Ganne leads Stanford past Southern California at La Costa to give the Cardinal a fourth national championship

 

   The sting never really goes away.

   You could sense that every time Stanford teed it up in the wraparound 2026-2026 season. The Cardinal still felt the disappointment they experienced when they lost to Northwestern in the NCAA Championship’s Final Match at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa’s North Course in Carlsbad, Calif.

   They never said that they had played badly or that they had choked, that would demean Northwestern’s accomplishment. Stanford didn’t give away the championship, the Cardinal got beat.

   So what to do? Simple. Get better.

   Find yourself the most difficult match-play challenges you can find and try to conquer them.

   That’s what Megha Ganne, a senior from Holmdel, N.J. and No. 10 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), did in making her way through the match-play gauntlet of the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship and putting her name on the Robert Cox Trophy at the Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon.

   That’s what Paula Martin Sampedro, a junior from Spain and No. 2 in the Women’s WAGR, did in marching through the match-play gauntlet of the Royal & Ancient Women’s Amateur Championship and claiming the title at Nairn Golf Club in Scotland.

   It’s no coincidence that those two holders of two of the biggest titles in women’s amateur golf contested at match play, Ganne and Martin Sampedro, earned two of the three points Atlantic Coast Conference champion Stanford needed Wednesday to claim a 4-1 victory over Big Ten champion Southern California and take a fourth national championship back to The Farm.

   Ganne learned to lead from Rachel Heck and Ganne learned well. It is the secret sauce to dominant programs like Stanford, no matter the sport. The leaders lead and create new leaders who lead the next group and on and on it goes.

   “We’ve been so laser-focused on this moment,” Anne Walker, the Margot and Mitch Milias director of women’s golf at Stanford, told the Stanford website. “Today when (the team) came out, they were calm, collected and focused on what they were trying accomplish.”

   Stanford, No. 1 in the Scoreboard, powered by clippd, rankings throughout the 2025-’26 season, put the hammer down early in the Final Match because the Cardinal knew they had to.

   If Stanford didn’t play well against its old Pac-12 rival, No. 2 in the Scoreboard rankings, Southern Cal was fully capable of taking the title.

   Every player in the two lineups appears in the top 100 in the Women’s WAGR.

   It was the highest-ranked player among the 10 in the two lineups, Southern Cal’s Kylie Chong, a sophomore from Torrance, Calif. and No. 61 in the Women’s WAGR who was credited with the lone point for the Trojans as she held a 1-up lead on Andrea Revuelta, a sophomore from Spain and No. 3 in the Women’s WAGR, when Stanford put the title away.

   Martin Sampedro, batting leadoff, set the tone for Stanford with a 3 and 2 victory over Catherine Park, Southern Cal’s veteran senior from Irvine, Calif. and No. 11 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Meja Ortengren, a sophomore from Sweden and No. 6 in the Women’s WAGR, simply let her considerable talent flow to put a second point on the board for Stanford with a 6 and 5 victory over a very good player in Jasmine Koo, a sophomore from Cerritos, Calif. and No. 13 in the Women’s WAGR.

   Revuelta, in the second spot in the lineup, was locked in a tense battle with Chong.

   Stanford’s other senior leader, Kelly Xu of Claremont, Calif. and No. 17 in the Women’s WAGR, had her hands full with Southern Cal’s Elise Lee, a sophomore from Irvine, Calif. and No. 54 in the Women’s WAGR, although Xu held a 1-up lead with two holes remaining when the outcome was assured in the Cardinal’s favor.

   Southern Cal’s Koo and Stanford’s Xu will be teammates next month on the United State team when it takes on Great Britain & Ireland in the Curtis Cup Match at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles, Calif.

   But Ganne was the anchor, much as Heck had been the last time Stanford claimed a national championship in the spring of 2024.

   Ganne jumped out to a 4-up lead through five holes and, when an excuse-me 15-footer for birdie found the hole at the 14^th, Bailey Shoemaker, a junior from Dade City, Fla. and No. 53 in the Women’s WAGR, was dormie.

   Shoemaker had a pretty good look at birdie from 12 feet on the 15^th hole, but couldn’t get it to fall. That left Ganne with a three-footer for par and the championship. She did not miss it.

   When Stanford arrived at the ACC Championship at Porters Neck Country Club in Wilmington, N.C. last month, its determination was on display.

   The Cardinal had fallen to an ACC OG Wake Forest in the conference semifinals a year ago. This time Stanford rolled to a 5-0 victory over an SMU team that validated its run to the ACC final by claiming the team title in the Waco Regional.

   Stanford tuned up for its return engagement at La Costa by torching its home course and rolling to the team crown in the Stanford Regional by going a whopping 42-under par.

   Stanford would not be denied this time. The Cardinal were not denied.