U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

June 4, 2021

Megha Ganne

The Olympic Club

Quick Quotes

THE MODERATOR: I'm sure last night was a bit of a whirlwind. You did a lot of media. Did you look at your phone? Did you watch any highlights?

MEGHA GANNE: I tried to stay off it as much as possible. I just checked my phone to respond to a couple people that I had to talk to.

But it was a great amount of support I felt, and after all that, nothing but motivation came from that. It's been really fun.

Q. How did you feel on the tee box this morning compared to yesterday?

MEGHA GANNE: Way more calm than yesterday. The first four holes of yesterday I was like kind of jittery and a little bit panicked, but on the tee box today I had a bit of a cushion, so I wasn't as stressed out.

Q. What was the biggest difference between how the course was playing and how you played between yesterday and today?

MEGHA GANNE: I thought the course played pretty similar. It was a little bit chillier today and there was some fog in the air in the morning, so it was kind of just adding some yards to all the numbers. So it played a little bit longer, but other than that, pretty similar.

Q. You've been working on how to score even when you don't have your "A" game; can you talk about that progress that you've made?

MEGHA GANNE: Yeah, I think what I learned at the ANWA and a couple other events is obviously when you have your "A" game it's really easy to make putts and hit good shots, but it's when you don't have that and you're still able to salvage and not compound mistakes, that's what separates the pros from the amateurs I think a lot of the time.

That's kind of what I've been trying to do. A little bit on the front nine I saw that today. I wasn't really in the spots I wanted to be, so I just remember that I know how to make up-and-downs, so kept that in mind.

Q. Do you enjoy having the galleries out there, having the fans cheer you on? Do you have to keep yourself calm?

MEGHA GANNE: I love it so much. 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.

Q. Which was more difficult, today's round or the calculus homework that you apparently have waiting for you?

MEGHA GANNE: Probably the calculus homework. I don't know how I'm going to manage to fit that into my schedule in the next few of days. Hopefully my teacher gives me a little bit more time to do that, but yeah, it's hard to balance both.

Q. How big in your mind was that last putt, to make that and salvage this par round?

MEGHA GANNE: You know, I wasn't going to be too hard on myself if I missed it. It was a challenging putt. I just wanted to get it started on line. On the hole before that I made a birdie, so I wasn't too worried if I made a bogey on the last one, but I'm glad it fell.

Q. Have you always loved the spotlight?

MEGHA GANNE: I think so. Yeah, I think so.

Q. When did you first realize, I really kind of enjoy this?

MEGHA GANNE: I would say probably the U.S. Am in 2019. That's when I -- yeah, I really liked it.

Q. Did you have a lot of people following you then?

MEGHA GANNE: Yeah, following a bit more on television, I guess.

Q. Would you say 16 was a big momentum shift for you? I know you birdied it. You bogeyed I think 12 and 15. Was it really nice to get that birdie, and do you feel like that was kind of the shift in your round today?

MEGHA GANNE: My 16 or the actual 16?

Q. The actual 16.

MEGHA GANNE: Hold on, I've got to do a little bit of backwards going.

Yeah, 16 was great. I birdied it yesterday, so I was like, okay, why not do it again today. The pin was gettable, just a wedge in hand, so it was pretty ideal to make birdie from there.

Yeah, once the first birdie goes, it's like you know more are coming, so it's a good feeling.

Q. Is that what was going through your mind? After you made a couple bogeys were you like, I know there's birdies coming?

MEGHA GANNE: Yeah. Yeah, I was just kind of looking through the pin sheets and I could tell there are some holes out there that are wide open for you and you'll have a wedge in your hand, and you know what to do from there, so don't worry about your bogeys.

Q. You got a shout-out from the governor of New Jersey today on Twitter. Have you felt support from people back home, high school teachers, friends, things like that?

MEGHA GANNE: Yeah, so much support. That's really cool. I didn't know that I got a shout out. Yeah, having all that support means so much to me, and I think New Jersey there's not a lot of representation in general, so it makes it even more exciting that I'm here.

Q. Your mom said it's really important to her and your dad that you're just a regular kid and are able to enjoy other things than golf. How difficult do you think is it becoming as the golf becomes more prominent and asks more of you time-wise and otherwise?

MEGHA GANNE: I think it gets probably easier as time goes on than more difficult. It all kind of just depends on your family, I think, and my parents are really easygoing and not what you would have in mind for like a typical golf parent, I guess.

Their number one goal is for me to just have fun, and that's what I'm doing. It doesn't really get too stressful. It's the game I love playing, so it's not that hard.

Q. You don't have a lot of social media presence --

MEGHA GANNE: No, I don't.

Q. Is that on purpose, or why, I guess? It's unusual.

MEGHA GANNE: Yeah, so it started off not as on purpose. I just guess I didn't get into it when everybody else did.

And then I went through middle school and high school not having it, and I guess -- I didn't really feel like I was missing out on anything, and of late there's so much negative effects that I see on teenagers of social media, and it's, one, a distraction, I think.

Obviously it has its positive effects and there's a lot of people who manage it really well, but it's not something I want to try to experiment with, at least right now. And yeah, I'm feeling fine without it, so that's all it is.