Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States: The 36-hole championship match of the 2024 US Women’s Amateur at Southern Hills Country Club was scheduled to take place in its entirety on Sunday, but Mother Nature had other ideas.
With Sunday storms in the forecast for the Tulsa area, the first 18 holes of the championship match were contested in the afternoon on Saturday after the two semi-final matches were moved up to the morning.
No strangers to USGA finals, rising stars in junior golf Rianne Malixi, 17, and Asterisk Talley, 15, advanced from the semis to set up a re-match of the 36-hole 2024 US Girls’ Junior championship match, which Malixi won, 8&7, just 21 days ago.
This week marked the first time two finalists have faced off against each other in the US Girls’ Junior and US Women’s Amateur championship matches.
“We have been talking all week. On the putting green it’s like: ‘Play well today. I hope to see you again’,” American Talley said of her re-match with Malixi. “This morning on the putting green she was like: ‘Play well today’ and I was like: ‘Yeah, I hope to see you again in the final’. She was like: ‘Me too’.”
“It’s amazing. I love Asterisk,” added Malixi of the Philippines. “She is such a good player and good person as well. It’s fun being matched up with her again.”
The match got off to a hot start as Talley went right at the hole with her approach from the rough to set up an easy birdie on the first for a one-up lead. Two holes later, Malixi got in the mix with three straight wins on holes three through five thanks to a pair of pars sandwiched around a birdie on the short par-four fourth.
“The first four holes I feel like really aren’t tie holes. I feel like you could double it or you could birdie it,” Talley said of the opening stretch at Southern Hills. “Someone usually always wins those holes.”
Then it was Talley’s turn to hit a trifecta and flip the match in her favour with birdies on six and eight around a par on seven.
Both players missed the green on nine and two-putted for par from off the back edge, but Talley extended her advantage on 10 after Malixi three-putted.
Short-sided with the green running away from her and another bunker on the opposite side of her line, Talley hit a pro-level shot from the bunker on the par-three 11th to avoid a dropped shot and keep her two-up advantage.
Talley’s lead got as large as three through 12 holes when a Malixi shank from the bunker led to an early concession of the hole, but Malixi immediately clutched up and ripped a five-wood from the fairway onto the green at the par-five 13th to leave a 12-footer for eagle.
Talley laid up in the fairway and stuffed her approach to leave less than five feet for birdie, but Malixi claimed the hole and walked in her eagle putt with confidence to cut the deficit to two-up.
“On that hole I tried to maintain my cool,” Malixi said of her eagle. “I tried to calm myself down after a bad hole. I hit a really poor driver shot, but had 215 yards left and used five-wood. Stuck it to 10, 12 feet and had a left-to-righter and drained the putt.
“It’s just nice to cut down some of Asterisk's lead. It was such a confidence booster because I didn’t really see some of my putts drop in today.”
Malixi won two holes later with par to bring the match within one with three holes left to play on the day, then hit a gem of a bunker shot on the par-five 16th to tie the match with a late birdie. Another lead change came at the 17th, where Talley two-putted for par and Malixi missed the green with her approach and couldn’t scramble to save par.
On 18, Talley’s tee shot took a big kick from the fairway and almost ran onto a cart path near a bridge over a creek that dissects the fairway. From the go-zone in the fairway, Malixi found the back edge of the green while Talley went short and left of the putting surface.
Talley did well to pitch up and onto the green just outside 10 feet, but Malixi’s putt had too much juice and ran past the hole and down a massive false front, leaving a 30-plus yard pitch back onto the green.
“I practiced (that shot) in the practice round. I hit a couple putts there. And then when I stood over the ball I just completely hammered it,” Malixi said of her putt on the 18th. “I was like: ‘Oh, that’s off the green. I’m going to grab my wedge and get up and down then we’re good to go’.”
She did just that and stuffed her recovery shot inside five feet for a bogey. That left Talley with two putts to tie the hole, and she lagged her putt inside a foot to preserve her one-up lead at the break.
“I’m feeling a lot better than last time I played Rianne,” she said with a chuckle of her US Girls’ Junior loss. “I feel like this course is a lot harder than (El Caballero) and what we had to play before. I mean, she shot like 10-under in the first 15 holes. You can’t really do that out here, especially with us both missing a ton of fairways today.
“I feel like that’s going to be what I have to work on for tomorrow. I need to hit more fairways. That’s going to help me get close to the hole, hit more greens. I feel like that’s what will be what wins tomorrow, is whoever can keep their ball in play the most.”
Malixi, a 2025 Duke University commit, is looking to become the second ever to win both events in the same summer. Seong Eun-jeong was the first to accomplish the feat in 2016.
Talley, a rising sophomore in high school, shared low-amateur honours at the 2024 US Women’s Open Presented by Ally and won the 2024 US Women’s Amateur Four-Ball alongside partner Sarah Lim. This summer alone she holds a 15-1 match play record in USGA championships.
With inclement weather in the morning forecast, the pair will return to the course at 2:50 pm local time on Sunday for the final 18 holes.
