With a name that means “Little Star” in Greek, and the skills to inherit her name, Asterisk Talley is making her way to the top of the golf world at just sixteen years old.
Talley is already making a name for herself in not only junior golf tournaments, but also the odd LPGA event as well. LPGA stands for the Ladies Professional Golf Association, and is the highest golf series in the world for women. One thing that has been known to occur in the golf world, both in the LPGA and PGA, is that golfers known as “amateurs” (non-professionals) can gain entry into events. This has happened with Talley on multiple occasions, most notably at the 2024 US Women’s Open Presented by Ally.
At the US Women’s Open, Asterisk Talley finished in 44th place, which doesn’t sound exciting until you learn that it was out of about 156 golfers in total, and Talley finished tied as the highest amateur in the tournament, at just fifteen years old. Her highest finish at a pro event was 22nd place at the 2025 Otter Creek Championship, but her showing at the US Women’s Open remains the one that really put her on the map.
This is not to say that she has never scored higher than 22nd place in a tournament before, far from it. Asterisk Talley has won five titles at the Junior level and has come top-ten a total of fifteen times, counting those five wins.
Looking purely at statistics, Talley fares much better at Junior tournaments than All-Age or Pro tournaments, which should not be too surprising. Junior tournaments and All-Age tournaments are different in difficulty, with the qualifications for Junior tournaments being under nineteen years old, and not currently attending a college or university, giving a better chance for the younger girls to succeed when playing against other youngsters, versus when they have to play against adults who have had much more time to hone their games.
But that doesn’t even begin to look into the underlying factors that could be responsible for these lower scores. Yes, when playing at a tournament where age doesn’t matter, someone who is older is more likely to hit the ball further, and in some cases more accurately, than someone like Asterisk Talley, who is only sixteen years old and doesn’t have the same muscle, or even discipline, that those who have been playing for much longer would have. And golf is a very mental game; it’s hard to regain momentum when one is already “beating themself up” over a round that they felt didn’t go well, which could also be a big factor as to why Asterisk doesn’t do as well in All-Age tournaments.
Asterisk Talley is currently ranked 12th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, having dropped down from her highest ranking of 8th place, but is projected to be ranked much higher in the future. As of now, she is not committed to any college or university, but she is getting to the age that if she is hoping to pursue a career in golf, and it is highly unlikely that she wouldn’t be, she will have to choose either golfing for a college team or heading straight to the LPGA tour.
In my opinion, Asterisk should look into joining a collegiate team as opposed to going pro immediately, as it’s likely to be less stressful and can more than likely help her golf game out in the long run. I also think that Asterisk Talley is great for the world of golf, especially the women’s game, as there are fewer female golfers regarded as “superstars” than there are males, and, with the talk she is already getting at a young age, she has the potential to be the next big thing.
