Ganne says she\u2019s excited for what\u2019s next and is embracing the unfamiliar.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been saying this over and over again,\u201d Ganne said. \u201cBut I think just being comfortable being uncomfortable is going to be my goal for the next 12 to 18 months here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ganne first played in the U.S. Women\u2019s Open as a 15-year-old in 2019, missing the cut at the Country Club of Charleston, but her low-amateur finish in 2021 propelled her into the limelight and was a launching point for the New Jersey native. She fulfilled a dream with that performance, but her best days were ahead. Ganne was part of the winning U.S. Curtis Cup team at Merion in 2022. When she enrolled at Stanford in the fall of \u201922, she was the No. 1 junior player in the world.<\/p>\n
While she didn\u2019t win any tournaments as a freshman, she earned Pac-12 Freshman of the Year honors. As a sophomore, she won the first of her three collegiate titles, the Carmel Cup, during Stanford\u2019s march to the national title.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cLife goes on. Then you wake up the next day and go practice and do really well at the next event you play.\u201d \u2013 Megha Ganne<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Last August, Ganne won the U.S. Women\u2019s Amateur at Bandon Dunes, defeating Brooke Biermann, 4 and 3, in the final. But injuries earlier this year prompted her to sit out of multiple college events leading up to the Augusta National Women\u2019s Amateur in April, where she made a record sixth appearance.<\/p>\n
Following the inactivity, Ganne missed the cut and beat only six players in the 72-player field. Still, Ganne had been curious about what her reaction would be to playing poorly in a big tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt ANWA I learned the answer,\u201d Ganne said. \u201cAnd the answer is absolutely nothing. Life goes on. Then you wake up the next day and go practice and do really well at the next event you play.\u201d<\/p>\n
More importantly, Ganne didn\u2019t want to waste what time she had left with her Stanford teammates.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2277881946.jpg\")
Stanford teammate Andrea Revuelta (left) celebrates with Ganne on May 27 after the Cardinal won the NCAA Division I Women\u2019s Golf Championship. C. Morgan Engel, NCAA Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the moments with the teammates are irreplaceable,\u201d Ganne said. \u201cMoments in the locker room, I found myself lingering after practice for 30 more minutes or trying to get more meals together knowing that me and Kelly [Xu] were leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n
During last week\u2019s NCAA Championship at Omni La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, California, Ganne made the most of her remaining time. She finished runner-up to the University of Texas\u2019 Farah O\u2019Keefe in stroke play before winning all three of her matches on the way to the national title. On Wednesday, Ganne was named the recipient of the 2026 Inkster Award\u00a0as the highest-ranked women\u2019s Division I collegiate golfer in her final year of eligibility, earning her a sponsor invitation to the LPGA\u2019s Standard Portland Classic in August among other benefits.<\/p>\n
As Ganne makes her pro debut in what will be her fifth major and fourth U.S. Women\u2019s Open, she will lean on advice from LPGA Hall of Famer Lydia Ko, winner of three majors among 23 LPGA titles. Ganne said Ko has been practicing at Stanford and has been a great resource for the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get to play golf with [Ko] sometimes, and we look at our golf games and there is nothing too glaring,\u201d Ganne said. \u201cBeing a professional is about the little stuff and the stuff you can\u2019t really see, like invisible little details, and that stuff comes with experience, time, maturity, and having a good team around you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI think that was probably some of the hardest bit for me when I turned pro, playing all year pretty much. But that\u2019s something that you\u2019ve got to learn and pretty much try and listen to your body. I think that\u2019s the best way to have a sustainable, long career.\u201d \u2013 Lydia Ko<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Ko, who watched Stanford during the stroke-play rounds of the national championship, said the time she spent with the team gave her an inside look into the college golf experience since she never played herself. She\u2019s impressed by athletes like Ganne who are able to balance schoolwork while being successful in golf. And at the next level, with the busy schedule of a professional, finding a balance is critical.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that was probably some of the hardest bit for me when I turned pro, playing all year pretty much,\u201d Ko said. \u201cBut that\u2019s something that you\u2019ve got to learn and pretty much try and listen to your body. I think that\u2019s the best way to have a sustainable, long career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ganne isn\u2019t the only member of Stanford\u2019s national championship team in the field this week. Teammates Meja \u00d6rtengren and Paula Mart\u00edn Sampedro are also competing at Riviera. Sampedro, No. 2 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, will start her senior year at Stanford in the fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all I\u2019m very sad that [Ganne\u2019s] leaving because I\u2019ve been at Stanford for three years and she\u2019s been there since the very first day,\u201d Sampedro said. \u201cI don\u2019t know that place without her, so we\u2019ll definitely miss her a lot next year. But I\u2019m super pumped for her to make her pro debut here; I don\u2019t think it can get a lot better than the U.S. [Women\u2019s] Open. Hopefully I\u2019ll be with her soon on tour.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Ganne was asked about what she would tell her 17-year-old self if she could go back to 2021, she said she\u2019d probably tell herself the same thing that she tells herself now that she\u2019s starting her pro career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like I was on top of the world [after winning low amateur], but I guess it just keeps getting better,\u201d Ganne said. \u201cAnd this journey is long and there are ups and downs, but your best days are still ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 Global Golf Post LLC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Megha Ganne during a practice round before the U.S. Women\u2019s Open at Riviera Country Club. Kathryn Riley,\u00a0 Courtesy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[44,3606,144,1844,4116,164],"class_list":["post-14919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-golf","tag-megha-ganne","tag-pga-tour","tag-stanford","tag-u-s-womens-open","tag-usga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/26USWO_0601_10023620_KHR14845-1300x973.jpg\")
Megha Ganne during a practice round before the U.S. Women\u2019s Open at Riviera Country Club. Kathryn Riley,\u00a0 Courtesy USGA<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GGP-1000x600-1-700x420.jpg\")
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