Editor's note: Golfweek's Cameron Jourdan is following all the action from The Honors Course. You can follow along on his social media (X/Twitter, Instagram) and check out coverage from Friday afternoon.
OOLTEWAH, TN — Maggie Ma is 14 years old. She can't drive a car. She can't work regular adult hours. Even at The Honors Course, she can hardly keep up with how far her fellow competitors are hitting a golf ball.
Yet she's one of eight quarterfinalists at the 2026 U.S. Women's Amateur.
On Saturday morning, Ma knocked off 2026 U.S. Girls' Junior champion Clairey Lin in 19 holes. She holed out a bunker shot on the 18th hole to tie the match and then topped Lin on the 19th hole, and Ma's next challenge is Asterisk Talley, the 17-year-old phenom who
finished runner-up at this championship two years ago at Southern Hills.
Ma qualified for her first U.S. Women's Amateur after winning the California Women's Amateur earlier this summer. This week is her USGA championship debut, and at 14 years, 4 months and 18 days, she's the youngest player in the field. That hasn't stopped her from having a chance to win the oldest women's amateur championship in the world.
If Ma, from Irvine, California, were to win this week, she would be the youngest player to ever hoist the Robert Cox Trophy. She's a four-time AJGA winner, including earlier this summer at the Seri Pak Desert Junior.
Her biggest challenge awaits in Talley, who has dominated in her first three matches this week. But Ma, even small in stature and behind her peers in nearly every metric, hasn't let that stop her from winning three matches at The Honors Course this week.
Perhaps her incredible story can continue Saturday.
Cameron Jourdan is an assistant editor of Golfweek, covering college and amateur golf, the PGA Tour and plenty more. Follow Cameron on X/Twitter (@Cam_Jourdan) or Instagram (@GolfweekJourdan).
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Meet Maggie Ma, the 14-year-old making a run at the U.S. Women's Amateur
