Holmdel NJ golfer Megha Ganne wins U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship

The incredible summer for Jersey Shore golf continued Sunday.

Holmdel’s Megha Ganne won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship Sunday, defeating Brooke Biermann of Wildwood, Missouri, 4-and-3, in the 36-hole final at Bandon Dunes in Bend, Oregon.

The 21-year-old Ganne, a rising senior at Stanford, built a 3-up advantage after the opening 18 holes, eventually closing out the match with a par on the par-3, 15^th hole, the 33rd hole of the match,

With the victory, she secures a spot on the 2026 U.S. Curtis Cup squad – Ganne was a member of the 2022 team – and is exempt for the 2026 U.S. Open.

Ganne’s heroics come on the heels of Little Silver’s Chris Gotterup’s victory at the Scottish Open last month, before the 26-year-old finished third at the British Open. Gotterup is in his second season on the PGA Tour.

Ganne’s win marked the first national championship for a local player since Marlboro’s Sherry Herman won the U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur in 2009. Toms River’s Sukjin Lee-Wuesthoff won the 2003 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship.

“I just tried to play the first 18 like I was playing the golf course,” said Ganne in a post-match television interview.  “I knew the match really wouldn’t get started until the second round so just learning as much as I could about the course on the first go-round with these pin. I was able to take advantage and play some really solid golf. I can’t believe I’m standing here right now.

“It’s extremely difficult. I have been thinking about this trophy the entire day. It makes it really distracting to play golf.”

She reached the semifinals of the Women’s Amateur as a 15-year-old in 2019. As a junior at Holmdel High School in 2021, Ganne had a share of the first-round lead at the U.S. Women’s Open, and was in the final group on Sunday.

Entering the week ranked No. 11 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Rankings, Ganne made a strong opening statement in the final by carding two birdies in her first three holes to go 2-up.  Biermann responded with a pair of birdies of her own on the next two holes to even the match.

It was all square through 11 holes when Ganne won three straight tholes with pars, eventually reaching the midway point in the match 3-up.

Biermann, a 2025 Michigan State graduate playing in her final amateur event before heading to LPGA Tour Qualifying School, cut Ganne’s lead to 3-up with five to play with a birdie on No. 13, before losing the next hole with a three putt.

Ganne closed out the victory with a two-putt par on No. 15.

The victory was made possible by an incredible comeback performance in the semifinals when Ganne was 4-down with seven holes to play, eventually winning on the first extra hole.