AUGUSTA, Georgia — Maria Jose Marin of Colombia went from a tight battle with Asterisk Talley to a runaway winner in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, closing with a 4-under 68 for a victory made easier after the 17-year-old Talley collapsed on the back nine.
“It means the world to me,” Marin, who was crushed when she failed to make the 36-hole cut last year to play a final round at Augusta National, said according to AP.
Marin, a junior at Arkansas, becomes the third NCAA champion to win at the home of the Masters, following Jennifer Kupcho and Rose Zhang, and this one featured a shocker on the back nine.
Talley, who led by as many as three shots early, made her first bogey of the tournament on the tough par-4 11th, falling into a share of the lead with Marin.
And then it all came undone. Talley went long into a back bunker on the par-3 12th. She went at the right pin with a shot too strong, and the ball rolled off the front, down a slope and into the water. Talley decided to drop in the bunker, and did the same thing again.
Stunned, the California teenager took her next penalty drop on the other side of the water, pitched to about 8 feet and holed that for a quadruple-bogey 7.
In the group ahead, Marin reached the par-5 13th and two-putted for birdie to get to 14-under par, suddenly five shots ahead as Talley tried to regain her composure.
The last challenge for Marin came from Andrea Revuelta, who birdied Amen Corner to stay on the fringes of contention.
On the par-5 15th, Marin chose to lay up with a four-shot lead, but her third was well long, and her fourth shot up the slope went to the front of the green. She had 5 feet for bogey, while Revuelta had 8 feet for birdie.
Revuelta, who had reached the back collar of the green in two, missed and had to settle for par. Marin made her bogey putt to stay three ahead, and the 19-year-old Colombian hit her tee shot to about 6 feet for birdie on the 16th to put it away.
