Four months ago, Asterisk Talley stood on the 12th tee at Augusta National with seven holes between her and the Augusta National Women’s Amateur title. The 17-year-old had just made her first bogey of the week at the 11th but was still in command of the tournament.

Twenty minutes later, Asterisk Talley had lost the tournament after a quadruple bogey that saw her put two balls in the water from the back bunker. After limping home with tears in her eyes, Asterisk Talley stood at the mic and showed grace as she answered questions about a brutal life lesson delivered in public. A month later at the Chevron Championship, Asterisk Talley explained that while those scars were painful, she realized they were the price of wanting to be great. That you can’t win unless you’re willing to risk being broken.

“Obviously, it wasn’t the result that I wanted,” Talley told GOLF in April in Houston. “But that’s going to happen sometimes when you’re trying to win. Things won’t go your way. I’m glad that I was able to play some good golf after [the 12th hole]. Glad for the opportunity, obviously, to play ANWA every year. And I’ll try again.”

The loss at the ANWA wasn’t Talley’s first high-profile close call. She has been in the spotlight since bursting onto the scene at the U.S. Women’s Open as a 15-year-old at Lancaster Country Club in 2024. She was runner-up at the U.S. Women’s Amateur and U.S. Girls’ Junior in 2024. Add in the heartbreak at Augusta National and Asterisk Talley, whose first name is Greek for “Little Star,” is already covered in scars before the age of 18.

But they have not deterred her, not made her unwilling to thrust herself back out there, which is what she did this week at the U.S. Women’s Amateur at The Honors Course, where she blew away the field in a dominant performance that saw her cement her amateur legacy. Talley finished third in stroke play and then beat Makayla Grübb 4&3 in the Round of 64. She dispatched Rayee Feng 6&4 in the next round and then beat Rachel Lee 3&2 in the Round of 16. A playoff win over 14-year-old Maggie Ma in the quarterfinals was the only time Talley sweated all week. After surviving Ma, Talley battered Lily Peng 6&4 in the semifinals and then dismantled Anna Iwanaga 8&6 in the 36-hole final on Sunday to take home the title.

“This pretty much completes my amateur career,” Talley said after her win. “This is one of the biggest events to ever win, so I think this is going to be the top of my list from now on.”

Back at Augusta in April, Talley’s dad, James, watched from the gallery as his daughter’s tournament hopes unraveled. A month later, he said he saw the moment things started moving too fast for Asterisk, and how he wished he would’ve been on the bag to slow her down before the ensuing car crash on No. 12.

“I wish I was on the bag,” James Talley told GOLF. “I would’ve been like, ‘Hey, it’s OK. Take a breath.’”

Four months later, James Talley was there holding his daughter’s bag as Asterisk Talley clinched the biggest win of her amateur career.

“He really tried to get up and ready for this event to try and be on the bag, so it was really special to have him by my side the whole time and just be able to talk through every shot,” Asterisk Talley said of having her dad with her as she torched the field en route to the Robert Cox Trophy.

This time, James Talley didn’t need to tell Asterisk Talley to take a breath. There was no disaster to avoid.

There was just Asterisk Talley, in full flight, ascending to the place she has always seemed destined to occupy — the place Asterisk Talley always told us she planned to go even if she had to get hurt along the way.

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