LOS ANGELES — On Friday afternoon, Asterisk Talley stood on the par-5 17th hole at Riviera Country Club needing a birdie to make the cut. She got it. On Saturday, she walked back to that same hole needing another birdie to get to red numbers for the tournament. She got that too. Between those two putts on No. 17, the 17-year-old from Chowchilla, California, wrote herself into the U.S. Women’s Open record books.
Talley fired a bogey-free, 5-under 66 in the third round on Saturday, the lowest weekend round by an amateur in the 81-year history of the championship. She finished the day one under par for the tournament, three shots behind co-leaders Nelly Korda and Sei Young Kim with 18 holes remaining. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Talley is the first amateur to post a bogey-free 66 or lower in an LPGA major in 21 years, since Louise Stahle at the 2005 Women’s British Open.
She had no idea any of this was the case until someone told her after she signed her scorecard.
“Really?” Talley said, according to Golf Channel.
The round had a particular texture to it that the raw number does not capture. On Friday, Talley was three over through 13 holes and then made a double bogey on the par-3 14th to fall out of the cut entirely. What followed was a grinding, quiet refusal. She parred 15 and 16, then rolled in a seven-foot birdie putt on 17 to drag herself back inside the number. She parred 18. Saturday morning tee time, eight shots off the pace.
That near-miss on Friday is the thing that makes Saturday legible. Talley did not come into the third round loose or liberated. She came in having squeezed through a door that almost shut on her — and then played like someone who understood exactly how thin the margin had been.
“Obviously it was a disappointing round yesterday, but after I made the cut, it was good,” Talley said. “Can’t complain about a weekend tee time at Riv, right? Then I just hit the putting green after — just kind of rested. Did what needed work and then today the hole was just so big I couldn’t miss.”
The mechanics of Saturday’s round were clean and specific. She opened with a birdie at the par-5 first, chipping close after going for the green in two. Then a 12-footer on No. 3, an 8-footer on No. 6. At the driveable par-4 10th — one of the signature risk-reward holes on the George C. Thomas design — she hit her tee ball left of the green, chipped to three feet, and made it. Four birdies through ten holes, and suddenly a teenager who had been listed as a survivor of the cut was four off the lead as the co-leaders were still warming up.
Six straight pars followed, including clutch scrambles at 15 and 16. Then came 17 again — and this time she hit the par-5 in two and two-putted from 45 feet for the birdie that finally got her to red figures. A par at 18 closed it out at 66.
The 66 ties scores previously posted by Carol Semple Thompson in 1994, Brittany Lincicome in 2004, and Gina Kim in 2019 — but none of those came on a weekend. Ingrid Lindblad’s first-round 65 at Pine Needles in 2022 remains the outright amateur record for the championship. Talley is ranked seventh in the world amateur rankings and is competing in her third consecutive U.S. Women’s Open; she captured low-amateur honors at Lancaster in 2024, finishing tied for 44th.
She was one of five amateurs, from a field of 23 who started the week, to make the cut. Canadian amateur Aphrodite Deng, 16, also made the weekend and is tied for 11th heading into Sunday, as NBC Sports reported.
Talley is a Stanford commit from Chowchilla, a small agricultural city in California’s Central Valley roughly 30 miles north of Fresno. Her classmates’ last day of school was Thursday. She left a day later, flew to Los Angeles, and then on Saturday afternoon found herself three shots off the lead of a major championship with the final round still to play. She is also scheduled to play in her second Curtis Cup next week — she went 2-1-1 at Sunningdale in England two years ago — which means she will remain in Los Angeles through at least the following weekend.
“It’s going to be super exciting,” she said. “Just a lot of good things to look forward to right now, and I’m enjoying the moment right now, and I’m kind of leaving next week to be next week.”
What is not yet known is whether a 17-year-old amateur can do on Sunday what she was not supposed to be able to do on Saturday. Nelly Korda entered the week as the clear favourite, seeking the one major that has eluded her in a career that has otherwise redefined the top of women’s golf. Korda and Kim share the 54-hole lead at four under. The question of whether Talley can close a three-shot gap with no professional experience in the final round of a major is unanswered — and by definition cannot be answered until Sunday.
What is already answered is what the 17th hole at Riviera means to this particular championship for her. It saved her on Friday. It sent her under par on Saturday. The par-5 that runs along the western edge of the property has become the hinge of her entire tournament — and there is one more round to find out whether she will birdie it a third time.
