By Rich Chrampanis
How was your summer vacation?
If Megha Ganne has to write an essay next month at Holmdel High School, she’s going to have one heck of a story to tell. After competing in the U.S. Women’s Open in June in Charleston, South Carolina, Ganne went back to the junior ranks where she finished sixth in the Junior PGA championship and 33rd in the U.S. Girls Championship.
The summer slate culminated with an amazing run at the U.S. Women’s Amateur in West Point, Mississippi, reaching the semi-finals in a tournament that featured some of the top college players in the country.
Playing 72 holes of championship golf is always a daunting task, but one could argue that the format of the U.S. Women’s Amateur is an even tougher gauntlet. First Ganne had to play 36 holes, shooting 73 both times to earn the No. 48 seed in the 64-player field. She was the youngest player to reach the match play stage. That alone is an astounding feat, but it was just the beginning of a remarkable performance.
Ganne made headlines when she upset Gina Kim, a Duke sophomore who was the low amateur at the U.S. Women’s Open with a 1-up victory. From there the Holmdel sophomore came up with back-to-back extra hole victories to reach the quar terminals.
A 3 and 2 win over California golfer Caroline Canales earned Ganne a spot in the semifinals and a show- down with Switzerland’s Albane Valenzuela, a rising senior at Stanford University. Ganne was two holes down with five to play before stringing together two tremendous shots to draw even. She followed a 12-foot eagle putt on the 14th hole after driving the green with a tricky pitch from pinestraw that nearly holed out for another eagle on the 15th that led to a birdie.
“That was probably the highlight of my week just because that’s what you play these events for,” Ganne said following her semifinal match. “Pars are nice, but when you get under pressure and people are watching and you’re in a match and you’re down and you pull off just two incredible shots like that, it really just feels good, and you can hold on to those memories for a long time.”
Ganne would rally one more time with a birdie on 18 to force extra holes, but Valenzuela would avoid the upset to oust the high schooler and end a magical run with a win on the 19th hole. To put things in perspective, Ganne went toe-to-toe with the current No. 5 ranked amateur in the world and an Olympian who finished 21st in the 2016 Summer Games.
Ganne came into the U.S. Women’s Amateur with a world ranking of 541. That number will skyrocket after her performance in Mississippi.
Her summer proved she is not a golfer who had a flash-in-the-pan result but instead is on the doorstep of becoming a future LPGA tour member who has the makeup to be a major champion. Ganne is already counting down the days until she’s back at the U.S. Women’s Amateur.
“I’m ready to be back here again and I’m ready to go to the final and win it in the coming years,” Ganne said. “I know that I have everything it takes. I’ve just got to test my game against really good players like Gina Kim in (the round of) 64 and Albane, and I got to compare and see where they’re better and where I’m not, and I’m ready to work on those this winter and I’ll be back next year.”
