They’ve played a lot of golf this week at The Honors Course.
They’re going to play a lot more Sunday.
For four consecutive days, inclement weather has altered the 126th U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship. A three-hour rain delay halted Saturday afternoon’s semifinals after just a couple of holes, and both matches wound up reaching the midway mark before it became too dark Saturday night at the Ooltewah venue.
The semifinals will resume at 7 a.m. Sunday, with the 36-hole championship match to follow.
“I think it’s definitely going to be a mental test, but I think today was a good warmup for that,” Asterisk Talley said in a United States Golf Association release. “I think it’s going to just be whoever is kind of fatigued tomorrow, so it’s just kind of staying sharp out there and hopefully keeping the mistakes out of play.”
Talley, the world’s top-ranked junior golfer out of Chowchilla, California, was seeded third in the 64-player field following Wednesday’s conclusion of stroke play. The 17-year-old has a three-stroke lead through nine holes over 34th-seeded Lily Peng of San Ramon, California, who is also 17 years old and is a UCLA commitment.
Should Talley prevail over Peng, she would reach her second U.S. Women’s Amateur title match in three years, having lost the 2024 final in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Top-seeded Anna Iwanaga of Japan, yet another 17-year-old, leads 21-year-old and 44th-seeded Gabriella Nicastro by three strokes as well with nine holes remaining. Nicastro is from Huntsville, Alabama, and she is a rising senior at Samford University.
“It feels really good because I’m not the best at match play,” Nicastro said of her semifinal appearance in a USGA release. “I prefer stroke play, so it feels good to get that monkey off my back and win matches and just kind of keep that momentum going. I’m going to try and do that tomorrow, too.”
The Golf Channel is scheduled to televise the U.S. Women’s Amateur on Sunday, beginning at 3 p.m., which is when the second half of the 36-hole final is slated to start. Admission is free, and Chattanooga-area spectators are encouraged to attend.
Contact the Times Free Press sports staff at sports@timesfreepress.com.