Yale Athletics
The Yale women’s golf team is lucky to have Ami Gianchandani ’22, winner of both Ivy League Player and Rookie of the Year awards last year.
Last season saw the Yalie win her first two collegiate events in back-to-back meets at Dartmouth and Princeton. Her stellar rookie numbers included an average score of 73.88 per round over nine tournaments and a season best of 66. The sophomore then finished her first year in style, with victory at the Pinehurst Invitational and a fourth overall finish at the Ivy League Championship. Her mature and assured performances ensured that Gianchandani qualified for the U.S. Amateurs in August.
“Ami is a great leader on and off the golf course,” head coach Lauren Harling said. “She is a great supporter of each person on our team and encourages them all. She is also extremely devoted to the development of her game and is hyper-focused on becoming the very best player she can be, in all areas. Her focus and high-level playing experience positively contribute to her ability to achieve her goals.”
The Watchung, New Jersey native can be thankful for honing her game early on in life. The Gianchandani family golfs together at the Watchung Valley Golf Club, where her younger brother — a high school senior — is her preferred caddie.
Gianchandani played high school golf for The Pingry School in the Garden State for four years, which was instrumental in facilitating her development. At Pingry, she earned First Team All-State and NJPGA Player of the Year honors an incredible three consecutive times.
At the early age of 11, this Bulldog already knew that she wanted to be a college athlete but it was only two years later that Gianchandani decided on golf.
“I played every sport growing up … golf was just another sport that [my parents] added on and I really enjoyed and loved it,” said Gianchandani.
However, as with any student athlete on campus, her academic life is also of great importance. In high school, she exemplified this difficult balance by winning the American Junior Golf Association’s Scholastic Honor Roll award for her excellence both on and off the course. Gianchandani also finished top 25 of 138 students in her class and earned both the Advanced Math Prize and Science Book Award.
But for many at Yale, she is just another student. A prospective statistics and data science major, she interned with Accrete, a financial technology firm based in New York City, this past summer.
“She is a true intellectual: she loves discussing a full range of topics — books, movies, current events — and anyone claiming that millennials are disengaged should spend some time with this young woman,” Pingry School English teacher Thomas M. Keating wrote of her in a recommendation letter. “She is as clear headed, confident, focused and determined a student as I have ever known, and what I have seen in her will translate into success, whether it involves a seven iron, a computer screen, a surgical scalpel or whatever.”
Nevertheless, whenever the weekend comes around, Gianchandani is solely focused on golf. This Saturday, the Bulldogs will journey south to Princeton to tee off against the likes of the Tigers, Harvard and Columbia. What is for sure is that Gianchandani will be comfortable out on a course she knows well, as she looks to win the tournament for the second year in a row.
The Stiles sophomore is ranked 658 in the World Amateur Rankings.
Eugenio Garza Garcia | eugenio.garzagarcia@yale.edu