EVANS, Ga. – Megha Ganne’s sixth and final Augusta National Women’s Amateur came to an unfamiliar ending.
“It’s not often I find myself at the bottom of the leaderboard,” Ganne said Thursday afternoon at Champions Retreat, where she’d just polished off a 77-74 performance with a closing double bogey and missed her first ANWA cut since 2022.
Ganne became the second straight reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion to not play Saturday’s final round at Augusta National, following Megan Schofill in 2024. Before that, the USWA winner had placed T-3, T-12, T-5.
It was Ganne’s third missed cut overall in this championship, though she also notched top-10s in 2023 (T-9) and last year (T-7).
“A lot of good, a lot of bad, too,” Ganne said, “but golf is a very hard game, everyone knows that. I love the game a lot when it’s super easy, and I also love it a lot when it’s super hard and it makes me appreciate the times when it does feel easy. I definitely try to peak for events like this, so it’s not the best feeling coming into here not feeling like my game is where I was supposed to be and just didn’t feel great over the ball this whole week. But honestly, really proud of myself for going out here and doing it anyway.”
Ganne entered the week ranked sixth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and having not finished outside the top 20 in an amateur, stroke-play tournament since her T-35 at the Stanford Intercollegiate in Fall 2023. But her preparation for ANWA was not ideal, as the Stanford senior missed each of the Cardinal’s past two 54-hole events because of various nagging injuries.
“Stuff all around,” Ganne said. “My body hasn’t felt the way I wanted the last few months. But even apart from that, I just don’t feel great over the ball. I’m excited to get to a place where I do, and I know I have a lot of good golf left in me.”
After her practice round on Tuesday, Ganne declined media, though she was upbeat and smiling two days later, noting that despite the scores, she had more good takeaways than bad.
“I’ve never really felt as uncomfortable over the ball as I did, and yet I was like, wow, you’re such a competitor that you love being out here anyway,” Ganne said. “It’s like I was trying to beat myself by one.”
“It’s just one of those weeks,” Ganne added. “Sucks to have it, but great golf doesn’t go anywhere, you just have to go find it.”
She’ll have plenty of chances in the coming weeks.
Ganne is slated to have two weeks off before rejoining Stanford for the ACC Championship, which starts April 16. She then has expected starts at the Chevron Championship, an NCAA regional, NCAA Championship and U.S. Women’s Open, all before the first week of June ends.