Talley Establishes Amateur Mark With 66 at Riviera

Add another remarkable accomplishment for amateur Asterisk Talley. And that list is getting longer than the state of California.

The 17-year-old from Chowchilla, Calif., carded a 5-under-par 66 in Saturday’s third round of the 81st U.S. Women’s Open Presented by Ally at The Riviera Country Club to match the lowest round of the championship (Jennifer Kupcho had a first-round 66).

More importantly, it became the best weekend round by an amateur in championship history, surpassing the 67s posted by Judy Bell (1967, third round, San Diego C.C.) and Kiara Romero in last year’s final round at Erin Hills. Had her 13-footer not come up inches short on No. 18, Talley, a rising senior at Chowchilla High School who has verbally committed to play for Stanford University in 2027,  would have matched the best round by an amateur currently held by Ingrid Lindblad, who fired a 65 in the first round of the 2022 championship at Pine Needles en route to low-amateur honors.

When she exited the scoring area on Saturday a loud applause went up. A number of family and friends including her parents, have made the trek to Riviera, some choosing to stay the entire week.

“Just feeling like the hole was so big today,” said Talley, who is No. 7 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking®. “Couldn't miss.”

Such amazing feats are hardly a new phenomenon for Talley, a third-year member of the U.S. National Junior Team who shared low-amateur honors two years ago at Lancaster (Pa.) Country Club as a 15-year-old. That year, Talley won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball with fellow Northern Californian Sarah Lim, then finished runner-up to Rianne Malixi at both the U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Women’s Amateur. She capped the year by defeating then-world No. 1 Lottie Woad in Sunday singles at the Curtis Cup, a competition the USA lost by a single point at Sunningdale Golf Club, in England.

Earlier this year, Talley was tied for the lead at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur until a disastrous quadruple-bogey 7 on the par-3 12th hole ended her hopes. Nevertheless, her credentials are off the charts, having already represented the U.S. in the Junior Ryder Cup and Junior Solheim Cup, and claimed the 2026 Junior Invitational at Sage Valley and 2025 Girl’s Junior PGA Championship.

Her Saturday round included birdies on 1, 3, 6, 10 and 17. With the tee moved up to 267 yards on 10, she hit driver for the first time this week and chipped it to 3 feet. But consecutive up-and-down 6-foot par saves from greenside bunkers at 15 and 16 saved the round. She now has not made a bogey in 22 consecutive holes, matching the streak by then-amateur Carolina Lopez-Chacarra at Erin Hills last year. Hye-Jin Choi went 26 bogey-free holes in 2017 when she finished as the runner-up to Sung Hyun Park.

“I would've liked to extend that a little on the last hole, but it's okay,” said Talley of the birdie attempt that stopped inches short.

Still, there were anxious moments for Talley on Friday. She needed to hole a 6-footer for birdie on 17 just to get to 4 over for the championship, then had to watch the online leaderboard as the cut bounced between 3 and 4 over, eventually landing on the latter. After missing the cut a year ago at Erin Hills, Talley was quite happy to have a 6 a.m. wakeup call on Saturday for a 9:15 a.m. PDT tee time.

Two more competitive rounds to keep the vibes going as next week she’ll play the Curtis Cup at nearby Bel-Air Country Club. After Friday’s round, she hit a few balls before having dinner and retiring for the evening.

“After I made [the cut], it was good,” said Talley “It was like, [I] can't complain about a weekend tee time at Riv, right?”

Or adding her name once again to the USGA Record Book.

David Shefter is a senior staff writer at the USGA. Email him at dshefter@usga.org.