured groups: 2026 The Standard Portland Classic
Field breakdown: 2026 The Standard Portland Classic
How to watch 2026 The Standard Portland Classic
LPGA announce The Standard as official workplace benefits partner of the LPGA Tour
Unforgettable July: Historic shots and round records in Europe
Trackman announced as partner to the 2026 Solheim Cup
WTGL News
Fenway Sports Group expands sports portfolio with acquisition of WTGL Team
LET News
Swiss favorite Knecht excited for home test following injury hiatus
Hewson hunts historic hat-trick at VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open
Watch live: 2026 VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open
LET heads to Switzerland for 2026 VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open
Captain’s corner with Anna Nordqvist
Schedule announced for LET qualifying school
Huang secures fourth LET title with wire-to-wire win at 2026 PIF London Championship
Hull enters record books with stunning 62 at Centurion Club
July 2026 LET Player of the Month nominees announced
Epson Tour News
From the Ducks’ staff to the Race for the Card: Kaleiya Romero’s Oregon roots fuel a career season
Megha Ganne to compete at The Standard Portland Classic via winning the 2026 Inkster Award
Coming full circle: Rachel Kuehn chases her own Tennessee story
Amateur Golf News
Little star shines brightest: Asterisk Talley wins U.S. Women’s Amateur
Asterisk Talley’s U.S. Women’s Am win signals something much bigger in women’s golf
14-year-old Maggie Ma keeps dream run alive at U.S. Women’s Amateur
Louise Reau torches Pfau for record win at Hoosier Women’s Amateur
No. 1 amateur Kiara Romero wins McCormack Medal, becomes eligible for LPGA membership through the LPGA Elite Amateur Pathway
Pressel selects final four for 2026 U.S. PING Junior Solheim Cup team
Five at The IX: Mirabel Ting downs Rachel Kuehn in playoff for first Epson Tour title at 2026 Smoky Mountain Championship
On Sunday, Aug. 9, Mirabel Ting captured her first Epson Tour victory at the 2026 Smoky Mountain Championship. She defeated fellow former college standout Rachel Kuehn on the first playoff hole with a dart of an iron shot and confident birdie putt. It’s Ting’s eighth top-10 finish in her rookie year on the Epson Tour, and the win adds to her 12 made cuts in 14 starts. She now sits in the third spot in the Race for the Card standings. Here are some quotes from Ting’s post-win press conference from Alcoa, Tenn.
Q: It’s your rookie season, and you’ve finally accomplished your first victory. How does it feel to hear those words?
MIRABEL TING: Great. I came close a couple of times, ever since Michigan, and I was just kind of piecing together my game a little bit — a little here and there, and a little bit of luck here and there. I feel like this week I didn’t play my best golf, but I think it’s still okay, the way I played this week. It kind of tells me that I don’t need the best of my game to actually win out here, or to win on any tour. And it’s okay to make mistakes. I had a couple of mistakes, and after I finished the playoff, I thought to myself that it’s okay to make mistakes — mistakes are always going to happen, so I just have to accept it. I wish I’d done that this week.
Q: You trailed a little bit earlier in the day, and Anne Chen was looking like she was going to run away with it. Was there any stage in your round where you kind of gave up, or what made you keep pushing to know you could get it done?
TING: I don’t think I gave up today. I was just waiting for putts to drop — I wasn’t putting great this morning, and I wasn’t hitting my best wedges, but I was hitting my other clubs great. At the same time, I feel like in golf we should never give up — I think that’s why we all play this sport, for a reason. If you want to just give up, I don’t think this sport is meant for you, and I feel like I battled out there today. It wasn’t easy having Rachel behind me today, but it was fun, and I really enjoyed it — the pressure, the nervousness, the fear, and everything, and being able to get it done. She’s great.
Q: How were your emotions when you knew you had to go into the playoff, and then during the playoff, when your final putt stuck it to about three feet?
TING: Once I knew I was in the playoff, I kind of switched myself up, because it’s a playoff and it’s one-on-one — kind of like match play, so I switched into match play mode. On the way to the tee, the moment I snapped my drive and it hit the tree, I thought, oh, that doesn’t look good — but the ball came out onto the fairway. I was lucky it hit the tree and came out. It was 155, and I don’t remember exactly how much slope was in the yardage book, so I pulled out a seven. I wanted to pull an eight at first, and my sister looked at me and said she didn’t think I could get there with an eight — that seven would be nicer. So I committed to the seven, and I hit it to about three feet.
Q: What does it mean to have your sister as your caddie for this whole season, but this win especially?
TING: I think she shows me what type of person I am, what type of golfer I am. We’ve had a lot of arguments — about golf, about life — but I’m still really happy that we’ve figured things out and talked it through. On the golf side too, when I missed a couple of cuts, we talked about it, and it helped me accept that I’d done things wrong, that I hadn’t done this or that. I’m a very egotistical person — I have my own ego, I do exactly what I want to do. I’ve been independent since my dad passed, and I wasn’t able to accept the fact that someone was telling me what to do. But I took a step back, and I realized she’s here to help me, not to hurt me — she’s here to guide me through, and I have to listen. I have to understand what she’s telling me. I feel like she’s done that for me in golf too — I accepted that my putting was my weakness, and we worked on it together. I talked to my coach too, and we worked on some putting. My sister, Michelle, worked really hard with me on my putting and green reading, and it got a lot better in Connecticut and this week.
Q: I referenced yesterday a conversation you had with your coach during Hartford. Do you think that conversation was maybe a breakthrough for you to accomplish this win?
TING: I feel like taking a break was the breakthrough. I didn’t touch my clubs the whole week last week. After finishing a six-week stretch of tournaments, I was extremely tired, and after that missed cut, I felt kind of lost. I got it back a little in Connecticut, but I felt like it was too much golf for me. So I took a whole week off — no clubs, no golf, no talking about it. I told myself I didn’t want to talk about golf until I was back on a golf course, and I think that break helped me a lot. Not talking about golf, not bringing golf into my life for those few days, really helped.
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