Asterisk Talley, Augusta National and a tearful lesson learned

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Her parents greeted her outside the Augusta National clubhouse, giving their 17-year-old daughter hugs to sooth the heartbreak. But cradled in the arms of her father Jim and mother Brandii, the tears returned once more.

Anyone who watched Asterisk Talley during Saturday’s final round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur came away with an appreciation that she is one of the most talented female golfers in the world. What they also saw, however, is that she is still just a high school junior with lessons to learn, some that painfully will happen in public. A three-over 75, the fourth highest score among the 32 golfers that afternoon, was not what Talley expected to sign for on Saturday, finishing six shots back of the eventual winner, Colombia’s Maria Jose Marin.

Not when you consider that Talley had gone three days and 46 holes without making a bogey, looking very much in control of a tournament in which she had finished T-8 at age 15 and runner-up at age 16. Even when she posted her first black number at the par-4 11th hole, she still held a share of the lead with Marin at 13 under par. Yet in the next 20 minutes, everything changed.

Golf happened, golf at Augusta National more specifically, where the shortest hole on the course, the 145-yard par-3 12th that has sabotaged many a golfer’s dreams of victory, grabbed another victim. Still in a bit of a fog, Talley tried to make sense of what happened over in Amen Corner: Long off the tee with an 8-iron (“it was just a mis-club”) into the back bunker. A skinny second shot (“The sand didn't really have a lot in there”) that trickled over the green into Rae’s Creek.