CARLSBAD, Calif. – Before her Stanford team, already in the conversation for being the greatest in college women’s golf history, captured the program’s fourth NCAA title, head coach Anne Walker sipped a coffee in the clubhouse on Wednesday morning at Omni La Costa and reflected on this group of young women, including her two seniors, Megha Ganne and Kelly Xu, and three more of the best-17 female amateurs in the world.
“If I never had to coach another group of players and I just coached into the sunset, it’d be the greatest job on earth,” Walker said.
Hours later, the top-ranked Cardinal capped the most dominant performance in NCAA Championship history – at least in the match-play era – with a 4-1 win over USC, the nation’s No. 2 team, though considerably behind this Stanford juggernaut. Ganne revealed the night earlier that her team’s goal was to go a perfect 15-0 in match play, a year after getting upset by Northwestern in the final, and they nearly delivered. Ganne’s title-clinching, 4-and-3 victory over Bailey Shoemaker in the anchor match on Wednesday, contributed to a 14-1 mark. Close enough.
Even before things became official Wednesday evening, Walker let her mind think about how special it would be if it came down to Ganne, one of the most decorated amateurs of all time, her accolades including her low-amateur breakout at the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open and last summer’s U.S. Women’s Amateur title at Bandon Dunes.
“A storybook ending,” Ganne said. “It would’ve been a storybook ending regardless of how today went, but it just feels like a gift and kind of meant to be. To be the clinching point was by chance, but to have that opportunity, I don’t take it for granted. It was super special to be surrounded by everyone on 15 green. I could see our women’s team, our men’s team, my family, our coaches, so many supporters of our program. I definitely took it all in.”
Ganne, a three-time winner in college, was a part of two national-championship squads for the Cardinal, plus national runner-up and semifinal showings. In her NCAA match-play career, she won each of her last nine matches, following an 0-2 week at Grayhawk in 2023, when the Trojans denied Stanford a spot in the final, one of only two times the Cardinal have not been one of the last two teams standing during their current run of six straight NCAA stroke-play titles.
“When I got to college, I don’t think I had an understanding of how difficult it was to win a national championship,” Ganne said. “I thought when you have five players that are really good, that gets it done. But I didn’t realize how much behind the scenes and how much communication and empathy and leadership it takes to get five people on the same page for a common goal.”
“When we lost my freshman year and I lost both my matches, I realized how much I hated losing, especially for others. I told myself I never wanted to lose again.”
In the last six years, Stanford has won more tournaments (43) than its accrued head-to-head losses (35). This season, the Cardinal won eight of nine events and lost to just three teams, two of those in match play, including in early March to a San Jose State team that didn’t even qualify for regionals.
When Spaniards Paula Martin Sampedro and Andrea Revuelta, determined to turn this squad’s match-play fortune, called a players-only meeting in mid-April after the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Ganne was battling her game, body and mind. She’d skipped a couple of college tournaments due to some minor injuries and knowing that she needed to be fresh for a busy stretch ahead that included ANWA, the NCAA postseason and the start of her professional career. Then in her record sixth ANWA start, she shot 77-74 to miss the cut by eight shots, beating just six players in the process.
The T-64 finish marked Ganne’s worst in a non-professional, stroke-play tournament since Fall 2023.
“My body hasn’t felt the way I wanted the last few months,” Ganne said then. “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.”
She was right. Ganne returned to form by the NCAA Stanford Regional, where she tied for sixth (her four Stanford teammates all finished top five, including winner, Revuelta). Ganne then placed runner-up to Texas’ Farah O’Keefe in stroke play at La Costa, before winning each of her three matches with three holes remaining.
“I sneaky loved what happened at ANWA,” Ganne said. “I don’t want this to sound bad, but I never play poorly in tournaments, mostly, so to do that, it gave me so much freedom because I played bad and the world keeps spinning. There had always been this little pocket of my mind that wondered what does happen when you play really sh--ty in a golf tournament, and the answer is absolutely nothing; you just keep working.”
Ganne’s next start will come at next week’s U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera, just up the road. Having gotten as much she possibly could out of college, Ganne is excited about the next chapter.
“I’m someone who’s always embraced new beginnings and challenges,” Ganne said. “I know it’s going to be difficult, but I’m stoked. I feel like I conquered this thing, and I’m ready to conquer the next.”
CARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA - MAY 27: Megha Ganne of the Stanford University Cardinals celebrates on the 15th green after defeating the USC Trojans during the final round of the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa on May 27, 2026 in Carlsbad, California. (Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images)
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Xu ended her college career as the winningest match-play player in NCAA history, pushing her record to 10-1. As the 17th-ranked amateur in the world, well behind her teammates who were once Nos. 2, 3, 5 and 6 earlier this year, Xu is often overlooked. But within the team, she’s on par with each one of her superstar peers.
Walker has built a foundation of positivity and respect, seemingly impossible considering the level of talent and wide range of personalities that have come through her program. It’s why Sampedro and Revuelta, neither a senior, felt so comfortable speaking out earlier this semester. As Ganne said, everyone is a leader on this team.
“Truly made me emotional because it was so impressive, it was so heartfelt, so just the love for the program and the love for each other,” Walker said. “They wanted to be at their best this week.”
After the San Jose State loss, Walker explained that the most fearful opponents are ones who have nothing to lose, who can swing freely. That’s not Stanford, so the Cardinal had to not just play their best, but another NCAA title would likely require better. That was the tenor of the Spaniards’ pep talk; they couldn’t afford to let their talent take over like it does in stroke play. Winning matches requires limiting mistakes, being brilliant at the basics and staying patient if things weren’t going their way early. Meja Ortengren was the truest testament of that this week, catching bad break after bad break in shooting a final-round 79 and losing each of her first three quarterfinal holes, yet still going 3-0.
Walker says her teams don’t avenge, but Revuelta admits that what happened last year at La Costa was motivation.
“The moment I left this resort last year, I was like, I’m so ready to be back with a stronger team and more preparation,” Revuelta said.
Now, a year later, the Cardinal were departing Carlsbad as champions, solidifying themselves as arguably the best ever. Arizona State won six titles in the 1990s, including at the end of an undefeated 1995 campaign when the Sun Devils also took all but one individual trophy that season. Duke had a run in the 2000s, followed by USC, and now Stanford. If anything gives the edge to this year’s Cardinal, it’s that the sport is deeper than it’s ever been, and Stanford lost to just three teams total.
Best team ever? “I would say so,” said Walker, who will return three players who will likely open next fall holding three of the top four spots in the world rankings, plus sophomore Anna Song and two more incoming AJGA All-Americans, Nikki Oh and Jude Lee. Asterisk Talley is also committed for 2027.
The dynasty may not be close to being over, and yet Walker, in a way, didn’t want this season to end, because it would mean saying goodbye to this team and these seniors.
“Stanford has been the highlight of my life,” Ganne said. “It’s what I worked toward all through junior golf. I remember watching Mariah Stackhouse and Albane Valenzuela and Andrea Lee, and they were like superheroes to me as a kid. And to think that that’s what hopefully all of us can be now for people watching is probably the most special thing that I will experience in my career.”
Added Xu: “In our program we are caretakers of a legacy. We looked up to those people who came before us, and it’s our job to show up every day and put our heart and soul into this. These are principles led by Coach Walker, but it’s our job to leave this program better than we found it.”
Job exceptionally done.