Malixi birdies four consecutive holes to close out U.S. Women’s Amateur victory
Asterisk Talley, a precocious 15-year-old from California, can already bomb a drive 320 yards, as she did on the first hole of the second 18 of her championship match in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Southern Hills Country Club.
She can hit brilliant approach shots, as he did on the ninth, 10th and 11th holes to win all three and tie her match against Rianne Malixi. She can hole long birdie putts, as she did on the par-4 seventh.
One thing she is still learning is how to flip a switch like Malixi did shortly after Talley’s comeback. She made an astounding four consecutive birdies over holes 13-16 to become the U.S. Amateur Champion with a 3 and 2 victory. What a way to close out a long week that include two practice rounds, two rounds of stroke play and five rounds of match play, including the 36-hole finale. The early rounds were played in brutally hot and humid weather while the semifinals and finals enjoyed greatly cooler rounds in the 70s and 80s.
Malixi, who hails from the Phillipines and is committed to attend Duke, had beaten Talley 8 and 7 just a few weeks earlier in the finals of the U.S. Junior Championship. It was the first time the same contestants reached the finals of both major women’s amateur championships in the same year.
Talley won the first hole of the second round to go 2-up, but Malixi won three of the next four holes to seemingly take command. But just like in the first round on Saturday, Talley battled back with birdies on holes 9 and 10 and a par won hole 11 and suddenly the match was tied.
Talley missed about a 4-foot birdie putt from above the hole on the par-4 12th that would have given her back the lead she lost on the fourth hole. Malixi reached the par-5 13th in two with a fairway wood from over 200 yards, and two-putted for birdie. She then ran in a 35-footer for birdie on the par-3 14th, made another good putt on 15 and both players birdied 16.
Malixi, 17, became the fourth female to win two USGA titles in the same year with and the first native of the Philippines to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur. She’s also just the second player in history to win the U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Women’s Amateur in the same year, a feat previously only accomplished by Eun Jeong Seong in 2016.
In total, now nine women have won both championships, with Rose Zhang (2020 U.S. Women’s Amateur, 2021 U.S. Girls’ Junior) being the last to do so.
“Honestly I just wanted to play good golf. That’s it,” Malixi said of her expectations for the year. “I wasn’t expecting to win the Australian Master of Amateurs in January and then win U.S. Girls’ last month and then this one. I was so surprised. Even though I was playing good golf, I was just not expecting.
“I think on the 12th hole we tied, and then I was like, ‘Just treat the next six, seven holes as your last four holes like I did with training with my dad,’” Malixi said of her closing stretch. “And then just flipped the switch there and just kept on making birdies, and I was hitting really good shots and then putts happened to drop.”
“It was crazy seeing her birdieing four holes in a row,” Talley said of Malixi’s run. “I mean, I was just trying to make birdies to tie the holes and hopefully I could win a couple on the last.”
