Maria Jose Marin’s quest to become the first medalist to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 16 years came to a painful ending on Saturday morning at Southern Hills.
Marin, a rising sophomore at Arkansas and Colombia native, was forced to concede her semifinal match against 15-year-old Asterisk Talley because of an apparent left-leg injury. Marin was just 1 down through 14 holes when she withdrew.
Marin first showed signs of injury when she fell to the ground shortly after hitting her second shot on the par-5 13th hole. She received medical treatment, including having her left knee taped up, before continuing play. She tied the hole with bogey, but she had to have more work done to her knee on the next tee box. Photos showed Marin laying down on a bench and holding a towel over her face while medical personnel tended to her.
She gutted out another tie, only to concede the match a hole later after slicing her tee shot behind a tree.
“It extended more than it should and hurt really bad,” Marin said. “Like something wasn’t broken, but like something was wrong there. I just went to the ground and couldn’t move. It’s of course painful because I wanted to be in the finals so badly. And after getting to this point, I knew I was capable of doing something better. But I looked at my dad [and caddie] and just said ‘I can’t. I can’t do this anymore.’ And he was like, ‘OK, just take care of yourself.’”
Amanda Blumenherst remains most recent U.S. Women’s Amateur champion to also lift the Robert Cox trophy, becoming the seventh to do so in 2008.
Talley advanced to the 36-hole final, set to begin Saturday afternoon and wrap up Sunday morning because of impending weather. She’ll face another high-schooler, Philippines’ Rianne Malixi, who last month beat Talley, 8 and 7, in the championship match of the U.S. Girls’ Junior. Malixi downed Marin’s Arkansas teammate Kendall Todd in the other semifinal, 1 up, after never leading in the match prior to winning the 18th hole.