The sisters leading at Augusta National, Megha Ganne’s side quest | Rogers Report

Hello friends and happy Friday from Augusta National Golf Club! I’m writing to you all from the media center while the competitors in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur play a practice round ahead of the final round on Saturday. This set up has made me very pro “break in the middle of a golf tournament.” I think all events should have a day off in the middle. It gives the players a chance to reset and it gives me a chance to chill a bit during long stretches on the road. A total win-win if you ask me.

The second round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur at Champions Retreat was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. It felt like the golf version of college acceptance day. I heard a bunch of gals cheering “I got in!” as they hugged their parents after sneaking into the cut line while other girls held back tears after learning they had missed the cut. A dozen or so of the girls hung around scoring and waited to learn the fate of their college teammates and friends, and you could immediately tell who had earned the opportunity to compete at Augusta National on Saturday just by looking at the expressions on their faces. My incredibly talented coworker and pal Emma Devine perfectly captured all of the emotion in the video below.

And as promised, here’s what we were up to on Thursday in Augusta.

I had the loveliest Friday morning known to man today when I arrived at the media center, had a quick breakfast and then headed out to the range to watch Gianna Clemente and a few others warm up for their practice rounds at Augusta. I felt like I had the entire place to myself as my coworker Emma and I were two of four patrons in the seats behind the range. Talk about the perfect spot for me to enjoy my iced latte!

The Romero sisters

Attention, readers! The Scoop effect is still in full force and I would like to take the next few minutes of your time to tell you all about how incredible these women are.

I got to learn a lot about Kiara Romero and Lottie Woad during our time together earlier this week, and I’m a massive fan of both of them. Romero has her sister, Kaleiya, on her bag this week and here’s what she had to say about their relationship:

“We’re really close. She played at Pepperdine and graduated this last spring and joined the Ducks to be our grad assistant this year. She’s been helping out a lot and our assistant coach is having a baby so she’s kind of traveling, like, to every tournament this spring… I think she really understands the player I am. I mean we grew up playing golf together. She started when she was like eight or nine, and I started when I was like six, so I kind of learned based off of her. So she’s kind of seen me play golf all growing up, so she knows the way I am, and just the kind of mindset I like to have out there, so I think it’ll be really good.”

Kiara, I can confirm that it’s been really good to have your sister with you this week. What a special experience for the Romero family. The fact that Kaleiya graduated and then headed to Oregon to join her sister is so fun. I often wish that my sister worked in golf so that we could hang out more, so it’s safe to say I’m insanely jealous of the Romero sisters. What a special memory they’re creating at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur this week.

Megha Ganne’s other passion

Megha Ganne is just one shot off the lead at Augusta National, and this week I learned that she has a unique passion outside of golf: acting.

Ganne took me through (a very busy!) day in her life at Stanford University, and she opened up about her plans to take a handful of theater classes next year.

“Workouts, 7 to 8 a.m., so waking up at like 6:20 probably. And then I have class from like 9 a.m. to like, 2:30 or maybe 2:00 with some 10 minute breaks in between. And then I have practice, I practice for probably like three hours a day, so I’ll squeeze that in somewhere, whether it’s morning or afternoon. And then, I’ll finish up right around when sunset, and then I’ll just do homework and study and stuff. Sometimes I don’t do any work at all, and then some days I’ll just skip golf and study for like four or five hours… but I’m pretty much done with my major now, which is very exciting. So my senior year, I’m trying to take a lot of theater classes. I used to do a lot of theater in like middle school, high school… I’ve been in a bunch of musicals… It’s a passion of mine. Just acting classes, or different drama classes. I’m an STS major, which is science, technology and society. And then I’m on a data science track.”

This kind of sounds like the women’s golf version of “High School Musical,” and I’m all here for it. Good luck to Ganne in those Stanford drama and acting classes next year!

ANWA’ sweetest moments

Just in case you needed another reason to love the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, take a look at the sweetest moments of the week so far.

If moments like these don’t pull at your heartstrings, I don’t know what will.