Seventeen-year-old Asterisk Talley took home the trophy at this year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur at The Honors course.
After multiple delays due to storms, the final match came down to Talley and No.1 seed 17-year-old Anna Iwanaga. Talley ended up victorious, winning 8&6 over Iwanaga in the 36-hole final match with nine birdies and an eagle. If you listen to our Fully Equipped Podcast, you’ll often hear us say that the women’s game has more relatable equipment to the average golfer, so let’s see what we can learn from Talley’s winning TaylorMade setup.
The good news for the guys? This is probably one of the more “crafty” women’s setups I’ve seen. It’s a fun bag.
Yup. Jumbo. On all her clubs. I had a chance to hang out with Asterisk for a little bit on the range at Whirlwind Golf Club earlier this year, and it was the first thing I noticed too. I asked her about it, and she had a pretty simple answer for me.
“I was playing with my dad one day and I hit a really nice shot with one of his irons, so I’ve gripped my clubs that way since then.”
Fair enough.
It seems like the TaylorMade Qi4D driver has become the overwhelmingly popular choice for TaylorMade players in 2026, and with the driver now promised to be in the line through 2027, it’s fun to see players so dialed into their gear and imagining what that groove is going to look like moving into 2027.
This “core” model from TaylorMade has four adjustable weights, allowing a fitter to really dial in spin and launch characteristics for a player. Asterisk plays 8g weights in the dual rear positions and 7g weights in the dual front positions. This fairly neutral weight setup gives her just enough forgiveness while making sure that she’s in control of the ball flight off the tee. She plays the adapter one click towards lower, presumably for the driver to sit the way she wants.
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TaylorMade fairway woods are fantastic. Both GOLF’s Director of Gear Johnny Wunder and I have publicly stated that they’re the best at what they do. TaylorMade fairway woods tend to be a “fit-killer” at other brands or even throughout years of trial and error to replace one that’s been in the bag for some time.
Their secret is the perfect mixture of launch, speed and spin. TaylorMade fairways are notoriously on the lower-spinning side, which can usually spell disaster for a fairway wood but not when you add ease of launch to the mix. The Qi4D (core) model specifically has found itself in a great sweet spot and has been used to lure players away from “old faithful” options in lots of high-level bags this year. That confidence in launch and speed can really help an amateur player understand what the ball is going to do, which can result in a big boost of confidence.
Hitting a fairway wood isn’t an easy task. It’s probably the biggest struggle that I see from the average golfer on the weekend. Finding the right one for your game can be a massive win for the bag and can help set up the rest of the bag with more creativity, knowing that you’ve got that long approach into Par-5s locked down. It’s a very freeing aspect of the bag to feel comfortable standing over. Talley was no stranger to that confidence this week.
Even with a setup like Talley’s that leans more into the irons than some other high-level female golfers, she’s still got a trust hybrid in the bag. The Qi4D Rescue was one of the more impressive hybrids/rescues that we tested this year, and it’s not shocking to see it acting as the 3-iron segment in the bag. She’s also playing a 75g shaft, relatively lightweight compared to what we might “think” needs to be in our hybrids. Take the 3-iron out of the bag, gentlemen. Asterisk is going to beat us 10/10 times, so maybe we join her on the more forgiving side of the world with some hybrids.
I’m not traditionally a fan of combo sets, but I’m not going to argue with the effectiveness of this set in Asterisk’s hands this week.
Players like Asterisk will build combo sets to help ensure proper gapping and ball flight throughout the set. The P770 is going to provide a bit more ball speed than the P7MC does, and that ball speed will typically be married up with more launch to make sure the ball hits her cover numbers in the higher end of the bag. Coming down the stretch with long approaches into Par-4s or trying to get aggressive on a Par-5 can be diminishing to confidence if you can’t stand over the ball knowing you’ve got the right gear in your hands.
Based on these wear marks, she’s got all the confidence in the world that she’s going to stripe it.
