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.
One recent result she was not about to take seriously came on the day she had the better of Bryson DeChambeau in a chip-into-a-bucket and putting-type contest at the driving range where she shares the reigning U.S. Open champion’s coach, Elliot Busichio. “She beat his brains in,” a bemused Busichio said. “She’s not afraid of anyone.”
For another question, this one based on the Curtis Cup, how did Talley and the rest like their dinky pink skirts and their uniforms overall.
“Terrific,” Talley said as she obliged with a twirl.
Fifteen-year-olds are allowed to change their minds as often as they like, and in the past Talley, a sophomore at Chowchilla Union High School, often talked about giving the college experience a miss and heading straight for the LPGA Tour. By Sunningdale, everything had changed. “At the moment,” she told GGP, “I’m leaning more towards college.”
Which one? She likes the sound of Wake Forest.
Why? Partly because that’s the alma mater of Rachel Kuehn, one of her Curtis Cup teammates, who helped the Demon Deacons win the 2023 NCAA Division I women’s title.
When Talley was 6, her father, a prison corrections officer, told her not to get nervous. One might assume his prisoners must follow his orders and, believe it or not, the teenage Talley does much the same, even if the dad to whom she is so close sometimes asks her to practice longer than she might want. She does, though, agree wholeheartedly with his views on nerves: “If I get nervous, I’m going to mess up in any case,” she said.
For another forte, she does not worry about how everyone else is playing. If she loses, she takes it well. But she does have the odd worry on her plate: homework, for a start. Her teachers are never as strict as they might be, maybe because they so like following her on TV. As for her classmates, these non-golfing teens wonder why people are in such a hurry to get her autograph. “You’re not that famous, are you?” they ask.
With Talley and 18-year-old Americans Anna Davis and Jasmine Koo competing in the Curtis Cup, plus Lottie Woad from the ranks of the home side, the chances are that the number of spectators will shoot up at Sunningdale, just as they did when Wie played at Formby.
Whereas a 7-year-old Wie decided to be a golfer after watching Tiger Woods win his first major championship, the 1997 Masters, Talley was inspired by one of the Korda sisters. Initially, she named Nelly but then corrected herself. It definitely had been Jessica because of the stunning swing and pose which Talley’s father recommended his daughter should copy. After watching the elder Korda, all Talley wanted to do was to play herself.
This weekend, plenty of the Sunningdale members might want nothing so much as to copy the big-hitting Talley.
With so many things in this world nowadays measured in stars, there’s no question the lass is worth rather more than one in a golfing context. In truth, some might say she is even now no less five-star-worthy than London’s Claridge’s and New York’s Plaza.