The hottest player in junior golf is back on the LPGA in Arizona

Asterisk Talley loves math. Says it’s easier for her to understand than other subjects, though she’s good at those too. Last week she made up all the mid-terms she missed while winning the prestigious Junior Invitational at Sage Valley. She’s preparing now for Calculus.

Unlike many of her elite golfing peers, California’s Talley goes to a brick-and-mortar high school. She even played some high school golf, winning the 2025 CIF-SCGA SoCal Girls High School Championship last November with a course-record 9-under 65.

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There’s still a bit of ordinary in the life of the Chowchilla High School junior.

Yet here she is this week, playing in the Ford Championship just outside Phoenix, an LPGA event she qualified for by winning the little-known but elite Taco Bell x Bad Birdie Invitational, which featured a field of only eight players.

No one would be surprised to see her contend at the Ford. Her goal “obviously” is to win.

That’s the extraordinary.

“I think it’s a pretty flat and open course,” said Talley of her impressions of Whirlwind Golf Club’s Cattail Course, “looking forward to playing some aggressive golf.”

Seventeen-year-old Talley, who stands 5-foot-10, carries the ball between 250 and 260 and doesn’t wear a glove, has won her last three starts on the junior circuit and heads into next week’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship on the short list of favorites. She finished runner-up at Augusta last year to Spain’s Carla Bernat Escuder, who is also playing the Ford on a sponsor exemption.

For this year’s ANWA, Talley will have close friend Miles Russell on the bag. It was actually her dad’s idea to ask Russell, noting that it would be a good chance for him to get to know the course before he eventually plays in the Masters. The pair teamed up together at the 2025 Junior Ryder Cup, playing mixed foursomes and mixed four-ball.

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“You kind of caddie for each other during that event,” said Talley.

Russell, like Talley, is the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2027 and has committed to Florida State.

Talley burst onto the national scene at the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club, where she contended early week and became an instant media darling. She has since played in another U.S. Women’s Open and a handful of other LPGA events.

After opening with rounds of 69-68 at the ShopRite LPGA Classic last summer, she stubbed her little toe on a piece of furniture Sunday morning and limped to a closing 72.

Each time she tees it up in an LPGA event, she feels more comfortable.

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“Not feeling as much of an outcast as when you first get on the tour,” she said of how things have changed since Lancaster. “Feeling like you belong a little more.”

This week Talley will have swing coach Elliot Busichio on the bag. Over the past year, Busichio said, everything about Talley’s game has grown more consistent. But the way she’s able to hold her composure is the biggest change.

“She’s more accepting that bad shots are going to happen,” he said.

They’ve also spent a good deal of time working on green-reading.

“Her game has always been very aggressive,” Busichio explained, “so just teaching her how to read and putt aggressively. I’m seeing more confident strokes out of her.”

There was a time not long ago that Talley wanted to fast track to the LPGA. That tune has changed, however, as the 2027 grad has committed to Stanford. Talley recently won Rose Zhang’s AJGA event and said the LPGA star’s decision to play college golf made an impact. Zhang, a two-time NCAA champion, recently finished up her last class at Stanford with a paper on brewing beer.

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“She showed that not all great golfers need to turn pro right out of high school,” said Talley. “She showed that there’s more important things than getting out there as fast as you can.”

Busichio hopes that playing college golf will help Talley establish friendships that will carry on in professional golf. Two-time major winner and Olympic gold medalist Nelly Korda spoke earlier this week about the loneliness of tour life, especially after her sister Jessica left.

Of course, a lot can change for Talley between now and next fall. When asked if playing well in LPGA events could alter her course, Talley conceded that it might. After the ANWA, she’ll once again play in the JM Eagle LA Championship on a sponsor exemption.

“I’m kind of just going with the flow about what happens before college,” she said.

For the extraordinary, it can all change in a hurry.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: The hottest player in junior golf is back on the LPGA in Arizona