17-Year-Old Amateur Shares US Women’s Open Lead

San Francisco, United States: Megha Ganne is not a typical 17-year-old, as she illustrated in the first round of the 76th US Women’s Open Championship at The Olympic Club.

The Holmdel High School junior carded a four-under-par 67 – one off the 18-hole amateur scoring record – to match English professional Mel Reid on a breezy, overcast Thursday and hold a share of the lead.

Looming a shot back are Angel Yin, Megan Khang and past KPMG Women’s PGA champion Brooke Henderson. Major champions Lexi Thompson, Feng Shanshan and Yuka Saso sit two strokes back.

With some of the tees moved up for round one, 15 players managed to better par of 71 on the 6,312-yard layout that has hosted five US Opens and three US Amateurs. Ten other players are at even par, including 2018 champion Ariya Jutanugarn and Lydia Ko.

Ganne almost missed out on her historic day. She had to survive a three-for-one play-off in the Spring Lake Country Club qualifier on May 10 to earn her spot in the 156-player field.

But she is no stranger to the big stage, having qualified for the 2019 US Women’s Open at Country Club of Charleston, where she missed the cut. She also advanced to the semi-finals of the 2019 US Women’s Amateur, losing in 19 holes to Stanford All-American Albane Valenzuela, and competed in four Drive, Chip & Putt National Finals at Augusta National Golf Club.

Already verbally committed to Stanford University for the fall of 2022, Ganne, a product of The First Tee of Metropolitan New York and the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf programme, gained more confidence on the Lake Course layout with each practice round.

Ganne went out in three-under 32 and added three second-nine birdies. Her lone blemishes were bogeys on 11 and 18.

“I didn’t panic when I got into the rough a couple of times,” said Ganne. “The [bogey] on 18, I was talking to my caddie (Olympic member Mike Finn), and I was like: ‘Is this dumb?’ And I ended up going for it. I probably should have just laid back there given my lie [in the rough].”

Reid likely hadn’t envisioned breaking par on day one. In 12 previous US Women’s Open rounds, she had only broken 70 once, in 2012 at Blackwolf Run, where she tied for 50th. But the 33-year-old Englishwoman found something on Thursday.

“It’s probably the best [round] I’ve had for a [Major] tournament,” said Reid, who had missed the cut in four of her five US Women’s Open starts.

Solid ball-striking (14 of 18 greens hit) led to a five-birdie, one-bogey day. Her lone blemish came on the 325-yard, par-four 18th. Reid got off to a great start with a pair of 10-foot birdies on nine and 10 – the USGA is using a one and nine start due to the logistics of the course – and added birdies on the par-three 15th, par-five 16th and 260-yard, par-four seventh, which ranked as the easiest hole on the course.

“I think the conditions are going to get tougher,” Reid said. “The rough is going to grow up a bit. The greens are going to get firmer. If it gets windy, it's a tough golf course. You cannot switch off on any single hole.”