What a week it’s been for Stanford rising senior Megha Ganne, who won the 2025 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon, Ore. on Sunday, Aug. 10.
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Welcome back to Golf Thursday, everyone.
Megha Ganne was tied for tenth place after the stroke play portion of the 2025 U.S. Women’s Amateur at the Bandon Dunes Course. But that’s not what matters in this contest, is it? You just have to make the cut, and then you need to rely on match play strategy to top the bracket of 64 golfers.
Ganne is no stranger to match play. With Stanford’s success in NCAA Division I National Championship match play, she’s used to playing a more calculated, competitive form of golf. When Stanford won the National Championship in 2024, Ganne’s individual match play record was 2-0, and even in Stanford’s loss this year to Northwestern, Ganne went 2-0-1. She’s got experience one-on-one.
And Ganne was finally able to show that match play grit in this year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur. When she was 15, she made a semifinal run in the U.S. Women’s Amateur, but this year—in her seventh showing—she was able to get it done.
Ganne started her match play run in the round of 64 with a 2 and 1 win over Kaleiya Romero. She never saw herself down in that match, as she retained a lead from the fifth hole on to the 17th, where the match ended with Ganne 2-up.
In the round of 32, the 21-year-old from New Jersey battled teen phenom Anna Davis, who won the 2022 Augusta National Women’s Amateur at only 16 years old. Again, Ganne barely saw herself behind, as she only tailed 1-down on the third hole. She quickly won the fourth and fifth holes with pars on each to go 1-up in the match. Davis squared the match again on the par-4 eighth with a birdie, but Ganne punched back with a birdie of her own on the par-4 ninth.
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And Ganne never looked back. She soared home to a 3-up finish and took down the 19-year-old to get to the round of 16, where she then bested Kary Hollenbaugh 2 and 1.
Ganne was finally the underdog when the quarterfinals came. She faced No. 3 seed Ella Galitsky, who is ranked No. 6 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. But Ganne showed no signs of being the lower seed; she went 1-up on Galitsky on the fourth hole and led the rest of the match.
All of this “being in the lead” was finally challenged in Ganne’s semifinal match against Australia’s Ella Scaysbrook. Ganne rallied from 4-down through 11 holes to push the match to an extra hole, which she won. The 1-up match victory sent her to her first U.S. Women’s Amateur final.
This semifinal match was a fight, to say the least. And players like Ganne are exactly the type of players that make it to the finals — the ones who not only continue to play well when they’re on a roll, but who also rebound when they find themselves behind. Ganne’s place in the final match of the 81st U.S. Women’s Amateur was well earned.
And so the final 36-hole match against Michigan State grad Brooke Biermann came, and Ganne sped out the gate. She quickly saw a 2-up lead after three holes. Then, some back and forth led to a square match through No. 11. Ganne carded a solid par to Biermann’s bogey on No. 12 to start her string of wins, though. At the end of the first 18 holes, Ganne led the match 3-up.
Ganne kept perfect control through the rest of the final match, and it was quite impressive. There was no letting up from her, as she birdied the first hole of the second 18 to go 4-up in the match. Biermann was never able to get the match any closer than 3-up to Ganne. By the 33rd hole, Ganne had won the match 4-up.
“It’s so crazy,” Ganne said of the moment in a post-win press conference on Sunday, Aug. 10. “It’s so much harder than it seems to win one of these, and it takes not only, like, a lot of patience, tries at it, but so many things working in your favor: good health, good luck, good fortune, and good timing. All those things coming together just feels like it’s fate.”
The win is a notable individual win for Ganne, as she has performed well on the amateur stage, including a low amateur finish at the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open, but just hasn’t gotten the job done like this before. Her match against Lottie Woad in Stanford’s 2024 National Championship, though, was definitely crucial to her recent success.
“Yeah, I think my match against Lottie gave me a lot of personal confidence. To see her doing so well on Tour now and knowing my game was right there with hers was a huge confidence booster for me this week,” Ganne said.
Ganne’s win is a sure sign of what we already knew was a fantastic amateur career. We just needed the cherry on top. And when Ganne likely considers going professional, this win will be remembered right alongside Woad’s 2024 Augusta National Women’s Amateur win. These young talents just keep getting better and better, don’t they?
See you next week, golf fans.
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Five at The IX: Looking ahead to the Portland Classic
Defending champion Moriya Jutanugarn’s pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025
THE MODERATOR: All right, here ahead of the Standard Portland Classic. Back to defend your title. Talk about last year and all the memories you have playing the practice round and being back here.
MORIYA JUTANUGARN: Well, this is my first practice round today, and it’s been, you know, like it’s always felt great to come back here. Like I love this place. You know, especially like Portland is a lot of fun things to do.
Course is in the great shape. You know, it’s a nice like place to come back. There is a lot of memories.
Q. And you have the win but you also have a lot of good finishes here. What about this course or this place really suits your game?
MJ: I don’t know. I find like this golf course is not like wide open or like you have to like bombed it everywhere. You have to kind of hit different clubs off the tees. I think that’s what is kind of fun about this golf course.
Q. Can you talk about your season and where your game is on the right now.
MJ: I got a little bit, like, pretty good start in the season and then not quite like great the last few months. But then I guess, like, you know, it’s like, part of the golfer, you know, players, you kind of have to work through something during the season. I know, there is always like something that you have to like working on.
Q. Is there anything specifically that you worked on heading into this week?
MJ: Not much. In general, just kind of keep it simple as much as I can like before the tournament start.
Q. And then last one. Do you have any goals or anything, maybe some objectives you’re trying to hit this week?
MJ: Not really. My goal is just come out there and just enjoying the moment and like being present as much as I can. You know, like it’s a good place. Like, why don’t you enjoy it?
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