Holmdel’s Ganne Looks Forward to Golfing Future

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Ganne finished in a tie for 14th at the U.S. Women’s Open, finishing 3 over par. Darren Carroll / USGA

By Allison Perrine

HOLMDEL – Holmdel’s Megha Ganne is a 17-year-old taking the golf world by storm. But to her, she’s just doing what she loves.

“I don’t think I think about all of that,” said Ganne, who recently won low amateur at this year’s U.S. Women’s Open and finished in a tie for 14th place, ending 3 over par. “I don’t take golf super seriously and I look at it like a game, which is something I think a lot of high-level players forget. My goal is always to enjoy myself and then worry about winning.”

Ganne, originally from Jersey City, is now a junior Holmdel High School student. She first picked up a golf club at age 7 at a girls’ golf program. That’s when she fell in love with the sport. “I love that no two rounds are the same and how challenging the sport is, physically and mentally,” Ganne told The Two River Times. By the age of 10, she knew she wanted to play in college and possibly beyond. “It was just so fun when I started and I just never stopped.”

Getting to this point in her career did not come without practice. For years, Ganne has spent every day in the summer, fall and spring seasons practicing for three to five hours per session. In the winter, she takes a break and is sometimes able to get out to the mountains to ski or play tennis, and spend more time with friends and family. Her golf instructor Katie Rudolph has been with her since she was 7 and, along with her parents and sister, has been highly influential in her progress, making her believe “from Day One” that Ganne could play in events like the U.S. Women’s Open.

That dream again became a reality this May when Ganne won a three-person playoff in Spring Lake and earned a spot in the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, California, as an amateur. She went on to open the tournament June 3 with a 67, followed by a 71 in the second round, 72 in the third round and a 77 in the fourth and final round, finishing as the low amateur of 30 competitors in the field that weekend.

Ganne has qualified for two U.S. Women’s Opens. She played in the 2019 tournament in Charleston and now the 2021 event out west.
Kathryn Riley / USGA

“I was really excited to just qualify,” said Ganne. And with the experience of having played in the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open, she felt “surprisingly prepared” for the tournament. “I was playing really well coming into it so I kind of had a feeling in the back of my mind that it might go well,” she said. “While I was playing, I was pretty calm throughout it, but the adrenaline was high and I was just enjoying myself.”

Showing love to her fans, Ganne said those in attendance during the tournament made the experience better than she could have imagined. Golf has also given her new friends and the opportunity to play sports at the collegiate level; she has committed to her dream school, Stanford University, for fall 2022, where she will play golf. Already knowing her future teammates and coaches, Ganne said she is looking forward to this next step. “The program is doing well and has been for a long time,” she said. “It’s a great school and I’m really lucky I get to go there.”

And while she is not sure what she will major in yet, she’s hopeful that golf is somewhere in the picture for her in her future. 

“It’s cool to represent females in a sport that’s male-dominated,” she added. “Hopefully there’s some females that pick up the sport after watching (the U.S. Women’s Open).”

The article originally appeared in the July 8 – 14, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.