{"id":133365,"date":"2025-08-10T03:29:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T03:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/133365\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T03:29:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T03:29:09","slug":"megha-ganne-caps-dramatic-u-s-womens-amateur-semis-with-comeback-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/133365\/","title":{"rendered":"Megha Ganne caps dramatic U.S. Women’s Amateur semis with comeback performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

BANDON, Ore. \u2013 Megha Ganne loves performing. In grade school, she starred in over a dozen plays and musicals. Her most memorable roles included the Queen of Hearts in \u201cAlice in Wonderland\u201d and Pinocchio in \u201cShrek The Musical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a formative part of my childhood,\u201d Ganne said, \u201cbut I haven\u2019t done one since freshman year of high school.\u201d<\/p>\n

While competitive golf has put her acting ambitions on hold in recent years, it hasn\u2019t prevented her from producing great theatre on the course.<\/p>\n

Ganne\u2019s incredible comeback Saturday at Bandon Dunes was Tony-worthy.<\/p>\n

Four down with seven holes to play in her U.S. Women\u2019s Amateur semifinal match against Australia\u2019s Ella Scaysbrook, Ganne, a rising senior at Stanford, rallied to win in 19 holes to advance to her first championship match, where she will face Michigan State graduate Brooke Biermann in Sunday\u2019s 36-hole final.<\/p>\n

Biermann also needed one hole of overtime to defeat Kansas\u2019 Lyla Louderbaugh, which marked only the third time that both semifinals of this championship went to extras. The last occasion was 2018, 118 years after the first, the 1900 U.S. Women\u2019s Amateur at Shinnecock.<\/p>\n

Ganne isn\u2019t shy to admit her hopes had dwindled once Scaysbrook drained a 40-foot birdie putt at the par-4 11th hole to go 4 up. But she then tapped into her memory bank, specifically the 2019 U.S. Women\u2019s Amateur, the only other time she\u2019d advanced to the semifinals. Ganne was 15 years old, the youngest in the match-play field by four years, and facing then-Stanford senior Albane Valenzuela, who jumped out to an early 3-up lead on Ganne. Though she lost that day, Ganne fought back to extend the match to 19 holes. Since then, Ganne, now a seven-time U.S. Women\u2019s Amateur competitor, has dug out of similar holes and won.<\/p>\n

Ganne\u2019s message to herself while walking to the 12th tee: \u201cThere is no reason you should think bad of yourself right now. If you told yourself at 15 this is where you would be, you would be pretty proud of yourself. You\u2019re exactly the type of person that could make this happen right now. Let\u2019s just go do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scaysbrook certainly played a role in the ensuing drama. She left her second shot in a bunker at the par-3 12th and conceded that hole. Then she missed a 4-footer for birdie that lost her the par-5 13th. \u201cThat was the first putt I\u2019ve seen her miss all day,\u201d Ganne said. Two holes later, Scaysbrook\u2019s chip at the par-3 15th took an unfortunate bounce and rolled into the sand, causing the Aussie to concede another hole.<\/p>\n

Ganne tied it up on the par-4 17th, where Scaysbrook fanned her approach off the side of the cliff. Both competitors traded bogeys at the par-5 closing hole to send the match to the par-4 10th again.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"2025<\/p>\n

Brooke Biermann watches her tee shot at the 18th hole during the semifinals of the 2025 U.S. Women\u2019s Amateur at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon, Ore. on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. (Darren Carroll\/USGA)<\/p>\n

Darren Carroll\/USGA Museum<\/p>\n

Up ahead, Biermann and Louderbaugh were putting the finishing touches on their instant classic. Biermann led 3 up with four holes to play before Louderbaugh made par from the carry bunker at the short, par-4 16th, and then rolled in birdie putts of 15 and 25 feet, respectively, on the last two holes.<\/p>\n

But Louderbaugh\u2019s second shot into the shallow 10th green went long, and after she failed to make her par, she conceded the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing down the stretch, she threw everything she had, which was great golf, and with that, you just have to stay calm,\u201d said Biermann, who has now played three matches that have surpassed 18 holes.<\/p>\n

Biermann\u2019s extended run comes after she\u2019d failed to make the cut in her five previous USGA championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told my dad, I just need to get over that hurdle, and the hurdle was the cut,\u201d Biermann said. \u201cI know myself. I\u2019ve played in several match play events, and I\u2019ve gotten to the semifinals multiple times (most recently at the Women\u2019s Western Amateur last month). I love match play. Like that\u2019s where the fun begins. So, I believe that I could do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the first match wrapped, that paved the way for Ganne to eliminate Scaysbrook, who sailed her approach even longer than Louderbaugh on No. 10. Ganne didn\u2019t even have to stroke her birdie putt before the curtain fell on Scaysbrook.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll you need to do is just go hit good shots and something will happen for you if it\u2019s meant to be,\u201d Ganne said. \u201cToday was meant to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

All that\u2019s left to play out now is Sunday\u2019s final act:<\/p>\n

History for Ganne, or tragedy?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BANDON, Ore. \u2013 Megha Ganne loves performing. In grade school, she starred in over a dozen plays and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":133366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[1430,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-133365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115002354381738516","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}