EVANS, Ga. — Megha Ganne is a champion sleeper. She took the popular Sleep and Dreams class at Stanford with many of her teammates but found that she couldn’t really improve on her standard eight to nine hours.
“It's supposed to improve your sleep through the quarter,” said Ganne, “but at the beginning mine couldn't get any better than it does.”
Ganne, in fact, was so relaxed before the start of the first round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur she actually took a nap on the bus en route to Champions Retreat, telling her caddie/assistant coach Brooke Riley it felt like she slept twice. Ganne went on to shoot a course-record 9-under 63 that day.
Freshman Meja Ortengren, who confesses she’s not a good sleeper, also took the class and has incorporated some breathing exercises and meditation into her routine.
Former Stanford star Rose Zhang, winner of the 2023 ANWA, recently took Sleep and Dreams during her recent winter quarter and reported the professor gives bonus points for falling asleep in class.
“You get squirted by a squirt gun,” Zhang told the media earlier this season, “and you have to stand up and you have to tell the whole class, ‘Drowsiness is red alert.’ It's our mantra.”
How might Ortengren sleep on the eve of playing Saturday’s final round at Augusta National?
“Not great,” she predicted.
As if playing Augusta National isn’t pressure-packed enough, the ANWA might be the only tournament in the world with a practice round in the middle of the event. Though the top 30 and ties qualify for the final round, everyone in the field gets to play Augusta National on Friday. That means those in contention must sleep on the pressure not one but two nights.
The Stanford women’s team hasn’t lost a tournament all season, and all six players on the Cardinal’s current roster made the cut.
Defending champion Lottie Woad from FSU shares the lead at 9 under with Oregon’s Kiara Romero. Ganne and teammate Andrea Revuelta are one back while Ortengren is two back at 7 under. Three more Stanford players made the weekend: Paula Martin Sampedro (3 under), Nora Sundberg (2 under) and Kelly Xu (1 under).
Head coach Anne Walker says it’s success by committee in Palo Alto.
“I just I think it's enjoyable to see a team that doesn't look to one person, but rather looks to each other, “said Walker, “and I think that you watch them kind of all train and practice together, and the level of respect across ...
