SUNNINGDALE, ENGLAND | For Asterisk Talley’s Greek mother, Brandii, to have plucked such a name out of the Hellenic lexicon, she must have had a hunch her child was going to be a star. And that’s exactly what her now-15-year-old daughter has become as she signs autographs with a delightful little asterisk above the “i” for spectators at the Curtis Cup, which matched Great Britain and Ireland against the U.S. over the weekend here at Sunningdale Golf Club.
No one could have looked happier than Talley on the practice days. On Thursday, she and 20-year-old Catherine Park were trying their hand at the alternate-shot format ahead of the Friday and Saturday morning foursomes. As the teenager swung her arms back and forth on her way to the 18th green, she gave her older playing companion a friendly if unnecessary shove up the hill while singing “Murder on the Dance Floor.” (The very title of Sophie Ellis-Baxter’s bouncy tune must have prompted alarm among some nearby GB&I supporters.)
Talley is the same age as another Californian, Lucy Li, when she played in the 2018 Curtis Cup. Only Michelle Wie, who would go on to collect a U.S. Women’s Open title and a degree from Stanford, was younger. Wie was 14 years and 224 days when she competed in the 2004 match at Formby, where she defeated a couple of GB&I twentysomethings in singles. The Ladies’ Golf Union, which was at the helm of the women’s game on this side of the Atlantic at that point, had catered for a 6,000-strong crowd at that Lancashire venue, but because of the Hawaiian prodigy, 8,000-plus came through the gates.
For Talley, the following question comes up all the time. Is everyone as taken with her name as they are with her golf?
“Some people like it,” she told Golfweek, “and then some people say, ‘What the hell is that all about?’ And, I say, ‘Sorry. I didn’t choose it. I just live with it.’ ” At the same time, she has made plain that she would not want anyone to copy it “because I want to be the only one who has a name like that.” Just as she wants to be the only one winning the trophies.
This year alone, she began with a victory in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball while teaming with Sarah Lim, before claiming the girls’ title in the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley. She was also a runner-up in the U.S. Girls’ Junior and the U.S. Women’s Amateur, and she shared the low-amateur honor at the U.S. Women’s Open, tying for 44th.
For a long-term goal, she would like to be No. 1 in the world. “Setting the bar high helps me to get the best out of myself,” said Talley, who entered the week at No. 4 in the Rolex AJGA Rankings and 39th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
CLICK HERE TO READ THIS UNLOCKED STORY AT GGP Women... AND USE COUPON CODE GGPW48 TO SAVE 20% ON AN ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION