Rianne Malixi, a 2025 Duke women’s golf commit, became the second golfer to win the U.S. Girls’ Junior and the U.S. Women’s Amateur in one year.
Duke women’s golf commit Rianne Malixi keeps making history in the summer of 2024.
Weeks after she won the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, Malixi won the U.S. Women’s Amateur on Sunday with a 3-and-2 triumph over Asterisk Talley at Southern Hills Country Club in Oklahoma.
Malixi beat Talley in the title match at the U.S. Girls Junior as well, a dominant 8-and-7 victory that included 14 birdies in 29 holes. On Sunday, Talley tried to even the score. The star from California built a 3-up lead through 12 holes in the 36-hole match, but just like their previous bout, Malixi sent an avalanche her way in the middle of the battle.
Malixi won the 13th, 15th, and 16th holes to even the match. Talley took two of the next three to pull ahead again, but Malixi won four holes in a row to jump 2-up through 23 holes.
Another win three holes later had Talley on the ropes, but the Class of 2027 star knotted the match with three wins in a row on the 27th through 29th holes.
Malixi, the future Duke star, sent the final haymaker again, however. She birdied the 31st, 32nd, and 33rd holes, winning all three to put the match out of reach.
Historic.
Rianne Malixi is just the second player ever to win the U.S. Women's Amateur and U.S. Girls' Junior in the same year.
At just 17 years old, Malixi becomes the second woman to win both tournaments in one year. In fact, only eight other women have won both tournaments in their career, and only three other women have won multiple USGA titles in a single year.
Malixi is the second player ever to win the Women’s Amateur and Girls’ Junior in the same year.
TULSA, Okla. — Rianne Malixi doesn’t show much emotion, but there’s a fire within that burns strong enough to conquer any obstacle.
It didn’t used to be like that. Malixi, a 17-year-old from the Philippines, admits she used to be self-deprecating. When things weren’t going her way on the golf course, she wouldn’t make anything easier for herself.
But everything, as she says, is all about perspective. And in the past 22 days, her perspective, and that of those who follow amateur golf, knows she’s one of the best young players in the game.
Malixi topped Asterisk Talley 3 and 2 on Sunday to win the 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Southern Hills Country Club in historic fashion. Malixi was patient, riding the waves of momentum all day until she reached the summit: a second USGA championship in the span of 22 days. Four straight birdies from Nos. 13-16 were the dagger in a two-day historic marathon.
“It feels so surreal right now,” Malixi said. “It’s just an honor.”
SHE DID IT… AGAIN! 🏆🏆
Just three weeks after winning the U.S. Girls’ Junior, Rianne Malixi is the U.S. Women’s Amateur champion! pic.twitter.com/pTM1tLJj2q
Three weeks ago and 1,350 miles away from Southern Hills, Malixi beat Talley, a 15-year-old from California who won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball earlier this year, 8 and 7 in the championship match of the U.S. Girls’ Junior, a record margin of victory. On Sunday at the famed Perry Maxwell design, Malixi beat Talley again, this time in one of the oldest amateur championships in golf.
Malixi is the second player ever to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur and U.S. Girls’ Junior in the same year, joining Eun Jeong Seong in 2016. Her and Talley are also the first duo to meet up in the championship match of both events ever, let alone in the same year. She’s also the first player from the Philippines to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur.
Malixi, a Duke commit in the 2025 class, went 12-0 in USGA match play events this year. Talley went 15-2, but at least this year, Malixi proved her kryptonite.
“I love Asterisk,” said Malixi, who also roomed with Talley at the Junior Invitational earlier this year, an event Talley won and Malixi placed second. “Developing a relationship with her has just been so awesome. She’s just a great player and a great person, as well.”
Throughout the duration of their 36-hole championship match, Malixi and Talley had numerous conversations, even if it was just small talk. The first 18 holes were played Saturday afternoon because of rain and storms in the Tulsa area on Sunday morning, with Talley taking a 1 up lead into the overnight intermission.
On the first hole Sunday, Talley won with a par, taking a 2 up lead. But Malixi, as calm as she looked on the outside, remained positive on the inside, one of the changes her dad tried to implement when he noticed his daughter’s mental game wasn’t at a championship level.
Malixi won four straight holes, and after Talley made a 40-foot bomb for birdie on the par-4 seventh, Malixi responded with a 15-foot make of her own. She then won another hole and was 3 up with 10 holes to play.
Rianne Malixi reacts after winning the fifth hole during the final match of the 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Southern Hills Country Club. (Kathryn Riley/USGA)
But in a match of runs, even extending to Saturday afternoon, Talley responded. She won three straight holes, and on the par-4 12th and the match tied, Talley had a short birdie putt to take a 1 up lead with five to play.
She made the stroke, a bit too firm, and the ball lipped out.
“I knew she was going to make it,” Malixi said. “It’s why I went for it and hit it four or five feet past the hole. Then I was surprised she missed it. Then I was like, ‘Oh, we have to make this putt.”
Talley left the door open. Malixi slammed it shut.
On the par-5 13th, Malixi blasted her tee shot. It rolled out roughly 75 yards after landing on a downslope and sprinting down the fairway. She went for the green in two, landing 30 feet beyond the flag. Talley had a birdie look but missed. Malixi’s eagle look didn’t quite reach the hole, but birdie was conceded.
“I feel like she just — she hit some good shots. I missed a short putt on 12. I just hit it too hard. Maybe just misread it a little bit,” Talley said. “And then she got on in two on 13. I couldn’t really help she made a birdie there. I missed another makable one on that hole. I feel like that’s what kind of switched her momentum, seeing me miss a short putt and her just having an easy birdie.”
On the par-3 14th hole, Malixi found the green and left herself 25 feet for birdie. Talley’s tee shot ended up in a bunker, and her sand shot rolled out just over the green. Her comeback attempt didn’t matter because Malixi made yet another birdie.
Rianne Mikhaela Malixi and Asterisk Talley hug after Rianne Mikhaela Malixi wins their match during the final match of the 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. on Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. (Kathryn Riley/USGA)
Then on 15, the most difficult green at Southern Hills, Malixi again found the fairway then green. As Talley’s birdie attempts didn’t quite break enough, Malixi’s shot found the center of the cup again.
3 up with three to play, Malixi and Talley were both greenside in two on the par-5 16th, and Talley’s chip shot rolled out 4 feet past the hole. Malixi, a savant from the bunkers all week, hit her sandy to roughly the same distance below the hole.
Talley poured in her putt, but Malixi responded and did the same.
Four straight birdies, and a special hug with Talley, before the celebration began.
Rianne Malixi makes history! She wins the 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Southern Hills, only 22 days after winning the U.S. Girls’ Junior. Only the second person to win both in the same year pic.twitter.com/P3rzURN4OG
“Honestly I just wanted to play good golf,” Malixi said of her goals this year. “That’s it. I wasn’t expecting to win (the) Australian Master of the Amateurs in January, and then won U.S. Girls last month and then this one. I was like so surprised. Even though I was playing good golf, I was just not expecting it.”
Three weeks ago in California, Malixi dominated at the U.S. Girls’ Junior, making 14 birdies over 28 holes in the final. This week, Southern Hills provided a test she hadn’t faced yet, and she still conquered the course in magisterial fashion, and now she’s on top of the amateur world.
“I’m thankful for my dad who kept on pushing me beyond my limits,” Malixi said. “Everything is just all about perspective, and I kind of realized that at the beginning of the year. Yeah, everything just went skyrocket.”
Malixi and Talley advanced to the championship match of the 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur, which will begin Saturday afternoon at 2:10 p.m. ET and continue Sunday, tentatively scheduled for 2 p.m. ET. The first 18 holes were moved to Saturday because of anticipated weather Sunday in the Tulsa area, meaning there will be a rare break between play Saturday night.
It is believed to be the first time in USGA history the championship match of the U.S. Women’s Amateur will begin on Saturday. It’s also the first time in 70 years the final match will be contested over two days.
That’s not the only historic moment. Malixi and Talley are the first pair in USGA history to face off in the finals of the U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Women’s Amateur. Not just in a calendar year, ever. There has never been a repeat championship match in the U.S. Women’s Amateur from a duo that made the championship in the U.S. Girls’ Junior, too.
Rianne Malixi!! Birdies 18 to advance to the championship match.
First time in USGA history that there will be the same championship match in the U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Women’s Amateur ever, let alone the same year. History at Southern Hills pic.twitter.com/mZEsQdbCz1
Malixi, a Duke commit, is now 11-0 in USGA match play events, and she’s on the verge of becoming the second player ever to win the U.S. Girls’ Junior and the U.S. Women’s Amateur in the same year. She topped rising Arkansas senior Kendall Todd 1 up after birdies to win the 17th and 18th holes.