She finishes the iron set with the underdog iron of the P-Series family from TaylorMade, the P7MC.
The MC doesn’t get a ton of attention, as it’s a very niche iron with more traditional characteristics, but what it’s really good at is staying out of the ground. The P7MC has a bit more bounce than something like the more popular P7CB, but it retains a more narrow sole that players like to get creative with. Asterisk has been made famous for her ball flight control throughout the entire bag, and the irons are no different in her hands.
She pairs her irons with the KBS TGI 100 graphite iron shafts, which are designed to help encourage a touch more launch and spin for a player over something more traditional like a standard Dynamic Gold S400 or Nippon Modus series shaft. The switch to graphite in the irons has been a more popular choice for the female side of the game, mostly due to the weight availability of graphite parts, but the performance has definitely caught up as well. If you haven’t given graphite shafts a good test lately, you’d be surprised to see how many options there are on the market now, and how they can really change the feel and performance of your iron play.
I’d also like to make sure we give some major nods to Asterisk (and her club builder) for the inclusion of some BB&FCO ferrules. Love to see it.
For the short game, Talley chooses a full arsenal of TaylorMade MG5 wedges gapped from her 47º P7MC pitching wedge. The TaylorMade MG5 wedge has been well received by golf media this year for its redefined shape and beautiful forged feel off the face. TaylorMade has done something special with these wedges this year, and players have taken notice. There’s a handful of free-agents on the PGA Tour using the MG5 this year, including Ben Griffin, and winning the U.S. Women’s Am just adds another tick to the list of wins for the MG5 at high-level events across the sport this year. Talley chooses the RAW finish for her wedges.
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The winning putt of the 2026 U.S. Women’s Amateur was dropped with a TaylorMade Spider Tour V. This is a new shape for TaylorMade this year, and came from direct testing with high-level players on all tours. The mid-mallet shape is preferred by players who may enjoy the roll and performance of a TaylorMade Spider but aren’t looking for something as big as a full-size mallet.
Having a smaller shape can lead to feeling a bit more in control of the club, something you may have noticed is a theme in Asterisk’s equipment. Even though the weather tried its best to ruin it, the greens at The Honors Course stayed quick the entire week, and being in control of her putter is part of what propelled her to the eventual victory Sunday afternoon.
Just like the standard Spider Tour or Tour X shapes, the Spider Tour V has a Pureroll insert that gets the ball rolling end over end smoothly and efficiently. The insert has a mild feel at impact, so lots of amateur players will say it has a great combination of feel, speed and sound. The Pureroll insert can inspire a lot of confidence in a player, and having the right shape to match up to what the eyes want to see is part of why the 2026 expansion of the Spider lineup has been so well received.
Asterisk plays a special tour-only slant neck version of the putter with a short line up top to match up with her TP5x ball alignment.
Talley plays the higher-launching, lower-spinning golf ball from the folks over at TaylorMade. She has her own unique markings for the golf ball too. Asterisk in Greek means “Little Star.” When Asterisk writes her name, she marks the dot in the “i” with an asterisk mark (*), and that’s how she marks her golf ball as well.
TaylorMade Tour Rep Connor Sullivan also provided some context for the golf ball put in play by Talley.
“Peak height was something we looked at closely when testing TP5x with Asterisk. She was able to produce a higher apex allowing the ball land into greens at a slightly steeper angle. This allows her to manage her distances easier and be more aggressive — especially into courses with firmer greens.”
This is big for the everyday amateur, especially on the men’s side. Hit the ball higher. We should all aspire to hit the ball higher. Most golfers I meet hit the ball too low. Stopping power from gravity is a powerful trait to have. Let your equipment make that more achievable!
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Congrats to Asterisk Talley on her win at the 2026 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship. Asterisk’s bag is a fun one to talk about because while the TaylorMade staff supervises it, it’s also 100% owned by her. She knows what gear she needs to bring home the trophies, and I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing her hoist many more in the future, starting in college at Stanford and then, eventually, the LPGA.
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