Can we get a homework extension? Asterisk Talley, 15, has a USWO to try and win
There may come a day when Asterisk Talley looks back and laughs.
The braces and bands, pony-tail braid and bracelet – and the bravado – it might all elicit a head shake and a flushed face, like most of us when looking back on ourselves as teens.
For now, though, it’s just a sense of awe – at least on our end.
For her, it’s more like, “just stay in the zone.”
Talley shot 1-over 71 Friday at the U.S. Women’s Open. Even more impressive, it came on the heels of an opening 70, on a day in which only four players shot in the 60s, a day in which one-name wonders Nelly, Rose and Lydia all shot 80.
Here’s Asterisk, 1 over par for the championship and just two off the lead, sitting on the set of “Live From” Friday afternoon and reviewing her round while the hosts plead with her high school teachers to give her a little leeway with her homework.
“I have a bunch,” Talley, a freshman at Chowchilla High in central California, said, “and it’s all due today. That’s probably not going to get done today.”
If you weren’t looking at the braces and etc., but watching her play; if you weren’t listening to her interviews, but hearing what she said; you would believe her veteran, and you’d do well to believe her a serious contender at Lancaster Country Club.
Talley, in what feels like a U.S. Open from days long before she was born, had two bogeys and a birdie on Friday. “If you make a bogey here and there, that’s OK,” she said. “Nothing more than a bogey is good.”
Talley: U.S. Women’s Open means homework can wait
Asterisk Talley joins the Live From the U.S. Women’s Open set after another solid round at Lancaster Country Club, a 1-over 71 — after an even-par 70 on Thursday — as the youngest player in the field at 15.
She’s only made one score worse than bogey thus far, a triple at the par-5 seventh in Round 1. Aside from that, she’s 2 under for 35 holes.
Friday, with a driver she switched to before the start of the championship, she led the field in strokes gained: off the tee, averaged nearly 269 yards per drive, found 11 of 14 fairways and hit 13 of 18 greens in regulation.
Impressive numbers, but none more so than: 15.
Earlier during “Live From,” when Talley was still on the course, Mel Reid, a seven-time USWO participant who is working as an analyst this week, noted 15-year-olds don’t have much scar tissue. What many do possess, however, is a reservoir of possibility.
Talley’s bracelet reads, “FEARLESS.” That’s her on-course attitude, not Taylor Swift-inspired.
“My dad always taught me to not be nervous,” said Talley, who recently teamed with fellow teen Sarah Lim to win the USGA’s Four-Ball championship. “If I’m nervous, I’m just going to mess up anyways.”
Her emotions have yet to betray her.
Goal 1 was to make the cut. Check. Goal 2 was to be low amateur. Got some competition there. But if she can achieve that, she figures, she’s playing well enough to achieve Goal 3: win.
“Setting the bar high for myself really helps me play better golf. If I expect the best out of myself and I don’t meet that, then I’m still doing OK,” she said.
One of the benefits to playing well over the first two days, is a late tee time on Saturday. That’s much appreciated after a 4 a.m. wakeup ahead of Round 2. Talley said she would spend the time in between, resting, practicing and eating.
And for her teachers who were watching Friday, “maybe do some homework,” as well.