Megha performance: Ganne adds US Women’s Amateur to already stellar résumé

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[PHOTO: Tom Hauck]

The transition from wunderkind to bona fide amateur and college star has been seamless for Megha Ganne, who continues to burnish her reputation on the biggest stages in women’s golf, this time with a victory in the 125th US Women’s Amateur at Bandon Dunes.

RELATED: Ella Scaysbrook’s fairytale run ends in Oregon

Ganne, 21, and soon to be a senior at Stanford University, defeated former Michigan State golfer Brooke Biermann, 4&3, in the 36-hole final in Bandon, Oregon. Ganne had earlier beaten Australia’s Ella Scaysbrook a semi-final that required extra holes.

“I can’t believe I’m standing here now,” Ganne said. “I’m not going to lie, I was thinking about this trophy the entire day, which makes it distracting to play golf. And Brooke did not make it easy on me. She’s an incredible competitor. She showed so much fight. Congratulations to her and her family on an incredible week.

“I just tried to play the first 18 like I was playing the golf course and knew the match probably wouldn’t get started until the second round, so learning as much as I could about the course in the first go-round with these pins, and was able to take advantage and play just really solid golf in the second 18.”

In 2021, when only 17 and still a high-school student, the New Jersey player formally introduced herself to the greater golf world with a memorable performance in the US Women’s Open. She shared the first-round lead at the Olympic Club, eventually finished in a tie for 14th, and was the low amateur in the field.

Since then, she has played on a national championship team at Stanford, twice been a first-team All-American, won two individual college events, been a member of a US Curtis Cup team, and at the outset of this US Women’s Amateur was 11th in the women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking. Moreover, this was her 15th appearance in a USGA event, her seventh in the Women’s Amateur.

“It’s so much harder than it seems to win one of these,” Ganne said, “and it takes not only a lot of patience, tries at it, but so many things working in your favour: good health, good luck, good fortune and good timing. All those things coming together just feels like it’s fate. “But this is something that has been an individual goal of mine since the I was a little kid. I’ve hit so many putts in my basement pretending that it was to win a US Open or US Amateur or US Junior. To actually have that putt is surreal.”

On a typically breezy day on the Oregon coast, Ganne took control of the final match reasonably early, winning three straight holes, the 12th to 14th of the opening 18, with three straight pars to her opponent’s three consecutive bogeys. For the rest of the match, Ganne’s lead never fell below 3 up. She closed out the match with a two-putt par on the par-3 33rd hole.

It was a substantially easier match, far less dramatic, than she had encountered in the semi-finals a day earlier. She was 4 down through 11 holes to Scaysbrook but rallied to square the match, then won on the 19th hole. Scaysbrook’s consolation is an exemption into next year’s US Women’s Amateur.

Both finallists earned exemptions into the 2026 US Women’s Open at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, though Biermann, the runner-up, would have to remain an amateur to use the exemption. She reportedly intends to turn professional.

“Megha is a great player, so I just tried to stay in my own thoughts, and unfortunately the putter went cold today,” Biermann said. “But overall, I felt like I gave it my all and I had a blast out here. What a beautiful place to play in a finals match. I feel like this taught me a lot about myself, how I can push through adversity and under pressure and made a lot of great putts. So this was a great week and a lot of learning experiences that I’ll take with me.”