EVANS — After all the low numbers we saw at Champions Retreat Wednesday, Asterisk Talley decided to get in on the action.
The 16-year-old phenom followed up a first-round 71 with a Thursday 66, vaulting up the 2025 Augusta National Women’s Amateur leaderboard. Coming into the second round eight shots behind the leader, Talley knew she had to put up a low number.
“I'm feeling good,” she said. “Going into this round I knew I had to fire some scores today because, before I came into today, I was sitting like close to the cut line. So I knew I had to play some good golf to make the cut.”
The 1-under-par cut line is the lowest in the tournament's history, so she left no doubt as she walked off No. 18. Talley sits at 7-under for the tournament, sitting in a tie for sixth and two shots behind leaders Lottie Woad and Kiara Romero.
Talley started things off with a birdie on the Par-5 No. 3, a whole which gave her fits the day prior. She cranked up the heat at the turn, going birdie-bird-e on Nos. 9 and 10 and carding three more on No. 12, 13 and 14. In her second career ANWA start, the knowledge taken from 2024 paid off in a big way Thursday.
“I think it's a big advantage having some course knowledge this year, not coming in here blind and just kind of being star struck of the course” she said. “I kind of know it better this year, and I think it's a big advantage.”
In this instance, many 16-year-olds would’ve seen yesterday’s leaderboard and immediately put pressure on themselves to go low today. With Talley’s experience in competitive environments well beyond her years, it showed at Champions Retreat Thursday.
“Just knowing that I had to shoot a good score today and knowing that it's possible on this course really helps me,” she said. “Just, like I think Morgan said last night, just knowing that people are shooting good scores, you should be the one that wants to shoot those scores today. I think I really did that, and I really shot my goal.”
Talley is in the midst of an Augusta-area swing for the second time in as many years, finishing T7 at the 2025 Junior Invitational at Sage Valley (a tournament she won in 2024). She was also a runner-up in both Girls' U.S. Junior and U.S. Women's Amateur (including a co-low-amateur nod) a year ago.
Again, she's just 16.
That translates well going forward with Talley having prior experience at Augusta National Golf Club, ahead of Friday’s practice round. She plans on using an Augusta National caddie, just like she did in 2024.
“I think just kind of the quirks of the course, kind of where you can hit it and where you can't hit it,” she said. “I think that's something that really helps you at Augusta, just knowing that I can't go here for sure. This is a good place to leave it if I do like miss a shot or something.”
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Asterisk Talley goes low in Augusta National Women's Am second round
