Amazing Grace: Floridian Carter (136) Medalist at AAC

Grace Carter, 15, of Jupiter, Fla., carded a bogey-free, 4-under 67 on Tuesday at Atlanta Athletic Club’s Riverside Course to garner medalist honors in the weather-delayed 76th U.S. Girls' Junior Championship. Carter posted a 36-hole total of 6-under-par 136 to edge four other competitors by a stroke.

Carter is the youngest medalist since Californian Lucy Li went back-to-back in 2017 and 2018 as a 14- and 15-year-old, respectively. Carter just turned 15 last month.

Twenty-four players returned to the course Wednesday morning to finish the second and final round of stroke play. The cut for match play came at 6-over 148 with nine golfers playing off for the last four spots in the draw. An afternoon thunderstorm on Tuesday afternoon delayed play for just under two hours.

Carter recorded just a single bogey during stroke play, on her final hole (No. 9) of Monday's opening round. Starting on No. 1 for Round 2, Carter birdied the first and fourth holes before stringing together eight consecutive pars, interrupted only by another birdie on No. 13. She’d play her last four holes in 1 under-par, chipping in from off the green on the par-3 17th hole.  

“I’m just trying to enjoy myself this week, acting like it’s just another tournament. Staying patient with myself,” said Carter, a rising high school freshman who is in the Class of 2029. “If I hit as many fairways and greens as I can, I can play pretty well.

"It means a lot [to be medalist] just being able to compete with all these great [players], and being able to finish at the top means a lot...I've been putting in a lot of work and I stuck to my game plan."

Not far behind, a quartet of players from Asia completed their stroke play portion of the competition at 5-under-par 137: Arianna Lau and Sophie Han, of Hong Kong, China, first-round leader Rinka Nakayama, of Japan, and Xingtong Chen, of Singapore. 

“I was playing alright today, my irons were working well, putts were going in,” Chen said. “The weather delay was a nice little break in between from the heat, I’m glad I managed to recover well from it.”

Lau, 17, is making her third appearance in the championship. Ranked No. 48 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking®/WAGR® and headed to Northwestern University this fall, she tallied four birdies against just one bogey. 

“I just played really consistently. I made very little mistakes, four birdies and just one bogey, so I’m happy with how I played today,” said Lau, who lost in the Round of 32 last year to . “I can see how much I’ve improved each year, so my goal is just to do better than last year.”

After shooting an opening round 4-under 67, Han’s second round featured five birdies and four bogeys. She made the Round of 32 during last year’s championship, losing to Shyla Brown, a member of the U.S. National Junior Team. 
 
Asterisk Talley, 16, of Chowchilla, Calif., last year’s runner-up and the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 15 in the WAGR, carded a 2-under 69 in her second round. Competing in her fourth U.S. Girls’ Junior, Talley easily qualified for match play at 2-under 140.

What's Next

The 9-for-4 playoff started on No. 10 of the Riverside Course and will proceed to Nos. 11, 17 and 18, if necessary. Those holes will repeat should the playoff go beyond those four holes. The Round of 64 was expected to commence as soon as the second round of stroke play had officially concluded. 

Notable

• Play was suspended at 8:46 p.m. ET due to darkness with 24 players still on the course. Earlier in the day, the championship sustained a 1 hour and 57-minute suspension due to dangerous weather in the area. 

• Clara Ding, 14, of Canada, recorded an ace on No. 3 using a 9-iron. Ding’s playing group during stroke play included Aubrey Hilgers, who recorded an ace on Monday on No. 8.  Combined with 2025 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball champion Asia Young’s 3 on the par-5 first hole on Monday, three eagles have been recorded during the championship thus far. 

• All four USGA champions in the field -- Sarah Lim, Asterisk Talley, Natalie Yen and Asia Young -- made the cut for match play. Lim and Talley won the 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, while Yen and Young paired to win the 2025 championship earlier this year in Oklahoma. 

• Rachel Lee, 17, of Australia shares a home club – Avondale Golf Club, located on Sydney’s northern shore – with 2025 Evian champion Grace Kim.

• Anna Fang, a member of the U.S. National Junior Team, had Tuesday’s biggest turnaround. After an opening round 74, Fang shot a second round 66, tied for the lowest round of the championship.  

Quotable

“I’m going to university soon, and the course conditions, the format, the challenge, is very useful. I think this is a very meaningful experience.” – Arianna Lau on competing in the U.S. Girls’ Junior 

“I think playing in the [U.S. Women’s Amateur] Four-Ball really helped me get comfortable with the distance. That really helps here, knowing which irons I was going to have, what kind of shots I’d have to hit. It’s a similar type of course.” – Athena Singh, who finished runner-up alongside partner Keira Yun in the 2025 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, on how that experience helps this week

“It’s really nice. The greens are so smooth, there’s lots of break – it’s different than a normal Georgia course. It’s really cool, I like it a lot.” – Grace Carter on Atlanta Athletic Club’s Riverside Course

“Very nervous. I was very nervous. There were college coaches all over and there was a pretty big crowd all watching.” – Grace Lee, 15, of Suwanee, Ga., on her emotions hitting the championship’s opening tee shot 

“I went to the locker room and made bracelets… there were a bunch of Aussies, basically the entire Australian team was there, and I made it with the other Singaporean, who finished playing in the morning.” – Xingtong Chen on how she spent her time during Tuesday’s afternoon weather delay