At the Women’s Open, Megha Ganne grabs the spotlight

SAN FRANCISCO — They say a golf ball doesn’t care how old you are. Nor does it care about your heritage or history. Just put it on the tee and swing away.

A man, who likes golf, and his wife immigrated from India to New Jersey, where their daughters are born. On the promise of treats, he coaxes them to join him at the driving range. The older one develops into a champion.

Maybe not the latest version of the American Dream, but in these so-called challenging times, with minorities under attack, an encouraging tale.

Hari Ganne, Megha Ganne’s father, a tech guy, surely couldn’t have imagined she would become the golfer she is, at 17, still in high school, grabbing headlines and for one day grabbing a share of the lead in the U.S. Women’s Open.

In the second round on Friday, Ganne was overtaken, slipping to a tie for third, two strokes back after an even-par 71.

She remained low amateur and also remained a topic for the news channels. And was enjoying it immensely.

It’s not easy to tromp up and down the hills of the Olympic Club’s Lake Course, not on an all-too-typical early summer day in Northern California, where “June Gloom” was more like “February Freeze” (brrr).

But bad weather had never stopped good golf fans or great golfers.

The crowd was relatively large, the response relatively loud.

“I love it so much,” said Ganne. “I wish every event I had a gallery watching me because it just makes me play better, I think. And I love being in the spotlight, so it's been really fun.”

If she seems a like the Stanford type, well, she’s already committed to the university. Apparently joining Rachel Heck, who as a freshman at Stanford last year won the NCAA tournament and played in the Open.

Aline Krauter, who won the British Amateur, also is at Stanford and played in the Open. The Cardinal keep adding female golfers like Alabama adds football players.

Whether Ganne can add the Open to her resume is questionable, however.

Only one amateur has won the women’s Open, Catherine LaCoste in 1967. Yes, the daughter of the French tennis ace, Henri, “The Crocodile,” whose shirt with the reptile logo is as famous as the man. Second in that Open was Shelley Hamlin, who, fitting well in the narrative, went to Stanford.

For a while, until the fall of 2022, Ganne’s school will be in Holmdel, N.J., where she has a full load of subjects to keep her busy. In fact, she was about to take a semester-ending calculus test that her mother, Sudha, said was creating much more stress than the golf. 

Why not? Golf still is a game. To borrow a phrase from baseball, you play golf, not work golf.

“I was way more calm than (Thursday),” said Ganne about her 33-38 round Friday that began at the 10th hole. “I received a great amount of support after the first round, and my motivation came from that.”

Asked the biggest difference between rounds one and two — other than four shots — Ganne said it was the weather. A perfect response from a visitor to San Francisco, where parkas and knit caps were numerous.

“The course played pretty similar,” Ganne said, “but it was chillier. And there was some fog in the morning, adding some yards.”

What Ganne added was another bit of excitement, as is fitting for someone with growing star quality.

She said she began to feel comfortable in the spotlight during the 2019 U.S. Amateur, where as a 15-year-old she reached the semifinals in match play.

“Yeah,” she said of the attention, “that’s when I really liked it.”

Right now, Ganne is being liked by practically everyone in American golf.