U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

June 5, 2021

Megha Ganne

The Olympic Club

Flash Interview

Q. You seem to relish the entire experience this week. Heading into one more day what are your thoughts?

MEGHA GANNE: I wish it wasn't over so quickly. It's been so much fun. I can't wait to go back out there tomorrow and I'm already counting down the hours until I tee off again.

Q. Talk about your engagement with the fans today.

MEGHA GANNE: It was so fun. I've always imagined myself engaging with the fans like that just because when I was younger and watching events, I knew I would love it when I would see the pros just even look at the crowd or smile or do anything like that, so I really wanted to embody that today and I got a chance to on a few holes, which was nice.

Q. At what point did you realize you were putting on a short game clinic?

MEGHA GANNE: When I just hit no greens, like, ever on the back nine. It was really mentally a grind out there and I've never had to just perform from such bad lies and situations hole after hole and still believe that I was going to do it again on the next hole. So it was a lot, but I'm confident in how I'm playing.

Q. Every championship has this stretch where you have to grind it out and struggle.

MEGHA GANNE: Yeah, for sure.

Q. Is this one where you can put this behind you now and say, okay, now that part's over, let's focus on the next?

MEGHA GANNE: Yeah, I think for sure, like, four-day events or ones that are even longer you're not going to play your best four days in a row, so just getting through those rounds or that one round that you didn't quite have it is key because once you have one bad round my philosophy is that the next is obviously going to be the complete opposite.

Q. So a lot of people were chanting your last name out there today. What did that feel like to hear your last name being chanted? And I know a lot of those people wore Mike's -- it's Mike's friends. They were friends of your caddie. So tell me what that felt like to hear that being chanted.

MEGHA GANNE: It felt great. I've never felt it before, but I know I want to experience that again, so I'm going to do everything in my power to be back here next year.

Q. What kind of strategies did you use when you needed to make up-and-downs and keep fighting to, like, keep believing in yourself that you can keep executing the shots that you want?

MEGHA GANNE: Yeah, first of all, I'm used to seeing you on this side of it, being interviewed. But it's good to see you.

And, oh, I just kept telling myself that, like, I know I didn't have it, so I was, like, you have trust in your short game. And there was some putts I made that I normally just don't make and I'm, like, your putting is kind of great right now, so just get it on whenever you can. You're probably going to make a birdie putt here or there. And inside of 10 feet, I was, like, just put it inside 10 feet with these chips and chances are you're going to roll it in. So I wasn't too worried. I just tried to stay calm.

Q. Has putting always been such a strength for you? I think we saw today that, I don't know how many feet of putts you made, but it was a lot. Has putting always been such a strength?

MEGHA GANNE: It's been, like it's always been good, but, yeah, I think so. It's been a strength for me recently and when I'm not having other parts of my game usually I work it out on the green, so.

Q. If you didn't know better, you would think that you and Mike go way back from the rapport that you've had this week. What is it like to kind of share this experience with him and have him giving you the benefit of his knowledge of this course and with someone that you didn't know coming into the week?

MEGHA GANNE: Yeah, I think when you spend four and a half hours in the practice rounds, or in these practice rounds, six hours, six hours with your caddie, you get to know him pretty well and I've had lunch and just warming up on the range. So it's like one week but it feels like a month or two because we spend so much time together and it's been really fun and he's got a lot of support out here so it feels like it's been transferring over to me.

Q. When we talk about Women Worth Watching and Little Girls Big Dreams, you had a chance to meet some Girls Golf members yesterday and just seeing all of the girls that are following you play on this stage what does that mean to you to be an inspiration to the next generation?

MEGHA GANNE: It's my favorite part of the whole week. Like, I, every single small girl I saw out there I waved to and I couldn't help but smiling. They're just so adorable and it's crazy to think that they're like here for me and want to watch me play. So that's by far my favorite part of this whole week has been spending time with them and saying hello and just seeing their smiles.

Q. At what point did you start thinking you could win this championship?

MEGHA GANNE: Probably before I got here. I think like -- thank you -- you don't really, like, you can't really come into a tournament expecting to play well if you don't deep down know that you got a shot to win it. I think people who say, I just want to play well, do something, like, I guarantee you all 156 people in this field have thought about winning this championship and they just don't say it because they want to seem humble. But, yeah, it's been down there and hopefully I have a chance tomorrow.

Q. We got the pairings. You're going to be going off in the final group of a major tomorrow alongside Yuka and Lexi. When you were a kid dreaming about this moment, did you think it would come this soon and kind of talk about the opportunity here right now.

MEGHA GANNE: I didn't know that it was going to be threesomes and I was going to be in the final group. I assumed the second to last one, but that's awesome. And Lexi and Yuka?

Q. Yeah?

MEGHA GANNE: Yeah, I've played with Lexi a few times, and Yuka and I played a lot of junior golf together and I played my practice round with her and we're super close. She's one of my favorite people ever. If I wasn't playing, I would be rooting for Yuka to win. So I think it will be so fun and I think I'll be comfortable because I know them a little bit, so I'm so excited.