“It's crazy just knowing that I'm on the [U.S. National Junior] Team and now I'm a [USGA] champion,” said Talley. “I don't know how to explain it. It's just super crazy. I'm speechless about it.

“It's been a crazy year already and we're not even halfway through. I'm just excited for what's to come, and I'm not going to let this [title] overcome my thoughts. I'm just going to keep practicing and working hard.”

Lim, who has verbally committed to attend Princeton University in 2025, doesn’t possess the same golf résumé, but the No. 2,454 player in the WAGR did post a pair of fifth-place finishes in AJGA events prior to the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball. Living three hours from each other, the two became friends from sharing the same coach, Mike Schy, the longtime instructor to two-time USGA champion Bryson DeChambeau, and by playing in the same junior tournaments. It was Lim who first contacted Talley last year about trying to qualify.

“We came here to win, but it's kind of crazy that we actually won,” said Lim. “We play our local [Northern California] tournaments. Just from there on [we had a partnership].”  

Qualifying won’t be in their future as both are now exempt into the 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., and the U.S. Girls’ Junior at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif., as well as the next 10 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Balls.

While the birdies didn’t accumulate in the final, they made enough to secure the title.

After going 1 down on the second hole when Kort drained a 30-footer from the fringe, Lim answered with a 25-footer of her own on No. 6 to tie the match.

The battle then turned on the par-4 seventh green. Kort had picked up her ball after missing a par putt. With Lim and Talley already in with a 4, McGovern missed her birdie attempt. Lim and Talley had left the green at this point, and McGovern, a 2024 Texas Christian University signee, thought she heard a concession call by her opponents. When she picked up, Lim’s father/caddie, James Lim, alerted a Rules official of the faux pas.

A breach of Rule 9-4 turned into a loss-of-hole situation for McGovern and Kort, who suddenly found themselves 1 down.

“I could have sworn I heard them say, ‘That's good,’” said Kort, who is No. 719 in the WAGR. “That was the biggest momentum switch.”

McGovern said it emotionally rattled the side, and they never recovered, despite the match having plenty of holes remaining.

“We just tried to stay positive,” said McGovern, the 2023 Heather Farr Classic champion who is No. 478 in the WAGR. “We tried to keep each other up. We still had fun out there.”

Talley got up and down for birdie from a greenside bunker on the 270-yard eighth hole, converting a 5-footer for a 2-up advantage. The status stayed that way until the 14th hole when Lim converted from 5 feet.

Both McGovern, a veteran of two U.S. Women’s Amateurs and a U.S. Girls’ Junior, and Kort, a 2025 Texas A&M verbal commit who was playing in her fourth USGA championship, had birdie putts from 9 and 8 feet on the par-5 15th, only to miss them both.

With Lim and Talley both inside 10 feet for birdie on No. 16, McGovern had to make her uphill 18-footer – Kort missed the green and the ensuing flop shot came up 3 feet short – to extend the match. When she missed, they conceded the birdie putts and the match.

Lim and Talley earned their place in the final with a 3-and-2 victory over Tennesseans Lauren Slatton, 17, of McMinnville, and Savannah Cherry, 18, of Brentwood.

After going extra holes in their three matches leading into the semis, Slatton, a 2025 verbal commitment to the University of Alabama-Birmingham, and Savannah Cherry, a 2024 High Point University signee, struggled early with bogeys on four of the first nine holes to go 5 down at the turn. That deficit proved to be too difficult, even though they birdied Nos. 14 and 15 to trim the deficit to three holes.

“I don't think we played badly,” said Slatton. “I just think we didn't prepare enough. If we would have hit the range a little earlier, I think some of those bogeys would have been avoidable.”

Sydney Hackett, 19, of Ashburn, Va., and Melanie Walker, 20, of Burke, Va., also got out of the starting gate slow with consecutive bogeys in their 2-and-1 semifinal loss to Kort and McGovern. Even when the rising college juniors – Hackett at Western Kentucky and Walker at Missouri – got themselves back into the match on 12 and 13 to trim the deficit to 1 down, cold putters couldn’t complete the comeback.

What Champion Side Receives

- A gold medal
- Custody of the U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball Trophy for one year
- 10-year exemption from qualifying for U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball (provided side remains intact)
- Exemption for each player into 2024 U.S. Women's Amateur at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla.
- Exemptions into the 2024 U.S. Girls' Junior at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif.
- Their names inscribed on a plaque recognizing all 2024 USGA champions that will reside in the Hall of Champions at the USGA Golf Museum & Library in Liberty Corner, N.J. 

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