Megha Ganne’s superpower made her U.S. Women’s Amateur dreams reality

It was in Megha Ganne’s head from the moment she woke Sunday morning ahead of her U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship match at Bandon Dunes against Brooke Biermann.

In all honesty, the Robert Cox Trophy has been there for more than half a decade, since Ganne burst onto the U.S. Women’s Amateur scene as a 15-year-old in 2019 when she lost to Albane Valenzuela in 19 holes in the semifinals. Two years later, at the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open, Ganne, then 17, shared the 18-hole lead with Mel Reid and eventually finished in a tie for 14th place.

Megha Ganne was seemingly destined to lift a USGA trophy.

After mounting a massive comeback in Saturday’s semifinal match against Australian Ella Scaysbrook — Ganne was four down with seven holes to play — Ganne, the 11th-ranked women’s amateur in the world, had the opportunity Sunday to finally achieve her USGA dreams.

That thought never left her mind, even as she tried to block it out along the Oregon Coast as she battled Biermann.

“I’m not going to lie,” Ganne said after the match. “I was thinking about this trophy the entire day which makes it really distracting to play golf.”

If she was distracted, the rising Stanford senior didn’t show it.

She never trailed Sunday against Biermann, a 22-year-old Michigan State graduate. Ganne and Biermann each won three holes to start the 36-hole match and were all square through 11. But Ganne rattled off three wins in a row on holes 12-14 — thanks to some sloppy play from Biermann — and never looked back.

Ganne led by three at the 18-hole break and won the first hole of the evening session to go four up.

Every time Biermann cut Ganne’s lead to three, she immediately pushed it back to four.

Biermann had a 20-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole (the 32nd of the match) to cut Ganne’s lead to two with four to play. But she left it short and then missed the par putt to go down four with four to play. Ganne two-putted for par on the 15th hole to put away Biermann and hoist the trophy she has long coveted after a 4&3 win.

“Brooke didn’t make it easy on me. She showed so much fight,” Ganne said. “This is likely my last Women’s Amateur, and I really, really wanted to get this done.”

Ganne’s talent has been well-documented. Her game is world-class, but it’s her true separator that won her the week in Bandon and will help her when she chases her pro aspirations: her mental fortitude and resolve.

On Saturday, as Ganne fell down to Scaysbrook and her U.S. Women’s Amateur hopes dwindled, the star from New Jersey went to a different place mentally to start digging herself out of a hole that could have doomed her dreams. For Ganne, the focus was on keeping her head down and executing the next shot, not letting her mind wander to the bigger task of erasing a four-hole lead with seven to play.

“I think something that I’ve been trying to work on is not to like really buy into the whole momentum thing. Momentum is something you create in your head,” Ganne said on Saturday after beating Scaysbrook in 19 holes. “I think like not relying on that feeling and just knowing that — like you don’t tell yourself a story. All you need to do is just go hit good shots and something will happen for you if it’s meant to be. Today was meant to be.”

On Sunday, with a 36-hole march against Biermann in front of her, Ganne once again used a mental trick to steel her mind in order to achieve a lifelong dream.

“I just tried to play the first 18 like I was [only] playing the golf course,” Ganne said while holding the trophy. “I knew the match probably wouldn’t get started until the second round, so just learning as much as I could about the course on the first go round with these pins, and then was able to take advantage and play just really solid golf on the second 18.

“I can’t believe that I’m standing here right now.”

As the sun set on the Oregon Coast, a scene unfolded from a story, this one she had undoubtedly told herself countless times as she beat balls into the air, trying to make it a reality.

There was Megha Ganne holding the Robert Cox Trophy, finally a U.S. Women’s Amateur champion.