AUGUSTA, Ga. – Bryson DeChambeau looked right into Asterisk Talley’s tear-streaked face.
In that quiet moment, away from the cameras, DeChambeau – with his purposeful speech, broad shoulders and two-by-four forearms – better resembled a high school football coach than a two-time major winner. For about two minutes, he pointed at Talley’s heart, gestured back down the hill at Augusta National and spun around to reveal a smiley young girl, eagerly awaiting an autograph.
Wearing his Masters players badge, he was delivering a pep talk – direct, passionate, encouraging – from one superstar to, in time, another.
“This isn’t going to define you,” DeChambeau told the crestfallen teenager, and in that moment, it was easy to believe him.
There’s little doubt that Talley is the next great American golfer. She’s just 17. She’s tall and powerful with a soft touch. She craves competition and boasts a wealth of big-game experience and is stockpiling junior and amateur titles at a head-turning rate before she heads to powerhouse Stanford in the fall of 2027. Her name alone just oozes star-power potential: Asterisk.
Saturday afternoon, Talley was poised to take the next step, to become known by more than just the amateur golf cognoscenti. The Augusta National Women’s Amateur is the premier event in women’s amateur golf, and the phenom led by a stroke heading into the third and final round.
“The mental side of it is going to be crucial,” she had told reporters on Friday night. “Knowing this course tears players apart on the mental side, and it can tear anyone up in an instant.”
And yet, on this supercharged stage, it was Talley who was tearing it up early on Saturday. A birdie on 1. Another on 3. Yet another on 4. Midway through the front nine, she was three ahead. In total control, and in the biggest spot of her young life.
It was about that time that DeChambeau flew into town. Fresh off the jet, he hurriedly changed into his Crushers team uniform and headed to the course to root on the competitors and to pull, specifically, for Talley.
As Central Valley kids growing up in California, DeChambeau recalled meeting Talley about a decade earlier, slashing drivers under a tent at swing coach Mike Schy’s performance center. They’d kept in touch over the years, with DeChambeau charting Talley’s progress as she mopped up junior titles to become, at this moment, the ninth-ranked amateur in the world, with aspirations to ascend much higher.
“Tenacity,” DeChambeau said, when asked what stood out about her. “Same passion I had. It’s what made me feel there were a lot of similarities.”
But first, Talley needed to knock off this prestigious title, and the tension was starting to build. She failed to expand her lead around the turn, settling for par on the par-5 eighth and missing a good look inside 10 feet on 10. Then she dropped into a share of the lead after a poor short-iron approach into 11. With the wind swirling on the 155-yard 12th, Talley was debating between a soft 8-iron and hard 9 for her club selection. Deciding to take the water out of play, she opted for a soft 8, counting on a puff of breeze into her face. Perhaps the wind died, or her adrenaline spiked, or her draw simply flew too far – but whatever the case, her tee shot sailed the narrow green, caromed off the bank near the back bunker and plopped into the sand.
“I got lucky for not going in the bushes there,” Talley initially thought, but her outlook soon changed when she dug in her stance to attempt her bunker shot. “The sand didn’t really have a lot in there. It was just kind of hard under the surface sand.”
Talley tried to play a typical explosion shot from the bunker, but the ball kicked forward on the green with no zip, ran off the front edge and into the water.
An official approached to inform Talley of her options: She could head to the other side of Rae’s Creek for her drop, or attempt the bunker shot again. Talley chose the latter, hoping, after the area was raked, the ball would come out with more spin. But when she dropped the ball from knee-high, the ball settled into its indentation mark.
The same result ensued, the ball meekly tumbling into the creek.
Now facing a sixth shot and still not on the green, her head spinning, Talley trudged back across the Hogan Bridge and another 50 yards for her drop. She pitched onto the green and did well to hole a lengthy putt for a quadruple-bogey 7, dropping her from a share of the lead to five shots back. Just as she’d warned: Torn up, in an instant.
“I just didn’t think that was going to be my position from the tee box,” Talley said afterward. “I didn’t think it would have been in that situation at all. It shows how hard that hole is and how much it has messed up other people as well.”
(One player who was spared: the other co-leader. Just moments earlier, Maria Jose Marin’s tee shot – much like Fred Couples in 1992 – somehow stayed up on the steep bank short of the green. Marin safely chipped on and saved an up-and-down par, and she went unchallenged the rest of the way, sailing to a four-shot win.)
The remainder of Talley’s round, meanwhile, was a blur.
A bounce-back birdie on 13 was followed by a sloppy bogey on 15. She rinsed her tee shot on 16 for a double but backed it up with birdie on 17. It added up to a round of 75, a tie for fourth, and a painful learning experience.
DeChambeau was waiting behind the green to console the teen phenom, but Talley was still in tears by the time she approached the scoring building. She was in tears when her family approached her after signing her card. And she was in tears on the interview podium, when she reflected on the support she has received.
“W” for Asterisk Talley today. That was so tough on No. 12. I can't imagine what it felt like in the moment.
— Gabby Herzig (@GabbyHerzig) April 4, 2026
But she kept her chin up and then stood in front of us and answered every question with honesty and grace. At age 17? Huge, huge props. pic.twitter.com/p0JqG16gQM
“It’s hard when they have to watch that and see you not do well or not accomplish what you wanted,” she said.
Given her age, the pain and the stage, Talley stood tall afterward. She didn’t dodge any questions. She tried to offer perspective. She didn’t assign any blame or lament her rotten luck.
“I’m honestly so blessed to be here – it’s a gift from God to walk this course.”
And: “I learned a few things about myself, just knowing it’s OK. Things like that happen to the best of us.”
And: “It doesn’t define me as a golfer. I know what kind of player I am.”
That’s what DeChambeau had told her coming off 18, and it’s what he wanted to reinforce as he waited out her scrum with reporters near the clubhouse.
Just last year, after all, DeChambeau felt the sting of an opportunity lost at Augusta National. Paired with Rory McIlroy in the final group, he had seized the lead early in the final round before fading fast with (like Talley) a closing 75. It may have been his most high-profile failure, but like any elite player, he could rattle off dozens of other chances he’d squandered over the years. He recalled one particularly painful defeat, back in college at SMU, when he sobbed in the back of the team bus.
“But you lay one brick down as good as I can to build that next wall for that nice foundation and help yourself grow,” DeChambeau said.
“From the losses you learn the most – that’s pretty much what I told her. She’s going to be fine. She’s going to be one of the best players in the world one day. And she knows it. I told her the most important thing is how you handle yourself and how you showcase yourself to inspire others.”
As DeChambeau sermonized under the afternoon sun, Talley dutifully nodded, adjusted the brim of her cap and wiped away tears. Then she went in for not one but two hugs, the message clearly received, and the healing process started.