In a recent issue of Golf Journal, Stanford University senior Megha Ganne described her journey to the top of the amateur ranks. The New Jersey native, who first qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open when she was just 15, won the 2025 U.S. Women’s Amateur in Brandon, Oregon, last August. “The U.S. Women’s Amateur is so hard to win,” she writes. “I’ve played it seven times. The nature of match play is that it’s surprising. Every year, so many great players don’t necessarily advance as you’d expect. To make it to the championship, a lot has to go right.”
Ganne, who is contemplating turning pro after college, started playing golf at age 7, going to the driving range with her father, Hari, and joining various golf camps for kids. “I was competitive in anything that I did, but golf came more naturally to me, so I veered toward that,” she writes. “I love the way golf forces you to push your own limits. I love how it asks you to raise the bar for yourself. And I love the chase of trying to get as good as you possibly can, when you know you can never perfect it.”
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge. [Comments? Contributions? Please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips, and more.]