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Indian-American teenager Megha Ganne from New Jersey is drawing high praise from across the sporting world and beyond after performing well at golf's US Women's Open at The Olympic Club in San Francisco last week.
The 17-year-old played in the final group but shot 77 and finished 3 over as the low amateur for the tournament, which was won by another teenager, Yuka Saso, a 19-year-old from the Philippines who totalled 280 after four rounds.
Megha ended up joint 14th with 38-year-old Frenchwoman Celine Herbin with a 287 total.
On June 3 Megha showed her class by emerging as the first amateur in 15 years - the last was Jane Park in 2006 - to lead the US Women's Open after the first round.
She carded a four-under 67, one off the 18-hole amateur scoring record, and became only the sixth amateur in the tournament's 76-year history to shoot 67 or better.
A four-minute video of her performance from the first round went viral on the Internet. "I think the key is just playing in these (kinds of tournaments) more and more and you get better at it," she said at the venue afterwards.
Last Friday and Saturday, Megha hung in tough and levelled with the world's best women golfers. She stayed in contention with a round of 72 that placed her tied-third after the third round.
But she played herself out of contention early on Sunday with two bogeys and two doubles on the front nine under challenging conditions.
"I"m going to remember this for the rest of my life," Megha said about her performance, which received rock-star treatment from the fans. "It's everything I've wanted since I was little, so it's just the best feeling. It was just electric. I can't thank all these fans enough."
Megha received shout-outs on social media from New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and other celebrities over the four days. "They've made my week so much better than it could have been," she said. "I felt like there was so much love and so much support, and all of them are really excited to be out here, which is so great to see because I feel like in a small way I'm making an impact on the game, which is really cool."
The teenager added that she was encouraged that she was able to keep pace with the game's best on the brutally difficult course.
"They are the best players in the world, so it was cool to see that I was alongside them," she said. "It was an honour."
Megha's coach Katie Rudolph said she was not surprised by the teenager's performance. "I've been calling her 'the best player in the world' since she was seven," said Katie. "People used to laugh at me.
"I would tell anyone who would listen for the last 10 years - she's going to be the best player in the world. She's had the potential for a long time.
"A lot of people are looking at this (Megha's performance at the US Women's Open last week) and going 'wow'. We're looking at it and saying, 'this makes sense'. We're heading in the right direction."
Megha is a high school student who did calculus homework last week between the rounds. She has no plans of turning pro any time soon and will head to Stanford University next year.
She hails from Holmdel in New Jersey, 45 minutes south of New York City.
Her parents - mother Sudha, an endocrinologist with her own practice, and father Hari, an IT entrepreneur - moved to the US from southern India in the 1990s.
She has a sister Sirina, who is also a golfer.
Megha's mother shuttled her between swimming, tennis and golf, until a swim coach delivered an ultimatum, and at 12, she chose golf as her favourite.
She'd been playing in junior golf tournaments since early in elementary school.
"We took her to this little tournament, and she was the only girl and they had tons of prizes," said Sudha. "They gave them all to her. In my mind, that got her hooked."
So many trophies and honours have followed.
Megha played in the 2019 US Women's Open at the age of 15, reached the semi-finals of the US Women's Amateur later that year and in April competed in her first Augusta National Women's Amateur. She's the 71st-ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings and went into last week having won for the first time in a while - at the Scott Robertson Memorial in Virginia - just a few notches below battling the best players in the world on one of the hardest golf courses in the US.
Though her daughter seems hardly fazed by what she achieved at the US Women's Open last week, Sudha said: "I'm a little overwhelmed by all of this. I didn't expect this coming here. She has her own goals, but my goal was for her to make the cut."
Hari said: "We were hoping to be here for the weekend, and it's much better than that."
Reuters, Indo-Asian News Service
"I'm going to remember this for the rest of my life. It's everything
I've wanted since I was little, so it's just the best feeling." - Megha Ganne on her game, which received rock-star treatment from the fans
