13 June 2023 , 22:26
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Golf has a new star in Rose Zhang after the amateur sensation won on her professional debut, earning praise from – and comparisons to – the great Tiger Woods.
Like 15-time major champion Woods, Zhang studied at Stanford and has dominated the amateur scene, winning the national college championship back-to-back as well as the Augusta National Women's Amateur.
The 20-year-old put together one of the best resumes ever seen in the unpaid ranks, spending a record 141 weeks atop the world amateur rankings, and her professional career started in stunning fashion, too, as she lifted the Mizuho Americas Open title in her first LPGA Tour outing on June 4, defeating major champion Jennifer Kupcho in a playoff to bank a winner's cheque of $412,500 (£327,000).
"Incredible few weeks for Rose Zhang, defends her NCAA title and then wins in her pro debut. Go Card!" Woods tweeted shortly after Zhang's first win was confirmed. Like Woods and Michelle Wie – who never realised her true potential due to injuries – before her, Zhang has been tipped to be a transcendent force in the game and the sport's latest household name. A huge future awaits.
Her big moment
"What is happening?" Zhang asked in the aftermath of her win at Liberty National, which made her the first player to win their first LPGA tournament since Beverly Hanson in 1951.
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She had endured a difficult final day in New Jersey to lift the trophy. With the 54-hole lead in her possession, she struggled on Sunday, bogeying the last to shoot a two-over-par 74 to give Kupcho a chance in a playoff after finishing tied at nine-under.
But Zhang displayed maturity beyond her years having not shown her best stuff over the previous 18 holes, keeping her cool to par the second playoff hole when Kupcho could only muster a bogey.
"I just can't believe it," Zhang said. "To turn pro and come out here (and win), it's just been amazing. I've enjoyed the journey. I really got a bit of everything, got a taste of the pressure, got a taste of the wind and I tried to stay composed as always. I knew that golf was just a grind and you really had to dig deep."
Rose Zhang is golf's newest star. (Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)Years in the making
Born to immigrant Chinese parents, Zhang had "humble beginnings" in California, according to her older brother Bill, who told The Athletic: "It was different than the immigration that we see now, where you have, like, a rich generation that’s coming, that made a lot of money overseas, and they kind of come over here for a new life.”
Near their home in Irvine, a vacant field proved to be the perfect place for a makeshift driving range where a nine-year-old Zhang first lifted her father's – Habin – clubs. With a scrap of carpet as a mat to hit from, she would hit hundreds of balls and collect them by hand with her father. Within five months of swinging a club for the first time, Zhang had won her first tournament.
“She was very unusual," George Pinnell, who started coaching Zhang aged 11, said. “I would give her something to do in a lesson and she’d stand there for 30 seconds and just gaze off. She still does this. She’s trying to picture how to make her body make the swing that she’s being told to make. Then she does it.”
Through her teens, she shined. In 2019, aged 16, Zhang was named Junior Player of the Year by the American Junior Golf Association and she made her first appearance in the Women's US Open the same year.
By 2020, she was the top amateur player in the world and she dominated in the years that followed before claiming her second NCAA Championship in 2023 – something Tiger Woods only won once as a Stamford Cardinal. Zhang is the only woman to win the prestigious amateur tournament twice.
And a few weeks later, she was a winner as a professional. It has been an inevitable ascent to the top of the game and after one tournament in the paid ranks a few weeks on from her 20th birthday, she is ranked 61 in the world.
Rose Zhang won the Mizuho Americas Open in her first professional start. (Elsa/Getty Images)Sponsors lining up
Adidas got in early to tie up a deal with Zhang, who was the first college athlete to sign a Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) agreement, meaning she was paid to endorse the brand's products when she was at Stamford.
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Now Zhang has turned professional, she has signed a new contract with Adidas to wear their apparel on the course, which is sure to be big business for both parties, with Zhang sure to be a jewel in the company's crown from a marketing perspective.
Adidas is not the only big brand on board, either. Callaway have supplied Zhang's equipment since she was 13 and it is a partnership that will continue in the pro ranks after she inked an NIL deal in college.
Beats By Dre, Delta and Rolex also have deals with Zhang, who is quickly being snapped up by premier brands that will make her a very wealthy woman.
What the future holds
Firstly, Zhang was straight back to Stamford to finish off her final exams after her LPGA debut win, with completing her degree in communication while she plays professionally a priority for the 20-year-old superstar.
Having received an LPGA tour card, the next event on the schedule for Zhang is unknown. She has not entered into this week's Meijer LPGA Classic in Michigan.
The next major is KPMG Women's PGA Championship at Baltusrol in New Jersey, which tees off on June 22. Then there is the US Women's Open at Pebble Beach in July.
After her first win, a place at the Solheim Cup in Spain in September cannot be ruled out, either.