Maria Jose Marin’s quest to turn into the primary medalist to win the U.S. Girls’s Novice in 16 years got here to a painful ending on Saturday morning at Southern Hills.
Marin, a rising sophomore at Arkansas and Colombia native, was compelled to concede her semifinal match towards 15-year-old Asterisk Talley due to an obvious left-leg damage. Marin was simply 1 down by way of 14 holes when she withdrew.
Marin first confirmed indicators of damage when she fell to the bottom shortly after hitting her second shot on the par-5 thirteenth gap. She obtained medical remedy, together with having her left knee taped up, earlier than persevering with play. She tied the outlet with bogey, however she needed to have extra work executed to her knee on the subsequent tee field. Images confirmed Marin laying down on a bench and holding a towel over her face whereas medical personnel tended to her.
She gutted out one other tie, solely to concede the match a gap later after slicing her tee shot behind a tree.
“It prolonged greater than it ought to and damage actually unhealthy,” Marin mentioned. “Like one thing wasn’t damaged, however like one thing was unsuitable there. I simply went to the bottom and couldn’t transfer. It’s in fact painful as a result of I needed to be within the finals so badly. And after getting up to now, I knew I used to be able to doing one thing higher. However I checked out my dad [and caddie] and simply mentioned ‘I can’t. I can’t do that anymore.’ And he was like, ‘OK, simply maintain your self.’”
Amanda Blumenherst stays most up-to-date U.S. Girls’s Novice champion to additionally elevate the Robert Cox trophy, changing into the seventh to take action in 2008.
Talley superior to the 36-hole last, set to start Saturday afternoon and wrap up Sunday morning due to impending climate. She’ll face one other high-schooler, Philippines’ Rianne Malixi, who final month beat Talley, 8 and seven, within the championship match of the U.S. Women’ Junior. Malixi downed Marin’s Arkansas teammate Kendall Todd within the different semifinal, 1 up, after by no means main within the match previous to profitable the 18th gap.
