U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

June 2, 2024

Asterisk Talley

Lancaster Country Club

Flash Interview

THE MODERATOR: Welcome back to the interview area. Here with Asterisk Talley. Now that you've finished your first U.S. Women's Open, how awesome has this entire experience been?

ASTERISK TALLEY: It's crazy. Nothing like I imagined before. I imagined it being like super fun, but it was even better than I thought. Even with a bad round in there, I still had the time of my life yesterday and today and it was still such a fun week.

Q. What were the crowds like, especially on the weekends? You had a pretty big following.

ASTERISK TALLEY: Yeah, they were crazy, but sometimes that's fun to have. I don't really think it got to me like in my head, but super fun to have supporters out there, and I think that's a big part of just playing golf.

Q. What did you learn about yourself this week?

ASTERISK TALLEY: I can make par from anywhere. My dad used to always tell me that all the time. I was like, yeah, yeah, whatever. But I had so many putts yesterday, three-putts everywhere, and I probably had like 20 putts today, but they were all for par.

But I missed a bunch of fairways. My irons weren't working today very well, but I made like all of my par putts almost. It was pretty crazy out there. Yeah, I can make par from anywhere basically.

Q. Are you ready to go back to school?

ASTERISK TALLEY: No, I'm not ready. I'm dreading it already. I wasn't even thinking about that. But it's going to be hard.

Q. What do you think some of your friends will say when you see them back at school?

ASTERISK TALLEY: They don't know about it. They just like -- when I post on my story, they're like, why do people want your autograph? You're not even that famous. I'm just like, yeah, whatever, guys. I'm just back at school just like, I don't want to be here.

Q. What would you say was like an oh, wow moment for you this week?

ASTERISK TALLEY: I feel like just teeing it up on the first hole every day and probably finishing. Those moments were just like, I can't believe I'm here playing the U.S. Open with all these pros and just a major tournament.

Q. We saw your dad out there on every shot almost. How would you describe your relationship with him and his role in your development and passion for the game?

ASTERISK TALLEY: We're super close. He knows my game better than anyone probably, better than myself sometimes. But he's always there to help me fix whatever I need to fix.

He's always like analyzing my round just to know, like to get ready for other things. If it's a tournament in two months, he's like we're going to work on this for the next two months until the tournament.

He always tries to help me no matter what, good or bad. It's just always improvement.

Q. How do you think you can manage the expectations moving forward from this week in terms of what you think you know you're capable of moving forward?

ASTERISK TALLEY: Yeah, it's going to give me a lot of confidence going forward knowing that I made the cut really easily and that without the bad round yesterday I could have really been in contention.

I feel like it's just going to give me a lot of confidence and I'm going to stay calm through my rounds.

Q. We saw so many smiles from you this week. Just give us a sense of how competitive you are and how determined you are to continue to improve.

ASTERISK TALLEY: Yeah, I'm really competitive no matter what it is, if I'm -- who can finish their work faster. I'm going to finish it fastest for sure.

I'm competitive in everything no matter like golf, outside of golf, anything. But I feel like I'm a really happy competitor. If I lose, I'm still going to congratulate you. I'm not going to be a sore sport about it. I'm just going to congratulate you for doing better than me and move on.

Q. When are you finished with school for this year?

ASTERISK TALLEY: June 6.

Q. Not that much.

ASTERISK TALLEY: Yeah, not long.

Q. I know you competed in other events. Have you ever had to sign -- how much have you been asked to sign autographs before this week?

ASTERISK TALLEY: Not much. People back home always want it because they're like, you're going to be so famous. But this is the first time I've had a bunch of kids ask for it which is really cool.

I feel like it's a full circle moment for me because I was once there, and I feel like this is the first time I've had this money.

Q. Following along you had an awful lot of people cheering for you which is probably a little different, too. Seemed like people liked rooting for the 15-year-old amateur.

ASTERISK TALLEY: Yeah, for sure. I feel like just because of how young I am people want to root for me. They see me playing well the first two days, and they want to follow. I feel like that's really cool, just having faith in me throughout my golf.

Even when I'm playing bad, they still stuck around. They were still, like, keep your head up, whatever, it's just one hole. But I feel like it's really cool to have supporters. That's a big part of golf.

Q. Can you just talk about your involvement in the national development program and the benefit that's had on you or could have on you as you continue to move forward?

ASTERISK TALLEY: No, it's awesome. I'm really happy to be part of the team. When I got the call I was super happy. I feel like the drills and stuff they do, the preparations, it's really good and helped me improve to this moment, and I feel like it's definitely going to help me in the future going into bigger tournaments, biggest tournaments I've had in my life, so yeah.