With ANWA healing wounds, Asterisk Talley looks to the future

HOUSTON – The thing about scars is that they last forever. They eventually become subtle and faint, but they never leave you.

Asterisk Talley’s first major public wound is healing. A month ago at the Augusta Women’s National Amateur, the 17-year-old led with seven holes to play before you hit two balls in the waterr on the par-3 12th and home lame. It was a reminder that, for all Talley’s world-class talent, she’s still only 17, a high school senior. As with all teenagers, Talley has a lot of life lessons ahead of him. Regardless of your gifts, trials and tribulations find you. That’s the deal. But for most 17-year-olds, these tough lessons don’t happen in front of thousands of people. You may stumble and fail, and most people will be none the wiser.

But Asterisk Talley has the curse—and the gift—of rare talent and astronomical expectations.

Talley’s father, James, could see trouble coming, as all parents can. Talley entered as the tournament favorite and played bogey-free golf in two rounds at the Champions Retreat. She birdied the 10th hole at Augusta National, but the pressure, not just to win, but to do it outright, was mounting with most of the Augusta crowd rooting for her. When Talley missed a short timed shot at age 11 to record her first upset, her father could tell she let the frustration go.

“She got caught when everybody was saying, ‘no bogey,'” James Talley told GOLF at the Chevron Championship for a bogey-free streak that went back to last year’s ANWA. “She was told she was going to win going in. It was all she was going to win, she was going to win, she was going to win. She was leading and she wanted to win in style. When she didn’t win in style, she quit. She has those little frustrations. She doesn’t give up on the big picture, but she gave up on a bad hole. You don’t.”

“There was just a lot of pressure going into those holes,” Asterisk Talley told GOLF at Chevron. “(Winner Maria Jose Marin) was playing well, and I hadn’t made a bogey all week, and then I bogeyed 11, and it was just unnecessary. I just missed a short shot. I didn’t think I was too rattled going to the tee, but I just wasn’t very confident in my swing and club with the ever-changing wind on the hole. It just wasn’t the tee shot I wanted at that moment.”

James and his wife, Brandii, say they “came out” after their daughter’s lead evaporated. Unable to stop what was happening, they sailed until it all came to an end. They comforted her when she reached the clubhouse and the tears Asterisk Talley had worked to hold back as she tried to gather herself returned.

Then, what Asterisk Talley did next said more about him than any shot. At a time when professional players often exit tournaments after missing moments before speaking to the media, 17-year-old Asterisk Talley, with tears in her eyes, stood and talked about what will be one of golf’s most difficult moments of what promises to be a long and successful career.

“People just want to see the story side of what happened,” Talley told GOLF. “People try to assume what happened. People try to blame somebody else. Blame the caddy, blame the course, blame the wind. It was obviously the player’s fault at all times. You can’t blame anybody else for your mistakes. I had to do that.

“That’s also an obligation when you get to the big stage. People will want to talk to you about what you did, even if you didn’t get what you wanted. Just part of it.”

There she explained the “mis-club”, the problem with the sand in the back bunker on no. 12 and the decision to repeat her fourth stroke from that bunker, which also found Rae’s stream. But Talley also shared that the tears weren’t just about a missed opportunity, but because she felt like she let everyone at Augusta National try to push her over the line.

“I’m a little emotional, not only because I didn’t make it today, but also everyone is so supportive,” Talley said. “It’s hard when they have to look at it and see that you’re not doing well or you’re not doing what you wanted to. I still played well today even though that hole just did me.”

What Asterisk Talley took from a brutal and very public loss at the world’s most famous course is not what most 17-year-olds would have done. They would still try to miss a chance to etch their name in history. Asterisk Talley still thinks about that day; this is only human. But for someone whose name means “Little Star” in Greek and dreams big, she knows it’s all part of what she signed up for. If you want to win major events, you have to be willing to get hurt.

“Obviously, it wasn’t the result I wanted,” Talley told GOLF. “But that’s going to happen sometimes when you’re trying to win. Things aren’t going to go my way. I’m glad I was able to play good golf after (the 12th hole). I look forward to the opportunity, of course, to play ANWA every year. And I’m going to try again.”

This week at the Chevron Championship, the first major of the LPGA season, is different.

All eyes are not on Asterisk Talley this week. Her parents walk the course at Memorial Park amid thin crowds as their 17-year-old star takes another important step toward her dreams. This week, Asterisk Talley should not cruise to a win. This week, she has been knocked out by world number 2 Nelly Korda. who will try to win her third major on sunday. This week, Asterisk Talley is absorbing a learning opportunity in the world he hopes to inhabit one day.

“It’s the experience,” James Talley said. “Playing with people that she’s going to play with eventually. Just that and playing well, knowing that she can get better, just learning things that they know that at 17 she probably doesn’t understand very well.”

He asked her to watch Korda’s second-round interview, in which she discussed “maturing” as a player and avoiding unnecessary risks. If you want to win the big events, you need to know when to pick your spots, minimize mistakes and take advantage when the opportunity presents itself. Talley has not played with Korda this week. She made the cut but was 11 shots behind when the weekend began. However, Asterisk Talley has been taking notes from afar as the LPGA star took a major championship knee.

“She’s making it look easy,” Asterisk Talley said with a laugh. “The way she’s handling herself. The way she doesn’t get too excited when she plays well and just tries to play her game, not worrying about the rest of the court.”

This is Talley’s fourth major championship and second is the cut. For a young star with big goals, these tournaments, where all eyes are not on her and where she is around players she hopes to one day call her contemporaries, are invaluable.

“It’s preparation,” Talley told GOLF. “This is where I want to be. It’s the main goal. I want to do this every week.”

As Astersk Talley’s star has risen, her parents have preached the need for her to maintain the humility and grace that endeared her to so many, which she showed when she took the microphone at ANWA. That day she was taught a life lesson – one that her father wished, as all parents do, that he could stop.

“I wish I was in the bag,” James Talley said. “I would have said, ‘Hey, it’s OK. Breathe.'”

Asterisk Talley does just that, a few hours later, near the Memorial Park clubhouse, when he thinks about that day. Not a deep breath, but a quick pause.

“Things like that happen,” she said. “There’s nothing I can do about it now. You just have to forget about it.”

And with that, Asterisk Talley headed to the practice green to continue her journey. As she walked by, Aapatron said he felt sorry for ANWA.

Scars never go away; they just fade over time and shape your way forward.