Now, a historic final is on tap at Southern Hills.
One year after a runner-up finish, Duke commit Rianne Malixi cruised to an 8-and-7 victory in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship on Saturday.
Future Duke Blue Devil Rianne Malixi won the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship in stunning fashion on Saturday.
The 17-year-old defeated Asterisk Talley, a top-10 junior in the world, 8-and-7 for the largest margin of victory in the event’s history.
Malixi, a native of the Philippines, heartbreakingly lost this same event just one year ago, losing the 36-hole title match by a single hole to Kiara Romero.
“After that U.S. trip I just practiced a lot,” Malixi said in an Associated Press recap of her victory. “I spent a lot of hours training in Manila. I sacrificed a lot of my social time, school time.”
This year, she finished in a tie for second during the two-round stroke play portion to again qualify for the match play bracket.
After advancing through the bracket, the title match felt like a watershed battle ahead of the first tee shots. Malixi, the 17th-ranked junior girl in the AJGA Rankings, stared down Talley, who had worked her way up to seventh in the rankings despite being a Class of 2027 prospect.
Instead, Malixi got her revenge on the event early and often. After the duo split the first four holes, Malixi won the fifth, sixth, and eighth holes before winning five in a row from 10-14. She ended the opening round with a 6-up lead and never led by a smaller margin during the second round.
In the morning 18, she was the equivalent of 9-under 62.
Rianne Malixi had to live with the sting of a heartbreaking championship-match loss in the U.S. Girls’ Junior for 363 days. However, the motivation over the last year paid off.
Malixi won the 2024 U.S. Girls’ Junior on Saturday, a year after her runner-up finish in the event. She beat Asterisk Talley in the final at El Caballero in California. Malixi’s impressive 8-and-7 victory over the 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball champion was the largest in championship history.
“It’s hard for me to comprehend right now because everything just came in so quickly,” Malixi said. “I know being USGA champion means a lot. Being able to do that is a huge honor for me and I’m very grateful.”
Malixi, 17, lost to Kiara Romero 1 down last year in Colorado, but in this year’s championship, she made 14 birdies over 29 holes. In the morning 18, she was the equivalent of 9-under 62.
“It was such a heartbreak last year because I was so close,” Malixi said. “After that U.S. trip I just practiced a lot. I spent a lot of hours training in Manila. I sacrificed a lot of my social time, school time. Not only me, but my dad (Roy) also sacrificed a lot of time for me just to accompany me. My family had their share [of sacrifices] and I’m just really grateful for everything.”
Malixi will receive a sponsor exemption into the LPGA’s JM Eagle LA Championship that will be held at El Caballero C.C. next year due to renovations going on at nearby Wilshire C.C. She also has a likely invite to the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
She was lining up a putt on the 18th hole of Eisenhower Golf Club in Colorado Springs, Colorado. A make, she would win the U.S. Girls’ Junior. A miss, her opponent, Rianne Malixi, could force extra holes.
Romero didn’t give Malixi the chance.
She drained the putt, halving the hole and winning the match 1 up to capture the 74th U.S. Girls’ Junior title. The 17-year-old incoming freshman at Oregon made only one birdie in the afternoon session of the 36-hole final, but she also had only one bogey, shooting even-par to outlast Malixi, 16, to win the title and raise the Glenna Collett Vare Trophy.
“I don’t think it has really sunk in yet,” Romero said. “I kept coming up a little short, but I continued to grind and I’m glad to get it done this time.”
With the victory, Romero also gets exemptions into the 2023 and 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateurs, the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open and 2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
Rianne Mikhaela Malixi, left, and Kiara Romero pose with the Glenna Collett Vare Trophy before the final match of the 2023 U.S. Girls’ Junior at United States Air Force Academy Eisenhower Golf Club (Blue Course) in Colorado Springs, Colo. on Saturday, July 22, 2023. (Kathryn Riley/USGA)
Romero finished third in the stroke-play portion and knocked out 2022 runner-up Gianna Clemente in the semifinals. Last year, Clemente topped Romero in the Round of 16.
Malixi, from the Philippines, won the first hole and maintained her lead until the 22nd when she made a bogey. She was stellar on par 3s all week, but a bogey on the par-3 13th, the 31st hole, gave Romero a 1 up lead with five to play, and the duo halved the remaining holes.
The championship was the first in USGA history to be contested on a military base.
