Rianne Malixi (left) and Asterisk Talley (USGA Photo)
The unpredictability and fickleness of match play can often deliver unexpected results. Even for top players/seeds, one tough round can lead to a premature exit from the competition.
So, when four of the best players in the 75th U.S. Girls’ Junior field – at least according to the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR® -- reach the semifinals, as was the case on a stifling Southern California Friday at El Caballero Country Club, it only adds more excitement to an already intense competition.
Jasmine Koo (No. 7), Rianne Malixi (No. 19), Gianna Clemente (No. 22) and Asterisk Talley (No. 57) all managed to dodge the usual obstacles to advance to the final four. They also were the Nos. 3, 2, 16 and 4 seeds, respectively.
But only Malixi, 17, of the Philippines, and Talley, 15, of Chowchilla, Calif., advanced to Saturday’s 36-hole championship match. Malixi, the 2023 U.S. Girls’ Junior runner-up, outlasted Koo, an incoming University of Southern California freshman who was just named to the 2024 USA Curtis Cup Team, 3 and 2, while Talley, the 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball champion, defeated 2022 U.S. Girls’ Junior runner-up Clemente, 3 and 1.
Malixi, a 2025 verbal commitment to Duke University, is the first player to reach consecutive finals since Eun Jeong Seong in 2015 and 2016, both of which resulted in victories for the golfer from the Republic of Korea. Malixi lost to current University of Oregon All-American Kiara Romero a year ago at the U.S. Air Force Academy Eisenhower Golf Course in Colorado Springs, Colo., 1 down.
Talley, meanwhile, is trying to join Seong (2016), Pearl Sinn (1988) and Jennifer Song (2009) as the only women to win multiple USGA titles in the same year. In May, she teamed with Sarah Lim to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Oak Hills Country Club in San Antonio, Texas. That came a few weeks before she shared low-amateur honors with reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Megan Schofill and USC standout and 2024 USA Curtis Cupper Catherine Park in the U.S. Women’s Open Presented by Ally at Lancaster (Pa.) Country Club.
For Clemente, 16, of Estero, Fla., it was the third consecutive year of advancing to at least the semifinals; her match-play record in the event is a remarkable 13-3, and 23-7 overall in 30 USGA matches. Both Clemente and Talley were among the first 10 girls named to the USGA’s newly created U.S. National Junior Team, which had eight representatives in the field.
“It feels amazing,” said Talley, who hopes to add the U.S. Girls’ Junior title to the Rolex Girls Championship she claimed in 2023 and the prestigious Junior Invitational at Sage Valley crown she registered in March. “I just hope I play good tomorrow…But whatever happens, I'm going to be proud of myself for this week.
“And I know it's in God's hands, and he's going to help me through the match tomorrow no matter how it ends up.”
Added Malixi: “I will be sticking to my game plan, just really taking it shot by shot and taking my time in between shots. I think that will be an important key for tomorrow.”
Malixi and Talley actually have some recent history. The two roomed together on property during the Sage Valley event, where they finished 1-2. That is how they’ll finish in this championship with the actual order being decided over 36 holes in what promises to be another hot day. Temperatures on Friday approached 100 degrees.
That only matched the sizzling performances on the course.
Talley played the equivalent of 9-under-par golf – with concessions – over the 17 holes against Clemente, who took a 2-up lead when she holed out a bunker shot on the par-5 seventh for eagle. From there, Talley, who played on the 2023 U.S. Junior Solheim Cup Team with Clemente, shifted her game into another gear, stuffing an approach on No. 9 for a birdie, then recording birdies on six of the next eight holes. She and Clemente tied Nos. 10 and 12 with birdies, but Talley just kept applying the pressure with approach shots to within 5 feet or less.
“There is not much you can do when the person that you're playing with is shooting 9-under for 17 holes,” said Clemente, the 2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball champion. “It was a tough day. This has become quite a painful event for me. I played well and it's an accomplishment to make to this far.”
Added Talley: “Something clicked on the back nine and I feel like that helped me pull through the match.”
Malixi, who has competed in 11 different countries over the past two years including the Republic of Ireland for this year’s Women’s Amateur Championship conducted by The R&A at Royal Portmarnock, birdied the first three holes against Koo, an 18-year-old from nearby Cerritos who came into Friday’s matches having not lost a single hole and was 16 under over those 37 holes.
Koo, the 2023 Women’s Western Amateur champion, responded with four birdies over the next five holes to grab a 1-up lead at the turn. The key moment came on the par-3 10th hole. With Malixi already in for a 3, Koo had a great chance to go 2 up but missed an 8-footer that she misread and pulled at the same time.
Thinking she would make it, Malixi had already walked off the green and was informed by her caddie, Carmen Fletcher, that she had failed to convert.
“I'm surprised that she missed the putt,” said Malixi. “I went back to the present and just really focused on my game plan.”
One hole later, Malixi tied the match with a two-putt par, and then like Talley, kicked it into high gear with a couple of laser-beam approach shots. The biggest came on the 371-yard, par-4 15th hole when she stuffed her second to a couple of feet, which was conceded by Koo.
“Honestly, she played so well today,” said Koo. “She didn't leave any doors open for me.”
Earlier on Friday, Clemente played 5-under golf over her last six holes to defeat Avani Prashanth, of India, 2 and 1. Talley edged past 2024 Texas A&M signee Vanessa Borovilos, of Canada, 1 up, and Malixi knocked out No. 58 seed Madison Messimer, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., 2 and 1.
Not many expected 15-year-old Anna Fang, of San Diego, Calif., to reach the quarterfinals after barely qualifying for match play as the No. 59 seed. But the spunky rising high school sophomore knocked out the sixth seed, Aphrodite Deng, in the opening round and then nearly took down Koo, who finally dropped her first hole of the championship on the par-3 eighth, snapping a streak of 44 consecutive holes without a loss.
Fang would birdie the next two, including a near-ace that stopped inches from the flagstick on the 128-yard 10th. But Koo settled down, won 14 with a birdie and then registered a winning par on the 18th hole when Fang short-sided herself in the right-greenside bunker with the approach shot and failed to get up and down.
What's Next
Saturday’s 36-hole championship match will begin at 9 a.m. PDT, and then likely resume after the lunch break at approximately 1:45 p.m. Peacock will stream the afternoon 18 live beginning at 6 p.m. EDT. Golf Channel will re-air the broadcast at 10 p.m.
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