Main-event star: In addition to her {golfing} expertise, Zhang’s simple appeal and pleasant manner have contributed to her quickly rising reputation. | Photo credit score: Getty Images
Style and substance: Zhang makes it look simple on the golf course, however her sport is underpinned by a tenacious, calculated strategy. | Photo credit score: Getty Images
Even earlier than she had teed off on her skilled debut at the Liberty National, a course that overlooks the Manhattan skyline and Statue of Liberty, Rose Zhang was a golf sensation.
The American, who turned 20 final month, had earned nearly each ladies’s newbie golf accomplishment. She was No. 1 in the world newbie golf rating for a file 141 consecutive weeks, successful each huge occasion, together with back-to-back NCAA collegiate titles, the US Women’s Amateur, the US Girls’ Junior and the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.
Indeed, in her two seasons at Stanford University, Zhang gained 12 occasions in 20 begins, surpassing, amongst others, Tiger Woods for the most victories in the college’s historical past.
Within golf circles, she was thought to be a generational expertise set to dominate ladies’s golf — and all this was earlier than her first spherical in the typically sobering world {of professional} sport.
Zhang’s skilled debut at the Mizuho Americas Open final week drew a substantial crowd. Women’s golf had not seen this degree of anticipation since Michelle Wie West turned professional at age 15 geared up with blue-chip sponsors like Nike and Sony.
Zhang didn’t dominate in her first spherical as a professional however confirmed sufficient, making 5 birdies and three bogeys on a day her putter didn’t assist her. And then, as she has achieved so typically in the newbie ranks, she started to discover the finest means round the course. By the time she had completed, she had lived up to all the pre-tournament hype.
Zhang grew to become the first participant in 72 years to win on the LPGA Tour in her professional debut. The final feminine participant to win as a professional in her debut was Beverly Hanson (Eastern Open, 1951).
The first phrases from the prodigy as she capped off one in every of the extra exceptional 13-day stretches in golf had been telling. “What is happening?” she stated, with a humility that contrasted with the calculated competitor on the course. Hype guidelines the day in a society constructed round social media, and Zhang is one in every of the uncommon athletes who delivered. She gained her second straight NCAA title after which 13 days later was awash in marvel when she aced her skilled debut.
At peace with herself
Zhang walked, talked and performed prefer it was another event. She is so comfy with who she is that expectations will not be a part of the equation. “I honestly didn’t even expect to make the cut,” she stated, sitting subsequent to a trophy full of a bouquet of roses. “And the purpose why I say it is because I take into consideration taking part in the golf course. I take into consideration attempting to shoot the finest rating that I can. The expectation for me successful didn’t even cross my thoughts.
“I was just playing my game. I was having a good time out there,” she stated. “This is the game that I love, and I’m so thankful to be a professional doing it now.”
She grew to become an LPGA Tour member with the win, which is essential as a result of in any other case she couldn’t be thought of for September’s Solheim Cup, the biennial golf event contested by groups representing Europe and the United States. Now she would possibly as effectively be pencilled in for the American workforce. She earned $412,500, though cash just isn’t motivation and doesn’t examine to endorsements with the likes of Callaway, Adidas, Delta, Rolex, Beats by Dre.
Besides, Zhang has different urgent points. She made an look on NBC’s ‘Today’ present on Monday, then it was again to Stanford to transfer out of her dorm and get by way of finals. She will probably be a full-time participant however nonetheless intends to end a communications diploma, simply as Wie West finally did. “I have no idea what I’m going to do with that,” Zhang stated with amusing, mentioning an essay that was due for one class, one other venture for laptop science that sounded as if it offers her extra anxiousness than a downhill putt with a foot of break.
A major a part of Zhang’s enchantment is that her story resonates with faculty youngsters as a lot because it does with golf’s greatest names. So spectacular was her efficiency at the Mizuho Americas Open — a press release win that introduced to the world that the expertise she displayed in faculty will transition to the skilled degree — that it drew the consideration of fellow Stanford product and 15-time Major champion Woods. “Incredible few weeks for Rose Zhang, defends her NCAA title and then wins in her Pro debut. Go card!” he tweeted.
Beating the odds
It’s essential to place in context the issue degree she confronted in New Jersey. She was up in opposition to a area that featured seven of the world’s high 10, had to sleep on the 54-hole lead — by no means simple, even for examined veterans — and persevered on a troublesome Sunday with out a birdie earlier than successful the event in a sudden-death playoff.
So it was no shock that there have been a number of tears, particularly throughout Zhang’s embrace with Wie West, the event host who can relate to a excessive degree of hype. Wie West thought exterior the field, taking part in PGA Tour occasions when she was nonetheless in the eighth grade, dreaming of taking part in in males’s Majors. The distinction was the end result. It took Wie West 4 years to win on the LPGA Tour, 5 extra to seize her lone Major in the US Women’s Open.
Wie West performed with Zhang at the Women’s Open final 12 months and has turn out to be one thing of a mentor to her. “It looks easy for her when she plays,” Wie West stated.
The victory vaulted Zhang 420 spots to No. 62 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, and she or he stated followers will see extra of her on the tour in 2023. She has an invite to the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol. Also on the horizon in July is Pebble Beach, the place the US Women’s Open is being held for the first time. It already was the most anticipated occasion on the LPGA schedule this 12 months due to the location. Now it has even better enchantment.
“I’m just in a place where I want to improve myself,” Zhang stated after her historic win. “I want to continue trying to carve a path for young kids to just follow your dreams. I’m so thankful that the young kids enjoy me, enjoy my golf. I’ll continue to fight. I’ll continue to work hard. So we’ll be seeing what I do in the future. As of now, I’m just soaking it all in.”
