Asterisk Talley (USGA Photo)
Just three weeks after
Rianne Malixi defeated Asterisk Talley 8 and 7 to win the U.S. Girls Junior at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif., the two will get to go head to head again.
Malixi and Talley are the two golfers left in the U.S. Women's Amateur at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., and will face off in the 36-hole championship match in hopes of earning a likely invitation to the 2025 Augusta National Women's Amateur and likely exemptions into the Chevron Championship, AIG Women's Open, and Amundi Evian Championship.
The final match will begin at 2:10 p.m. ET on Saturday, with the same hole locations as the semifinal matches. Depending on the weather, the final 18 holes will take place on Sunday, starting at 2 p.m. ET.
You can watch the coverage on Golf Channel from 3 p.m. ET to 6 pm. ET Saturday and Sunday.
Asterisk Talley, 15, of Chowchilla, Calif.
Talley is putting together an amazing amateur golf season, and a win at Southern Hills would. With her quarterfinal win over 2024 NCAA individual champion Adela Cernousek, she is now 15-1 in USGA match play this season, winning the 2024 U.S. Women's Four-Ball and finishing runner-up at the 2024 U.S. Girls Junior.
Talley represented the United States in the 2023 Junior Solheim Cup in Spain and finished eighth in the 2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateur. She also won the 2024 Junior Invitational at Sage Valley and is a member of the USGA’s inaugural U.S. National Junior Team. This is her first U.S. Women's Amateur appearance.
She finished T4 with rounds of 69-72 to finish 1-under in the stroke play portion and earned the No. 5 seed heading into match play. In the round of 64, she defeated Amanda Sambach 2 and 1, Justice Bosio in the round of 32, 4 and 2, and Angelo Heo easily in the round of 16, 7 and 6. She defeated Adela Cernousek 1-up in the quarterfinals, and her semifinal match against medalist Maria Jose Marin was conceded.
Rianne Malixi, 17, of the Philippines
Malixi continues her hot summer and will look to become the second player (Eun Jeong Seong, 2016) to win the U.S. Girls' Junior and the U.S. Women's Amateur. She won the 2024 Women’s Australian Master of the Amateurs and was the 2024 Junior Invitational at Sage Valley runner-up to Asterisk Talley. She was also the 2023 U.S. Girls’ Junior runner-up.
Malixi shot rounds of 67-74 to shoot 1-under and earn the No. 6 seed. In the round of 64, she defeated Annabelle Pancake 2 and 1; in the round of 32, she defeated Anna Huang 2 and 1; and in the round of 16, she defeated Scarlett Schremmer 3 and 2.
In the quarterfinals, she defeated Catherine Rao 2 and 1, and she defeated Kendall Todd 1 up in the semifinals to advance to the final match.